Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Commercial medical issue

Asked by: 3271 views
Commercial Pilot, FAA Regulations

Hi everyone, I have a question. My recent first medical certificate at 3/21/2014,am I legally to apply to commercial rating at 3/3/2016?

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.

1 Answers



  1. Skyfox on Feb 12, 2016

    When you got a first class medical, that was valid for exercising the privileges of an ATP certificate for 6 months (or 12 months if you’re under 40 years old). When those privileges expire, the certificate downgrades to the next valid certificate level, which means after 6 months it’s no longer current for ATP flight but can still serve as a second class medical for commercial pilot privileges, or after 12 months if you’re under 40 it downgrades to a third class medical for all other flying privileges.

    According to 61.23 in the regs, you only need a second class medical (first class works as well) in order to exercise the privileges of a commercial pilot certificate. Those privileges consist of being PIC of an aircraft for hire, meaning you’re getting paid to fly. Going through the training and subsequent checkride of a commercial pilot certificate is not an operation for hire and essentially is just private pilot flight with you as PIC and the checkride examiner as a passenger. So, your medical certificate is still perfectly valid for going for a commercial checkride.

    Talk with your instructor about everything you’ll need for your checkride. Being prepared for it is another good use of making up a checklist.

    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.