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hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: Question to any pilots out there (9/26/2009 9:25:43 AM)
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300 Hours of PIC post Private Checkride for a Commercial Checkride, of which you must log a certain percentage (aprx 200 hours) of that as XCountry time - going up in the pattern at your local airport and doing 300 hours of Touch-n-Gos won't cut it. 20 hours of that time must be spent specifically with an instructor, practicing the manuvers required on the Commercial Checkride and thereby getting signoff to take the checkride - after taking the Commercial written. Commercial standards during checkride are significantly stricter in tolerances than the private checkride - but still aren't nearly as strict as those required by an ATP checkride which can't even be attempetd until you've aquired 1500+ hours of PIC time. When I took my Private checkride back during the early 90s, my CFI insisted that I be able to maintain Commercial tolerances on a normal day before he would sign me off to take my Private checkride. Why? Because people are typically tense (and therefore more prone to error) while being Tested - and his thought was that if you could maintain the Higher standard the Rest of the time, that even when nervous as fuck you'd maintain the Lower standard while testing. I managed to shock him (and the FAA examiner) by still maintaining the Commercial standards of tolerance on headings, manuvers, etc, despite my nervousness. (And yes, it's something that I still take a great deal of pride in, almost 20 years later!)
Ground School Time (ie hitting the books, and q&a sessions with an instructor rated to do ground training) can either be done via taking a specific Ground School course - like through your local community college, provided they have something of the sort- or simply by ground time spent with your CFI. The whole purpose of Ground School is to teach the Theory that goes hand in hand with the Practical of actual Flight Time. Ground School is required for Commercial and Instrument as much as it is for Private - you can't get out of the Theory simply because you've passed the most basic level of training. Consider your Ground School time as your Written Test Prep time - because that's where it will show up the most in use, is in simply passing the Written that goes with each level of certification.
Instrument certification is NOT required to take the Commercial checkride - although it IS a damned good idea to get your Instrument checkride First. There's a reason it's typically done in this order. If you have your Instrument rate when you take your commercial checkride - they test you under both VFR and IFR conditions (usually by having you do some Hood time while on checkride) - and you are Commercially Rated to fly both VFR and IFR conditions. If you do NOT have your instrument rate when you take your commercial - you can still take your commercial, but you have the same restriction as if you had only taken your private - you still cannot fly in the soup (bad weather) - regardless of whether you're on a pleasure trip for yourself or getting paid to fly someone else. A commercial is pretty much Useless without that instrument rate, but it CAN be gained without one.
Any flight time done Specifically For Pay From Another requires a Commercial rate. There is no getting around that, unless you happen to have no conscience and don't mind doing things blatantly illegal. That includes Bush flying, yes - because Bush flight is specifically considered flying in the Bush (wilderness) areas for pay. Now if what you're planning is simply to fly yourself into bush areas for grins and giggles, you only need your private certification (provided the weather during the time of year you're planning your trip is VRF friendly - otherwise plan on having your instrument rate as well.)
While getting a CFI (Certified Flight Instrutor) is one means of building hours - it's by no means the Only means - it's simply the relatively Easy means to do so if you dont' have prior Military flight time of some sort. There are a lot of Very Small, Very Regional companies who Used to hire green pilots right out of flight school, as long as they'd gotten their Multi rating - and usually a jet rating of Some sort as well via one of the larger Part 131 Schools - to sit in that 3rd seat (navigator) and build hours as part of a flight crew. I know a couple of ol' boys who actually used Bush time to build commercial hours so they could have an easier time getting hired by airlines. (Although it was strictly building hours - the airlines all use either Turboprop Twins, or Jets - and bush flying is doing almost exclusively in small Cessna propjobs!) And don't kid yourself into believing that being a CFI doesn't pay well - between $15 and $25 Per Hour, depending on whether you're doing ground school time, primary flight training, instrument, commercial, multi...... if you actually manage to build yourself a reputation as a good instructor, and you are Not working through one of the 131 schools, it can be quite lucrative. Because that's simply what the student is paying for Your Time - they also pay for the aircraft rental, which does Not come out of Your pocket. (And since they are a student - especially at the primary flight training level - you log every hour of time spent teaching as PIC time for yourself. The primary student logs all their hours, but only their Solo hours are counted as PIC for them.) Also - don't forget that any time spent in an FAA approved Simulator (which most Part 131 Schools have) is Loggable, Legal Flight Time, counted towards your overall hours. This is especially useful for practicing instrument manuvering without the headache of putting on the Hood - but it also simply builds your hours in a significantly less expensive manner than renting a plane and doing All of them in the air. Out of my 600 or so logged flight hours, about 80 hours of it is Sim Time (40instrument, 30 multi-engine), done in an FAA approved flight simulator, as part of my Instrument and Commercial training in a Part 131 setting. Yes, I took commercial TRAINING - I simply never got around to taking my commercial CHECKRIDE - which means that while I have the knowledge, and the Skill Level required, I haven't taken that final test required to start getting Paid for my time. I intended to take my ComCheckride - I put the hours in for it - but between life getting in the way, with spawn, and Money gettting in the way (or was it lack thereof?) I never got it done. I could still go put in 20 hours of refresher with a CFI, to practice the specific manuvers, and take it now. I'd still like to add a MultiEngine rate to my certifications as well - preferably prior to taking a commercial checkride - so that I can take my commerical In a multi, and be able to do both multi and single instrument, rather than having to take 2 seperate commercial checkrides.
As far as the Medical Certs issue - a Class 3 will do for your Private and Private/Instrument. (Every 3 years, very minor physical, making certain nothing has changed and you aren't on the list of proscribed medications or medical conditions that will ground you forever, checking to verify eyesight/not colorblind, piss test.) You'll have to upgrade to a Class 2 (same physical, only once a year rather than every 3 years) in order to Take your commercial checkride - and then maintain that Class 2 until such time as you've accumulated sufficient PIC hours to take your ATP checkride - at which point you'll need a Class 1, taken every 6 months, which includes a much more thorough physical and adds little nicities like an EKG baseline at the first one and double checks that EKG every other year.
I spent time in the air here in Oklahoma - even as a primary student - which would keep people hangered in most other states. 30 knot crosswind to face on both takeoff and landing are Typical around here - but would have kept my CFI hangered while he was doing his early training in Illinois as "to strong to deal with." I anticipated doing my instrument checkride under the hood - like most of my fellow sstudents at the same school had to do. What I did NOT anticipate was the weather turning particular FOUL the morning that I was scheduled to take my instrument checkride - so that I ended up flying REAL IFR conditions to get my rate, rather than hood time. (The standing joke here in Oklahoma is "don't like the weather? Wait 10 minutes - it'll change.")
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