Hey y’all,
So, you’ve just completed your flying from abroad and are ready to begin the process of converting your foreign-issued ICAO license to an Indian license. Great! Congratulations on getting your Commercial Pilot’s License. This is a big milestone in everyone’s career.
Upon returning to India, you’ll have to do some conversion flying before you’re ready to apply for an Indian CPL. There are numerous flight schools across the country that offer conversion flying. Depending on your situation – whether your IR recency has lapsed & how long it has been since your last flight in the country that issued your CPL – the number of hours you’ll have to fly and the tests you’ll have to give will vary.
After you’ve completed your conversion flying, you’ll have to fill out the e-logbook in your eGCA account. Then, you can fill out and submit the online application for conversion of CPL thru eGCA.
While completing your license conversion application on eGCA, you’ll need to upload documents issued to you by your flight school(s). I’ve compiled a list of all the necessary documents for your reference below (I’ll link to sample documents in a few weeks’ time).
For the following documents, ensure that they are all printed on your flight schools’ official letter heads, with the stamp & sign of the schools’ chief flight instructors on every page.
| Sl. No. | Document |
Type |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 05 Hours Instrument Time | Summary | in preceding 06 months |
| 2. | 05 Hours Night PIC with 10 Takeoffs & Landings | Summary | in preceding 06 months |
| 3. | 15 Hours Total PIC | Summary | in preceding 06 months |
| 4. | General Flying Test by Day | Report | Issued by Indian FTO only |
| 5. | General Flying Test by Night | Report | Issued by Indian FTO only |
| 6. | 250 NM XC Flight Test | Report | Issued by Indian FTO only |
| 7. | 120 NM Night XC Flight Test | Report | Issued by Indian FTO only |
| 8. | Instrument Rating Check | Report | Issued by Indian FTO only |
| 9. | Signal Reception Test | Report | Issued by Indian FTO only |
| 10. | Accident/Incident Free Record Statement | Statement | - |
| 11. | 100 NM PIC XC | Summary | - |
| 12. | 300 NM Solo XC | Statement | - |
| 13. | 40 Hours Total Instrument Time | Summary | - |
| 14. | PPL/IR/CPL Checkride | Statement | By foreign FTOs |
Few points to note for the table above:
- Type of document
- Summary – full list of flights for their respective documents
- Statement – a paragraph or small table containing the appropriate information
- Report – A proforma issued by the Indian flight school when you successfully pass the tests
- If you have two or more of the same documents issued by different flight schools (for example, the Accident/Incident Free Record documents), remember to combine them into a single PDF. I recommend using ilovepdf.com for this as it’s easy and straightforward to do.
Additionally, you’ll also need to scan/have the following documents ready for upload:
| Sl. No. | Document |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | License Verification Letter | Issued by Contracting State’s issuing authority (eg. FAA) |
| 2. | FTO Approval Certificate | Issued by Contracting State’s issuing authority (eg. FAA) |
| 3. | Class I Medical Certificate | Issued by Contracting State’s issuing authority (eg. FAA) |
| 4. | Commercial Pilot’s License | Issued by Contracting State’s issuing authority (eg. FAA) |
| 5. | Police Verification | Issued by State Police of your residence in India (eg. Tamilnadu, Delhi, etc.) |
| 6. | Current Passport | First & Last Pages |
| 7. | Visa & Entry/Exit Stamps | For the country you completed your flight training in |
| 8. | CA 39 Form | A summary of your flight hours for preceding 05 years, signed by the chief flight instructor from flight conversion school (Indian FTO) |
| 9. | Logbook | Stamped/Signed by chief flight instructors of respective flight schools |
Lastly, I recommend combining the following documents into a single PDF and uploading them in the “Any Other Information” section of your CPL conversion application on eGCA.
| Sl. No. | Document |
Type |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | No Blood Relation | Statement |
| 2. | Aircraft Airworthiness | Statement |
| 3. | PPL/IR/CPL Ground Training | Statement |
| 4. | Logbooks Corrections | Statement |
| 5. | Total Flight Time | Statement |
For the lists above, I have assumed you are converting an FAA issued Single Engine CPL(A) with IR and no simulator sessions included. The documents required may slightly vary, depending on your specific case.
Hope the above lists helped! As always, please comment below if you have questions, find inaccuracies, or know if the process has changed!