Commercial Pilot

Why?

You are probably thinking, I have no intention of becoming a professional pilot, so what’s the point of the commercial certificate? You are not alone. None of the pilots that I trained did it to work as a pilot, but all wanted to become better pilots. I like to call that certificate private pilot on steroids, it teaches maneuvers and knowledge areas to higher standards and higher precision so that you become a true master of the aircraft.

You should get commercial certificate because it will allow you to:

  • Experience joy of basic airmanship after instrument rating
  • Practice visual flight maneuvers designed to demonstrate skills at handling airplane
  • Increase your ability to make the airplane do exactly what the pilot wants
  • Learn intuitive control of energy and of coordination
  • Explore edges of flight envelope

But most importantly, because it is .....FUN.....

Flight maneuvers

Here is a comparison of private and commercial maneuvers

private-vs-commercial

Oral emphasis areas

Commercial ground school is very similar to private pilot. You will not need to review anything related to instrument flying, but rather to know private pilot subject areas at higher level. In addition, the following subjects will be reviewed.

  • Commercial operations and required operator certificates
  • Airworthiness requirements and operations with inoperative equipment
  • Cross-country flight planning
    • Performance and loading at airplane limits
    • Reacting to changing conditions
    • Passenger considerations
  • System operations, in particular
    • Anti- and de-ice systems
    • Pressurization
    • Oxygen systems
  • Aeronautical Decision Making

Many flight maneuvers are similar to private pilot, but with tighter tolerances. For example, slow flight is done to ±50 feet, short field landing is done within 100 feet of the threshold. New maneuvers include chandelles, lazy eights, eights on pylon and power off 180 accuracy landings. It is that last maneveur that typically requires most practice, because you need to touch down with 200 feet of the specified point.

Aeronautical experience

Aeronautical experience described in FAR 61.129 is more extensive than for private pilot or instrument rating, and there are gotchas there. For example, the fact that you have instrument rating doesn't automatically mean that you satisfy 61.129(3)(i), which requires 10 hours of instrument training. There are others, and FAA issued few legal interpretations, that make things even more confusing, so make sure that your CFI understands what is needed, and more importantly, what your DPE will expect.