FAQ

Questions & Answers below

The application form to apply for the grant of an ATPL can be downloaded here. Original logbook(s) must be submitted for inspection for the grant of the ATPL Licence. If you have a PART-FCL compliant computerised logbook, a full print out must be submitted and each page must be certified by you as a true record. The current licence issue fee can be found here. When submitting your ATPL LST paperwork, please ensure that you enclose the original ATPL LST Form

The application form to apply for the grant of an ATPL can be downloaded here. Original logbook(s) must be submitted for inspection for the grant of the ATPL Licence. If you have a JAR-FCL compliant computerised logbook, a full print out must be submitted and each page must be certified by you as a true record. The current license issue fee can be found here. When submitting your ATPL LST paperwork, please ensure that you enclose the original ATPL LST Form.

For Private Pilot License (PPL) theoretical knowledge examinations related costs please refer to PEL Notice 32 here.

For Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) related costs kindly refer to PEL Notice 55 here.

Full details of the current fees charged by the TMCAD are published in the Air Navigation Act. Cap.641 of the Laws of Malta, and can be viewed and/or downloaded here.

The dates for all levels of theoretical knowledge examinations for the current year can be found here.

Examinations at PPL level are held at set times during the course of three days.

Examinations at ATPL level old ECQB (14 papers), Examinations at ATPL level ECQB 2020 (13 papers), CPL level (13 papers) and IR level (7 papers) are held at set times over the course of the year. A timetable showing the daily timings of each examination subject can be found here.

For all examination levels, an applicant will be deemed to have successfully completed the theoretical knowledge examinations for the appropriate license or rating when awarded a pass in all of the required subjects within a period of 18 months, counted from the end of the calendar month when the applicant first attempted an examination.

At PPL level, a pass in the theoretical knowledge examinations will be accepted for the grant of a PPL for a period of 24 months from the date of gaining a pass in all required examination papers. At IR level, a pass in the theoretical knowledge examinations will be accepted for the grant of an Instrument Rating for a period of 36 months, counted from the end of the calendar month when a pass in all required examination papers was achieved. At CPL level, a pass in the theoretical knowledge examinations will be accepted for the grant of a CPL for a period of 36 months, counted from the end of the calendar month when a pass in all required examination papers was achieved. At ATPL level, a pass in the theoretical knowledge examinations will be accepted for the grant of a CPL and/or an Instrument rating (IR) for a period of 36 months, counted from the end of the calendar month when a pass in all required examination papers was achieved. Provided that both a CPL and IR are granted within the aforementioned 36 month period, ATPL level examination results will be accepted for the grant of an ATPL for a period of seven years from the most recent validity date of the IR entered in the CPL.

The TMCAD will accept a full set of exams completed in one member state (subject to verification from the state where the exams were taken)

No, skill tests are assigned to examiners by TMCAD. The Differences Document published on the EASA website and the latest version of PEL notice 49 available on TMCAD website has the procedure and should be followed.

The license should be issued within a period of 5 working days from the date of receipt, by TMCAD, of the skill test report from the Examiner. This assumes that any outstanding fees associated with the license application have been paid.

No, the 45 hours of experience necessary to obtain a PPL(A) do not include skill test hours. FCL.210.A PPL(A) states “Applicants for a PPL(A) shall have completed at least 45 hours of flight instruction in aeroplanes.”

Yes, applicants may complete the flight time of a night rating training course in accordance with point FCL.810 (a)(1)(ii) as part of the 45 hours of flight instruction, provided that, before commencing night rating training, they have completed basic instrument flight training.

The holder of a PART-FCL flight crew license issued by an EASA Member State who wishes to transfer the State of License Issue to Malta, will find the License Transfer Process detailed below:

The criteria which must be fulfilled in order to be eligible to transfer the State of License Issue to Malta is:

Pilot must hold an EASA PART-FCL license and an EASA Medical issued by an EASA Member State.
B. Current Fees applied as per Air Navigation Act. Payment details will be provided at a later stage by the Licensing officer working on your transfer file.

The process might take a few months depending on the below factors;

- The time it takes for your Competent Authority to transfer all the required documents (License verification and medical records)
- The accuracy of the documentation provided by all parties concerned in accordance with the requirements of the Aircrew Regulation 1178/2011 for the privileges of your license.
- Once all the documentation is received, a Licensing officer is assigned to your file. In normal circumstances, all files are processed in the order received within our standard turnaround time of 10 working days.

