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Commercial Pilot Requirements?

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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)?

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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.

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  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.

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