Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Commercial Pilot Requirements?

Asked by: 5641 views , ,
Commercial Pilot

I have heard that the FAA issued a NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) which will change the commercial pilot requirements to replace the "10 hours of retractable gear training requirement" with "10 hours of TAA (Technically Advanced Aircraft) training"

Anyone know the following:

1. Is this true? (If so, when does it go into effect)?
2. Does this also mean you can do the entire commercial ticket in a fixed gear plane (like a Cirrus)?

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. Kent Shook on Nov 30, 2010

    1) No, this is not true. There *has* been a proposal to change it to 10 hours of advanced instrument training (NOT 10 hours of TAA training). 
    2) In the event that the proposal goes through, you will be able to do 10 hours of advanced instrument training in your Cirrus, and everything else for the commercial ticket as well.
    Don’t hold your breath, though – It seems that this proposal may not actually come to fruition. I’ve been trying to find this out myself, and from what I hear there is still a significant amount of debate over what will constitute “advanced instrument training” and whether the time spent working on the instrument rating will count. Others believe that complex training should still be required. So, whether or not this change will actually happen remains to be seen.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Matthew Waugh on Dec 02, 2010

    Just to add a little bit.
    Under the current regulation anybody who has an instrument rating has already accomplished the instrument requirement for the commercial, so they just “ignore” that requirement. If you want a VFR commercial you’d have to make sure you met the requirement but how often do you see one of those?
    Under the proposal all commercial candidates would have to accomplish instrument training in addition to the training for their instrument rating. Many people believe that is an undue burden.
    So I agree with Kent – don’t hold your breath.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.