In order to change the state of licence issue to Malta, all medical records must be transferred from your current Competent Authority to the Maltese Aeromedical Unit before we are able to issue a TM CAD EASA Part-FCL License. For this to occur, you need to contact your current Competent Authority’s Aeromedical Section and follow their procedure. All applicable medical records are to be reach TMCAD AMS section on; ams.tm@transport.gov.mt

The following documents should be submitted to the Personnel Licensing Department:

- Latest issue of Application Form TM/CAD/0035
- Certified true copy in colour of existing license
- Certified true copy in colour of existing Part-MED Medical Certificate
- Certified true copy in colour of photographic ID (passport or valid EEA/EU National Identity Card)
- Certified true copy of Part-FCL/JAR ATPL exam results (if applicable)
- Certified true copy of the last 3 log book pages

Note: Payment for the issue of a Maltese License and Medical will have to be submitted by applicant before collection of documents. Assigned Licensing Officer will communicate amount and payment details once process of issuance of documents is completed.

The complete application should be sent to:

Civil Aviation Directorate
Transport Malta
Malta Transport Centre
Pantar Road
Lija LJA 2021
Malta

A. In order to issue a PART-FCL licence under the transfer of State of license issue process, TMCAD must have received the licence and medical information forms (commonly referred to as Doc.155 forms), including any required medical reports, from your current State of Licence Issue.

The TMCAD Aeromedical Section will issue a replacement PART-MED Medical certificate upon receipt of the medical information form (and any required medical reports), and will then pass that medical certificate to the Personnel Licensing Office. Note:- the issue of the Malta Medical Certificate does not mean that your licence is ready to be issued!

As soon as the Personnel Licensing Office is in receipt of the TMCAD medical certificate and the license information form (Doc. 155) from your current State of license issue, you will be contacted to make arrangements for the surrender of your existing PART-FCL license and the hand-over of the PART-FCL license (Note: under PART-FCL rules, you shall hold only one PART-FCL license at any time, so the TMCAD must be in receipt of your existing PART-FCL license before it can handover the replacement license). Contact is via e-mail, please ensure a valid e-mail address was provided with the application for license transfer.

If you wish to enquire about the progress of a license transfer application, we would prefer you to e-mail your enquiry to cadpel.tm@transport.gov.mt, if at all possible. However, you should note that the transfer process can take several months to complete, so we would respectfully request that you only make an enquiry if you have not been contacted by the TMCAD after this period has elapsed.

A: Valid PART-FCL Ratings
All valid PART-FCL Type, Class, Night, Instrument and/or Instructor ratings certified on the Licence Doc.155 form received from your current State of License Issue.
If you hold a Flight Instructor rating, additional verification may be required from your current State of License Issue regarding:

- the stage of the 6-year revalidation cycle of the FI rating - i.e., if, at the next revalidation, the FI Proficiency Check is mandatory;
- specific FI privileges, e.g. Restricted, IRI, CRI or FII privileges.

If additional verification is required, it may be necessary to add the FI rating to your Malta-issued PART-FCL license at a later date.

ATPL theoretical knowledge credit (CPL holders only)
PART-FCL CPL holders who hold a valid PART-FCL ATPL Theoretical Knowledge credit will have this credit endorsed on their license.

A: Expired Ratings
Expired ratings will not be endorsed on the Malta-issued PART-FCL license, but details of any such ratings certified on the License Doc. 155 form will be retained on file in case you wish to renew any such rating in the future. In the event that details of expired ratings are not supplied on the License Doc. 155, the renewal of such ratings can be facilitated by subsequent certification from the Licensing Authority that issued your original PART-FCL license that the rating was originally obtained and held in accordance with PART-FCL.

National Ratings
National ratings rating cannot be transferred to a Malta-issued PART-FCL license, as no rating is established in Maltese law.

The holder of a PART-FCL flight crew license issued by Malta who wishes to transfer the State of License Issue to another EASA Member State, will find the License Transfer Process detailed below:

In order to change the state of license issue from Malta to another EASA Member state, your future Competent Authority must first contact TM-CAD to request the Transfer out document (commonly referred to as Doc. 155). TM-CAD will issue once requested.

In order to transfer all medical records from Malta to another EASA Member state, you must fill in Form TM/CAD/0194 (for pilots) or TM/CAD0461 (for ATCOs). Form is available form here. After completing the form, submit it to the Aero-Medical Section on: ams.tm@transport.gov.mt

In response to several ramp inspections outside the territory of the European Union Member States, when the flight crew members were found operating aircraft registered in a Member State other than the one that had issued their pilot licenses, ICAO has proposed to amend the Annex 1 to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation to cater for automatic validation of licenses through Regional Safety Oversight Organizations (RSOOs) agreements.

