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Commercial Pilot Step

Asked by: 1582 views Commercial Pilot, General Aviation

Hi,

I'm a Private Pilot with an instrument rating. I'm debating if I should become a Commercial Pilot. I'm certainly looking forward to learning new maneuvers, but I'm wondering if it is worth the extra effort of having to give a flight review every 2 years based on commercial standards for the rest of my life if I have no plans of ever using my Commercial Certificate. Any thoughts? 

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2 Answers



  1. LTCTerry on Nov 22, 2019

    You can fly the rest of your life without doing another 14 CFR 61.56 Flight Review. Add on a new rating every 24 months. That resets you clock. You can use the FAA Wings Program as part of a real proficiency program and reset the 24 calendar month clock.

    If you don’t need a commercial certificate but want to expand your flying experience(s), I would suggest you take an aerobatic course or do a glider rating. I’m confident an aerobatic instructor could work a flight review into the mix over the course of several aerobatic flights. A glider check ride would reset w/o any additional endorsement(s).

    Since you are thinking about the commercial certificate, I assume you have ~250 hours or more. If you want the “bragging rights” of being able to say “I’m a commercial pilot” you could do a glider commercial initial over a four-day weekend with a bit of effort if you have 200 hours or more total time. PTS for Private and Commercial in the glider are almost identical. Then, you’d only be held to private standards doing a future flight review in an ASEL.

    All this from my perspective – I am a glider instructor, do aerobatics in airplanes and gliders, and normally use FAA Wings for 61.56 credit.

    Still, you might want to do the commercial ticket and become a CFI one day and give a little back to the sport/hobby.

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  2. ayavner on Nov 29, 2019

    If you get the commercial certificate, you’ll have to fly to those standards – they’ll become second nature to you, just as the private standards are now. You’d probably have to try to do much worse than that, unless you don’t fly for a long time, in which case you’d need some practice to get back there – but that’s no different at the Private level. The flight review is just that – a review. It isn’t something to be anxious over, despite what Sporty’s or Kings would have you believe.

    If I had to take a driving review every 2 years based on the standards I had to meet to pass the test as a teenager, I’d feel like it wasn’t much of a review at all!

    Go for it!
    adam

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