Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Earning my commercial without owning a complex airplane

Asked by: 2936 views , ,
Commercial Pilot

Can a fixed gear airplane be used for obtaining a commercial rating (and for the exam), if the pilot already has a complex endorsement and hits the other wickets?  I have my Instrument rating and maybe 300 hours, looking at maybe going for a CFI.  Was considering upgrading my plane to a DA40 from the Piper Cherokee...  was wondering if I could use it to get my commercial and CFI?  Can I just get my complex time separately as an endorsement on a rental?  Four place retract gear airplanes seem to offer minimal advantage over fixed these days...

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. Russ Roslewski on Aug 11, 2016

    Short answer to the main question is no.

    In addition to the 10 hours of training in a complex airplane (61.129), you need to have a complex airplane for the checkride. You can do part of the checkride in a fixed gear and part in a complex airplane if you want, but certain tasks require a complex airplane. No way around it.

    Sure, you can rent one for that purpose.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Russ Roslewski on Aug 11, 2016

    I should add that I assumed you were talking about the Commercial Airplane Single Engine Land checkride.

    The only way “around” this requirement for the Commercial ASEL is to obtain a Commercial Multi certificate first. Then adding a Single-engine rating onto that certificate does NOT require a complex airplane for the checkride, since you’ve already shown proficiency with complex aircraft operations (reference is the Commercial PTS).

    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.