Some schools in Czech Republic require their students to have a Radio Operator Certificate for operating a radio. As I understand, some EASA members do not have this requirement for domestic flights (but I don’t know for sure). For me it looks strange for a pilot license holder, since even the EASA PPL has a separate ‘VFR Communications’ exam, and the license itself contains some records about communications, for example, ‘VFR English’, ‘IFR English’.
Nevertheless, Czech schools now require this separate certificate (like in Canada). The problem is that in Czech Republic the exam must be taken in Czech only. The only solution for English speakers is to convert a radio license from another EASA member.
I have a Radio Operator Certificate from Netherlands: I got it just in case about 2 years ago because of some rumors about the upcoming requirement. It turns out that the Czech certificate can be obtained by conversion procedure. Actually it was the only way from non-Czech speaker.
Firstly you need to fill the form (can be downloaded from the CTU website). For some reason the form exists only for a Czech version, so DO NOT switch the website language to English. The form can be filled and printed only from some strange specific software for windows only.
Then I made my photo, copied my passport and my existing certificate, attached the filled form and sent to podatelna@ctu.cz with some explanation that I want to obtain a Czech certificate based on the European one. It is also possible to pay 400 CZK and attach the receipt, but I was not sure what credentials I should use, and the instructions are not very straightforward.
I have been waiting for an answer about 2 weeks and did not get anything. I tried to call, but nobody was able to communicate in English, and simply did not know which department to switch me to, so I decided to visit the CTU in person.
Somehow I managed to explain what I want to, and some employee came out with the form number 13. I remembered that my form should be number 9, and that really paid off since the form 13 is the application for a certificate, which requires taking exams in Czech.
The employee did not speak English very well, and it took about 5 minutes to figure out that it is indeed possible to fulfill my request, but that’s an another department’s area. After about 5 more minutes we found out that the man speaks Russian, and we solved it almost instantly.
It turned out that nobody has checked the email yet, but as soon as I am here, it will be done today 🙂
In some hours I got an email that I have to sign the form and pay the fees. Unfortunately the form must be signed by hand, so I needed to visit them once more. But this time I had an appointment. The fees could be paid by buying special stamps for government services (they are called kolki), they are available at any post office. So I handed out the stamps, signed the form, and now expect the certificate in 2-3 days.
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