Commercial Certificate Explained

If you want to be a professional pilot, you will definitely want to earn your Commercial Certificate as soon as you possibly can. This will allow you to fly for compensation or hire. There are general requirements for a Commercial Certificate, and there are, as you would guess, also flight requirements. Following are the U.S Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) rules. As always, if you expect to be living outside the U.S. or are a citizen of a country other than the U.S., you will want to carefully check the requirements in your home country for a Commercial Certificate, as requirements differ by country. If you train in the U.S., you can, however, convert your earned FAA pilot certificates to those of your home country when you return, as long as you have satisfied your country's aviation authority's minimum requirements. Sometimes converting your certificates takes no additional student or flight time -- just certificate conversion paperwork. In some countries, however, it may require require additional study.

FAA General Requirements: 1. Be able to read, understand and speak the English language well. 2. Be at least 18 years of age. 3. Obtain at least a third-class FAA medical certificate. 4. Have earned at least a Private Pilot Certificate. (An Instrument Rating is also highly recommended). 4. Pass the FAA Commercial Written Exam, as well as the FAA practical flight test.

Flight Requirements: You must have logged at least 250 hours flight time as a pilot. This may include not more than 50 hours time of simulator instruction, and the simulator must be a FAA-approved simulator. Your 250 hours of flight time needs to also include 100 hours in powered aircraft; 100 hours as pilot-in-command, with 50 of those hours cross-country; 10 hours of instrument time with five of those hours in a single-engine aircraft; 10 hours in a complex airplane or turbine powered aircraft; two hours of day visual flight rules (VFR) cross-country, straight-line from departure point; one solo cross-country of a minimum of 300 nautical miles (nm), with three landings and a straightlilne of at least 250 nm from your departure point; five hours of night solo flight in VFR conditions, with a least 10 takeoffs/landings at a controlled airport with an operating control tower.

Pilot Certificates and Ratings Explained

Aviation has its own lingo or language, just as many other professions do.  It can be confusing when you are first learning about the industry.  And often the first confusion lies in wondering what all the different certificates and ratings are.  Here is a summary explanation of each of the certificates and ratings you will need to know about as a aspiring career pilot.  We will focus of those certificates that are important to professional pilots (as opposed to recreational pilots).

PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATE: This certiifcate allows the pilot to operate an aircraft day or night under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Passengers can be carried, but not for compensation or hire. The minimum flight hours required by the FAA to achieve this is 35 (under FAA flight regulations FAR 141) or 40 hours (under FAA flight regulations FAR 61). Most students require a bit more than the minimum to achieve this first certificate, so plan on this when you budget.

INSTRUMENT RATING: This rating allows the pilot to operate under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). No minimum flight hours are required under FAR 141 or FAR 61.

COMMERCIAL PILOT CERTIFICATE: You will need to achieve your Private Pilot Certificate and your Instrument Rating before your Commercial Pilot Certificate. The Commercial Pilot Certificate allows the pilot to fly for compensation or hire, assuming the pilot has met the industry requirements in order to be hired. Minimum flight hours required for this certificate is 120 (under FAR 141) or 250 (FAR 61).

MULTI-ENGINE RATING: This rating allows a pilot to perate an aircraft with more than one engine. The Phoenix East multi-engine course is 21.4 hours of flight training and 15 hours of ground school.

AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT: This is the highest certificate a pilot can achieve. It is a requirement of some of the major airlines when hiring flight crew. A pilot must have a total of 1,500 flight hours before applying for this certificate, plus have completed  Private and Commercial certificates with Instrument rating, and three instructor ratings to be eligible. 

Ways to Build More Flight Hours

OK, you've worked very hard and studied very hard, and now you have your Private and Commercial certificates with Instrument rating. But airlines also want experience: How do you get that experience or as pilots call it, "build hours"?

