28 January 2025
From 30 September 2025 glider pilots will have to hold a new licence, the snappily named Part SFCL SPL licence.
Fortunately, the British Gliding Association (BGA) is on the case already and has established a CAA-approved SPL conversion application and checking procedure for existing qualified glider pilots.
“[The procedure] results in a painless application process,” said the BGA. “As at January 2025, that process has delivered over 2700 SPLs.”
Pilots who hold either a LAPL(S) or UK issued EASA SPL will have their licences reissued as UK Part SFCL SPL when they next apply to us for a licensing service for their sailplane licence, or if they apply to the BGA to add additional privileges to the Part-SFCL SPL.
The BGA also describes how the new licence works in practice.
“The SPL is a lifetime licence. That means once it’s yours, you have the privileges for life, as long as you stay in practice. That’s it.
“There’s a minimum amount of ‘staying in practice’ required known as ‘rolling recency’.
“That means, for example, before you fly using your SPL, in the previous two years you need to have completed 5 hours including 15 launches and two flights with an instructor.
“If you haven’t met the rolling recency requirements, you can either fly with an instructor or an instructor can supervise you flying solo to reach the minimum rolling recency requirement.
“No need to find an examiner and no need to contact the CAA. It’s not massively different from how gliding operates now, with the main difference being that it is a requirement rather than advisory.
“Adding privileges to an SPL, such as aerobatics or cloud flying, gets taught and then signed in your logbook by the instructor.”
