The Licence That Did Not Match the Aircraft
A pilot holds a Brunei commercial pilot licence (aeroplane) with a multi-engine piston class rating and a valid Class 1 medical. The operator assigns the pilot to a single-pilot, turbine-powered pressurised aeroplane with a maximum certificated take-off mass above 5,700 kg, requiring a type rating. The pilot has completed a simulator course at a foreign training provider and holds a certificate of completion, but the Brunei licence endorsement has not yet been issued. The operator's chief pilot argues that the foreign simulator certificate is sufficient because the training organisation is approved in its own state, and schedules the pilot on a revenue sector in four days. Separately, the pilot's Class 1 medical carries a limitation requiring corrective lenses, and the pilot's last medical was 11 months ago.
1. Assess whether the pilot may operate the revenue sector in four days, addressing the type rating, the foreign training, and the medical.
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Three separate obstacles, each independently disqualifying.
1. Type rating. The aircraft requires a type rating and the pilot does not hold one on the Brunei licence. A certificate of course completion is evidence of training, not of licence privilege. Until the rating is endorsed on the licence by the licensing authority, the pilot is not entitled to act as pilot of that type. The operator's chief pilot cannot create licence privileges.
2. Foreign training. Training conducted abroad by an organisation approved in its own state is not automatically creditable. The Brunei licensing authority must accept the course, typically through a validation or acceptance process, and must be satisfied that the syllabus, the simulator qualification level and the testing standards meet its requirements. The correct sequence is: authority acceptance of the course, then the skill test or proficiency check as required, then licence endorsement.
3. Medical. A Class 1 medical with a corrective-lens limitation requires the pilot to wear the correcting lenses while exercising licence privileges - this is an operational limitation, not a formality. More seriously, the medical was issued 11 months ago. Whether it remains valid depends on the pilot's age and the applicable revalidation interval for Class 1 privileges; a commercial pilot's medical is generally revalidated at shorter intervals than a private pilot's. The pilot must confirm the expiry date before any flight.
Conclusion: the sector must not be flown by this pilot. The operator should roster a qualified crew and pursue the endorsement and medical renewal in parallel.
2. The operator wants to know what records it must hold to demonstrate the pilot is competent once the rating is issued.
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The operator's record-keeping should allow an inspector to reconstruct the pilot's qualification and recency without reference to the pilot.
Records to hold: a copy of the licence and each rating with dates of issue and expiry; the medical certificate with its limitations and expiry; training records showing the course completed, the provider and the authority's acceptance; the skill test or proficiency check report with the examiner's name and authority; the date and result of the last operator proficiency check and line check; recency records for take-offs and landings in the relevant type; and records of any limitations imposed.
Records should be retained for the period required by the operator's approved documentation scheme and should be available to the authority on request. Where a limitation such as corrective lenses applies, the operator should also record how it is managed operationally so that the limitation is not silently ignored on the line.