The ICAO Amendment 174 to Annex 1 -Personnel Licensing- enables, within a group of States, the automatic validation of licenses issued by any State of the group when those States are party to a formal agreement under common licensing regulations. Such formal agreements can be implemented in various regions and improve the mobility of licensed personnel. It can be introduced with the support of a regional safety oversight organization, as appropriate. The amendment to Annex 1 is applicable by 9 November 2017.

Based on the above description the Competent Authority shall issue the license with the remark on the license item XIII: ‘This license is automatically rendered valid as per the ICAO attachment to this license’, and provide the holder of the license with the ICAO attachment.

In this context ‘‘automatically validated’ means the acceptance without formalities, by an ICAO contracting State listed in the ICAO attachment, of a flight crew license issued by a State in accordance with Annex I to the Chicago Convention.

EASA has made the specified attachment available on its website.

Access to Aeronautical Agreement - ICAO Registration Number 5950, can be obtained on the ICAO website. Enter 5950 in the number search field.

For a Certificate of Validation of a specific tasks and limited duration the pilot must be employed, directly or indirectly, by an aircraft manufacturer or by an aviation authority and assigned by the manufacturer to conduct one or more of the following tasks:

- Flight instruction for the initial issue of the type rating;
- Tests for the initial issue of the type rating;
- Delivery flights;
- Ferry flights;
- Flight demonstrations;
- Test Flights;
- Supervision of initial line flying by the operator`s pilots;
- Initial line flying.

Note: If the pilot will be engaged in Supervision of initial line flying by the operator`s pilots or Initial line flying the pilot must also meet the following requirements:

- 1500Hours as PIC on multi-pilot aeroplanes + ATPL (A)
- Class 1 Medical Examination under Part-MED
- Demonstrate knowledge of Part-OPS and Part-FCL(Certificate required)
- TM CAD Language Proficiency Assessment

Documents Required together with the application form:

- Passport Copy;
- Proof that applicant is directly or indirectly employed by the aircraft manufacturer or by an aviation authority;
- Copy of Third Country License;
- Copy of Third Country Medical Certificate;
- Copy of Instructor`s Certificate (if applicable);
- Copy of Examiner`s Certificate (if applicable);
- Verification of license (for Commercial Air Transport)
- Application form can be downloaded from the following here
- Current Fee as per Malta ANO Schedule of Fees Chapter 16

Process takes about 5 working days upon receipt of the requested documentation.

PEL notice No 53 is intended to provide information on the validation of third country professional pilot licenses for commercial air transport activities and other commercial activities , please find the requested information here.

A pilot license issued in accordance with the requirements of Annex I to the Chicago Convention by a third country may be validated by the competent authority of a Member State.

The period of validation of the license shall not exceed 1 year, provided that the basic license remains valid. This period may only be extended once by the competent authority that issued the validation when, during the validation period, the pilot has applied, or is undergoing training for the issuance of a license in accordance with Part-FCL. The extension shall cover the period of time necessary for the license to be issued in accordance with Part-FCL.

Note: If a certificate of validation has already been issued by an EU Member State, another certificate of validation cannot be issued by Transport Malta.

Applicant must hold a valid ICAO license together with:
- A valid type rating on the ICAO license
- A valid IR on the ICAO license
- A valid ICAO medical certificate
- A valid English Language Proficiency endorsement (at least level 4)

(The basic third country license, including the aircraft class or type ratings and the third country medical certificate have to remain valid for the certificate of validation to remain valid.)

Experience Requirements for Commercial Air Transport in multi-pilot aeroplanes as co-pilot
- Applicant to hold an ATPL or CPL(A)/IR and demonstrated ICAO ATPL(A) level knowledge
- Applicant to have at least 1500 hours as PIC or co-pilot on multi-pilot aeroplanes according to operational requirements

Experience Requirements for Commercial Air Transport in multi-pilot aeroplanes as PIC
- Applicant to hold an ATPL
- Applicant to have at least 1500 hours as PIC on multi-pilot aeroplanes

Prior to the issue of the Validation certificate the applicant would be required to complete the following:
- Part-MED Class 1 medical certificate. (Note: The medical records must be held by the Malta Aero medical Section) - Please find link with contact information here.
- Verification of the license from the State of License Issue – This must be obtained prior to the issue of the certificate of validation
- Complete an English Language Proficiency check with an EASA approved assessor.
- Complete a course and passed and examination in EU-OPS and Part-FCL – You may wish to contact Bizav Head of training, or directly with TMCAD for an appointment by email.
- Complete as a skill test, the type or class rating revalidation of Part-FCL relevant to the privileges of the license held. TMCAD may appoint a Transport Malta Inspector or a Senior Examiner appointed by TMCAD to observe the check.
- Application form can be downloaded from the following here.
- Current Fee as per Malta ANA

As for the skill test The Differences Document published on the EASA website and the latest version of PEL notice 49 available on TMCAD website has the procedure and should be followed.