There are three basic ways: The most common, easiest and cheapest way is to teach.  That means teaching others to fly by being a flight instructor.  You must, therefore, first earn one, two or three of the instructor ratings: Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), Certified Flight Instructor Instrument (CFII) and Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI). This will allow you to "log" hours (yes, in what is called a log book) for yourself at the same time you are earning money you are teaching others to fly. If you get a job instructing at a larger flight school, you will probably be able to work more hours and therefore build time faster.

Some pilots also fly for charter companies or small cargo companies. This can provide good opportunity to build your multi-engine time. If you are a flight instructor, you will probably spend most of your time instructing in single-engine aircraft; therefore, you may want to build multi-engine hours faster by working for a charter or small chargo operation.

If you have your heart set on flying for one of the largest airlines in the world, whether that be British Air, Air France or American Airlines, for example, you may want to first work for one of the smaller or regional airlines as your path to that ultimate goal. A typical situation would be fly as a First Officer (FO) for one to three years and build your hours. You would possibly also during that time be upgraded to Captain, which would allow you to start accumulating pilot-in-command (PIC) time, which would make you even more attractive to that big airline.  This experience and flight hours, along with an ATP certificate would make you quite attractive to a major airline who is hiring.

What Are the Steps in Becoming an Airline Pilot?

Many people start out their aviation careers with a great desire to fly, but they have no experience and therefore, don't know how to go about it.  As with any other career that includes a significant amount of training and preparation, there are certain steps you must accomplish on that road to being a commercial pilot.  One note: there will always be some differences in requirements -- large or small -- among various countries' aviation authorities; those differences might alter these steps somewhat. It's  a good idea to check what is required -- and what the specific steps are to meet their requirements -- in your country.  The steps below are from a U.S. perspective.

Keep in mind that if you complete your flight training in a country that is not your home country -- and this is very common today (Phoenix East, for example, has over 65% international students) -- you can convert your flight certificates and ratings when you return home. For example, if you are from India and train in the U.S., be sure your training meets the minimum standards of the DGCA (India's aviation authority) and that your training is in aircraft that are approved by your aviation authority. You can then convert when you return home. You will need your country's licenses to be eligible to fly in your home country.

1. English language requirement. The FAA requires you speak, write and understand English well before you will be allowed to train or fly in the U.S. Many other countries also require English language skills for international pilots, as English is the language used worldwide for air traffic control.

2. Obtain a First Class Medical Certificate. An FAA-approved physician can provide this exam. FAA-approved physicians are located throughout the world; You can find listings on the FAA web site. It is a good idea to do this immediately before paying for ground school or an introductory flying lesson, to be sure you are physically fit to fly.  This is required, if you wish to have a career as a pilot.

3. Earn the required pilot certificates and ratings. You must at least have a Private Pilot License, an Instrument Rating, a Commercial Pilot Certificate, and probably a Multi-Engine Rating and ultimately maybe also an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate.  Gaining the knowledge for these certificates  will include both ground school (classroom study), training in one or more flight simulators and actual training in flight. You can receive training for these from an FAA-certified flight training academy, such as Phoenix East Aviation. If you want to fly for a career, as opposed to learn to fly for recreation, you will most likely want to study full-time at a professional flight school that specializes in training commercial pilot candidates.

4. Education. It depends on the airline and their current hiring practices, which change over time. Smaller and/or regional airlines in the U.S. do not all require a four-year university bachelor's degree. Whether a major airline requires a university degree or accepts a high school diploma depends on their need for pilots at any given time and a pilot's overall flying hours and experience. As a beginning career pilot, you would most probably start working for a small or regional airline, whether or not you have a college degree. As with most other professional jobs, the more education you have, the better your resume will look.  If you choose to go to college first before flight training, you do not have to major in an aviation/aerospace program to become a professional airline pilot.

5. Building flight hours. After you receive your required ratings, you will also need to build additional flight hours. Airlines mandate a certain minimum number of flight hours for newly-hired first officers. It varies from airline to airline, from approximately 300 hours to more than 1,500 hours. There are a number of ways to build this time.

