The Flight Radiotelephony Operator's Licence (FRTOL) authorises you to operate an Aircraft Radio Station in a UK registered aircraft.
The FRTOL is a national licence that can be issued as a stand-alone licence, but is normally held in conjunction with another Flight Crew licence.
Before you can apply for the initial issue of a FRTOL you must:
If you take the Radiotelephony Communications test together with the theoretical exams for the issue of a PPL, LAPL or NPPL licence all exams must be passed within an 18 month period.
The Communications examination will then be valid for 24 months following the final theoretical examination.
Please note: if applicable, you will be able to apply for the initial issue of a PPL or LAPL as well as FRTOL when submitting this online application.
As part of the FRTOL application, you will be asked to upload the following:
Please note: you will also be asked to upload additional supporting documents if you are also applying for the initial issue of a flight crew licence (PPL or LAPL). Please see the relevant sections on our website for more information.
There is no fee if the FRTOL is applied for at the same time as another category of flight crew licence (a PPL).
For stand-alone applications see our Licensing fees and costs (full details are available in Scheme of Charges (Personnel Licensing)).
An additional fee applies if you would like your documents returned by secure courier.
A stand-alone UK FRTOL issued before 17 September 2012, had a ten year licence validity.
It is possible to renew an expired FRTOL by submitting an online application and paying the appropriate fee.
The only requirement for the renewal of a FRTOL is that the English Language Proficiency (ELP) should be current and updated to our system.
You will need to submit an online application form SRG1106.
Please note that this is different online form to that used for the initial issue of a FRTOL.
As part of the online application, you will be asked to upload the following:
Please note: we can only accept English Language Proficiency which has at least two weeks validity remaining prior to application submission. If your English language proficiency is expired, please visit How to renew your English Language Proficiency on our website.
Please see our Licensing fees and costs (full details are available in Scheme of Charges (Personnel Licensing)).
An additional fee applies if you would like your documents returned by secure courier.
Please note that there is currently a 50Mb size limit for files uploaded to our forms.
All documents should be uploaded with a different filename clearly stating the content of the file attachment (for example Passport, Licence copy etc.)
Submitting documents with the same filename may result in the loss of information in the system and added delays to the application assessment.
For questions relating to paperwork, such as how to obtain certified copies of documents, please refer to guidance on documentation.
If you have any questions please contact our licensing team:
Email fclweb@caa.co.uk (preferred)
Phone 0330 022 1972 (Mon - Fri 08:30 - 16:30)