CAA and EASA Licences

Black rhino at Ol Pejeta

Now back in the UK and back to problems with the CAA.
Because I recently renewed my examiners rating and sent the test results to the CAA I have to update my JAA licence to EASA immediately. If you don't make any changes you have until 2017 to comply, but as soon as you make a major change it has be updated. The cost was £477. This in itself was bad enough but worse still the licence did not arrive. So, I wrote to the CAA checking they had sent it. They said it had been printed out and sent on 7/11/2012. Note printed out ie no huge cost to them here.
Anyway, since it had not arrived I asked them to send it again. This is the letter I received back from the regulatory authority.

Dear Mrs Hunter-Jones,
Thank you for your email.
In order for us to re-issue a duplicate EASA licence and EASA examiner certificate, we require the fee of £52.00 as per our scheme of charges, which includes the £6 FedEx fee. Please see the payment form SRG1187 attached and submit to our Licensing Department. ..
Kind regards,
Licensing & Training Standards

My reply to them was not particularly diplomatic but it was heartfelt.

Tell me you are joking! Even the CAA cannot be asking me to pay for a licence they either have not sent or has got lost in the post. I shall keep your letter in my licence and I will write about this in my magazine and when I am asked for my licence I think this will explain why it is missing.

I had not further correspondence with this lassie, but now I have an email from her boss.

Dear Mrs Hunter-Jones
Your email has been forward to me as you have requested a duplicate licence....

NO I DID NOT! I asked for the licence I had tested for and paid for to me sent to me without further hoo ha!

Anyway, I wrote again and finally got a phone call from the CAA representative who agreed to send me another licence but insisted I should pay £6 for FedEX. I refused. I have already paid far too much, I hardly earn anything and this drain of money to the CAA from working pilots has to stop. It is ridiculous.

In the end he did agree to put it in the post, although with dark warnings that if the post lost it again I would have to pay for a duplicate. I won't! I can tell you now.

And of course the joke is we are arguing over a piece of paper, not the examiners rating, which has been done and is not in doubt, but a piece of paper which could more easily be emailed to me! I suggested this, that it was emailed to me, and the CAA rep nearly jumped down the phone. His horror was only equal to a Train Driver's Union representative on discovering that the underground trains are going driverless...!!

My campaign is now for a more uptodate CAA that uses email for delivery!