Questions & Answers below

• Experience requirements to be met as per form 161 (for aeroplanes) or 252 (for helicopters) from here
• Complete and Pass the Theoretical knowledge examinations
• Part-MED Class 1 medical certificate; Click here for details.
• Complete an English Language Proficiency check with an EASA approved assessor or Language Testing Body
• A Verification of the license from the State of Licence Issue required prior to the license issue;
• Complete an ATPL skill test, the type rating revalidation of Part-FCL relevant to the privileges of the license held.

Furthermore the below:

• A coloured Passport Copy;
• ICAO ATPL License;
• ICAO medical;
• Last 3 logbook pages including totals; (signed and certified)
• Form 161, Appendix 1 to be filled in and returned from here
• ATPL Examination results

The rating on which you shall be conducting the ATPL skill test needs to be valid on the ICAO license during the whole process of conversion.

One rating can be converted with the license. However, one may apply for an “acceptance of a rating” to add the other rating if you meet the requirements.

For the skill test, follow the designation process explained in PEL Notice 49 from here

• If the written examinations are within their validity period as per FCL.025 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, then these can be credited. The validity period is stated below:

The completion of the airline transport pilot license (ATPL) theoretical knowledge examinations will remain valid for the issue of an ATPL for a period of 7 years from the last validity date of:

• (i) an IR entered in the license; or
• (ii) in the case of helicopters, a helicopter’s type rating entered in that license.

The IR mentioned above must have been conducted under Part-FCL regulations and endorsed on a Part-FCL license.

If the English Language Proficiency was conducted by EASA ELP assessor in accordance with FCL.055 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, this may be credited. However, the certificate shall be submitted to TMCAD to verify this.

Questions & Answers below

(a) pass a written examination in Air Law and Human Performance;
(b) pass the PPL skill test, as relevant, in accordance with Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011;
(c) fulfil the requirements for the issue of the relevant class or type rating, in accordance with Subpart H;
(d) hold a medical certificate, as required and issued in accordance with Annex IV (Part-MED) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011;
(e) demonstrate language proficiency in accordance with FCL.055 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011;
(f) have completed at least 100 hours of flight time as a pilot.

If the written examinations are within their validity period as per FCL.025 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, then these can be credited. The validity period is stated below:

“The successful completion of the theoretical knowledge examinations will be valid for the issue of a private pilot license, for a period of 24 months”

If the English Language Proficiency was conducted by EASA ELP assessor in accordance with FCL.055 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, this may be credited. However, the certificate shall be submitted to TMCAD to verify this.

An Initial EASA Class 2 Medical shall be conducted.

The rating which you will use for the PPL conversion needs to be valid on the ICAO license during the whole process of conversion

Questions & Answers below

Training requirements differ depending on the aircraft category and training route taken. The applicant shall successfully complete theoretical exams and flight instruction at an approved training organisation (ATO) as per Pel Notice 80 from here.

If the English Language Proficiency was conducted by EASA ELP assessor in accordance with FCL.055 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, this may be credited. However, the certificate shall be submitted to TMCAD to verify this.

An Initial EASA Class 1 Medical shall be conducted.

If the written examinations are within their validity period as per FCL.025 of Annex I (Part-FCL) to Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, then these can be credited. The validity period is stated below:

(c) Validity period
(ii) for the issue of a commercial pilot license, a multi-crew pilot license or instrument rating (IR), for a period of 36 months;

For further guidance please refer to PEL Notice 80 Conversion of an ICAO third country license to Part-FCL from here.

The rating which you will use for the CPL license conversion needs to be valid on the ICAO license during the whole process of conversion.

• A coloured Passport Copy;
• ICAO CPL License;
• ICAO medical;
• Last 3 logbook pages including totals; (signed and certified)
• ATPL or CPL Examination results
• ATO approval
• Course Completion Certificate including hours as per PEL Notice 80
• Skill Test Forms (CPL/ME/IR)

• Complete flight training as per PEL Notice 80
• Complete and Pass the Theoretical knowledge examinations
• Part-MED Class 1 medical certificate; Click here for details.
• Complete an English Language Proficiency check with an EASA approved assessor or Language Testing Body
• A Verification of the license from the State of License Issue required prior to the license issue;
• Complete an CPL skill test, the class rating and IR revalidation of Part-FCL relevant to the privileges of the license held.