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R44 Heli, SFAR, Who is the PIC during the IFR Add On Rating Checkride

Asked by: 3990 views FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor, Helicopter, Instrument Rating

Here it goes, I am a 5000 hour pilot, only 40 hours in R22 20 years ago, no time in the R44, I need to add my IFR Rating to my Heli CPL, I already have IFR Airplane so I only need 15 hours of dual in the R44 and the Checkride, BUT to get the SFAR to be PIC in the R44, it says I need to have 50 hours in Robinsons, out of which 25 have to be R44, so by the time I am done with my 15 hours dual R44 and I am ready for the IFR Add On Checkride I will only have 15 R44 hours, and according to SFAR 73 I will not be able to be PIC during the checkride, so my question is: Can I NOT be the PIC during that flight and do that checkride? or will I have to do this training in a R22 or 369 to be able to complete the rating? Thank you very much for your attention and help.

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1 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Kris Kortokrax on Aug 14, 2016

    You stopped reading too soon. Look at SFAR 2 (b) 2 (ii).

    That requires 10 hours of dual in a Robinson helicopter, 5 of which must be in an R-44. With your R-22 time, that means you only need 5 hours of dual in order to act as PIC in an R-44. Note that the 5 hours of dual must include instruction on autorotations, low RPM recognition and recovery and flight without the governor.

    The R-44 is not a difficult ship to fly. You should have little trouble gaining the skill to act as PIC on your instrument practical test.

    61.47 allows the examiner to act as PIC, if he agrees to do it, however, there should be no need for this.

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