6. Apply to multiple airlines. After you have completed all the steps above, you of course need to apply to airlines. Don't limit yourself. Apply to many, so you are in multiple airlines' databases. If you don't get hired right away, you may be called at a future date. Also, as you gain more hours, update your resume -- and then again submit your application to those multiple airlines -- so they have the most recent record of your experience and flight hours in their data files.

Aircraft Manufacturers - One of the Big Ones

So you want to be a pilot -- probably even hope to have a great career as a professional pilot, if you are reading this blog. Then you also most likely want to learn about aircraft -- and who manufactures them. You may already know what aircraft Boeing and Airbus manufacture; their new aircraft are in the news regularly. 

Have you also heard of Embraer? Did you know Embraer is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial jets up to 120 seats?  As a newly-hired pilot, you will most likely be flying smaller aircraft, so Embraer may be especially important to you. The company is based in Brazil and is one of Brazil's leading exporters. Thier headquarters are located in Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo. Embraer also has offices, industrial operations and customer service facilities in Brazil, the U.S., Portugal, China, France and Singapore. It was founded in 1969 and develops, designs and manufacturers aircraft for many different segment of the industry, including commercial aviation (airlines and charter companies), executive aviation (corporate fleets) and governments. Embraer has a workforce of approximately 24,000 people and a firm order backlog of over US$19 billion.   

Check out www.pea for more information on pilot training and the airline industry.

Even Wilbur Wright Felt the Passion of Flight

Wilbur Wright, one of the world's most important "fathers" of aviation, most definitely was passionate about flight, just as many pilots and aspiring pilots are today. Not only did this passion drive him to develop the first flying machine, it also touched his soul.

He said : More than anything else, the sensation (of flight) is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost."

Financial Health of Major US Airlines Has Improved

Financial issues of some of the major airlines in the US have gotten some media attention lately; newspaper articles have detailed the challenges in running large airlines profitably, especially since the price of fuel has increased. But lower fuel prices and the carriers' operational and financial changes have helped ease the concern.   

Most importantly, thanks to more than a $30 drop in the price of a barrel of oil, things have improved. Over the last approximately six months the major airlines (the seven so-called 'legacy' airlines) have boosted passenger air fares, begun charging fees for services, refinanced their debt, sold some assets and issued new stock to build up extra cash.  In addition they have cut capacity, typically by grounding their least fuel-efficient aircraft. 

It remains a great time to train to become an airline pilot and enjoy an exciting and rewarding career.  You might find yourself flying with a regional airline closer to your home -- or flying for an international airlines thousands of miles away from your home.  To learn more about how to become an airline pilot, contact Phoenix East Aviation at 1-800-868-4359 in the US or 1-386-254-6842 worldwide or check the Phoenix East website at www.pea.com 

What is a Commercial Pilot's Schedule Like?

In the US, the FAA allows airline pilots up to eight hours of scheduled time flying per day, and up to 16 hours of total duty time (this includes wait time at airports between flights).  The FAA also allows up to 30 hours of flight time weekly and up to 100 hours monthly.  No significant updating of duty and time-off regulations by the FAA have not taken place recently; current regulations date from the 1960s for the most part. The FAA also mandates eight consecutive hours of rest in any 24 hour period.

British airline schedules typically call for a maximum of five consecutive duty days beginning with morning departures, then three days off, and then five work days all ending with late-night flights. At the end of each 13-day stretch, pilots get another four full days off.  Pilots say this is in synch in internal body clocks. 

In the US regional airlines now carry one in four US passengers and operate half the country's scheduled flights, so fatigue issues are again being looked at. The FAA's deputy associate administrator for safety recently suggested reassessing the most taxing commuter airlines schedules, as pilots say short commuter hops are often more tiring than long hauls.