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Commercial Heli adding on fixed wing with no experience. What minimums are needed?

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Commercial Pilot, FAA Regulations, Helicopter, Private Pilot

With already completing private/commercial with helicopter, what are the requirements to add on a commercial fixed wing SEL. Can I skip the PPL and go straight for commercial?

Pt 61.63 (b) indicates completing training on applicable aeronautical experience, logbook endorsement of said experience, and pass the practical test (not written).

 

Does this mean Pt 61.109 comes into play? I feel like it does NOT..

-I must log 40 hours (20 of that training with instructor, and 10 hours of solo flight)

-Log 3 hours XC

-Log 3 hours night unless previously night training is verified. Pt 61.110(b)ii

-etc..

 

Can anyone clear up what minimums I must meet per the FAA to get my Fixed wing commercial add on?

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4 Answers



  1. John D Collins on May 14, 2024

    61.109 is the requirements for a private pilot rating. You don’t need to meet it because you are already a commercial pilot and seeking an additional category rating to your commercial pilot certificate, for example airplane single engine land.

    The answer to your question for the commercial rating single engine is found in 61.129. It details what experience you need for any commercial rating. Some requirements are based on powered aircraft, others require airplane and others require single engine airplane. You need to just take your logbook and review 61.129. If the requirement is for powered aircraft, your helicopter experience counts, it the requirement is for airplanes or single engine airplanes, it doesn’t. Look it up and do the math.

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  2. Neatocary7 on May 16, 2024

    Got it, so one additional question concerning 61.129(a)(2) that seems contradictory.

    It reads: 100 hours of PIC flight time which includes at least (i) 50 hours in airplanes.

    Is there something Im not catching that allows me to log PIC time in SEL without any prior experience? If not, it seems like this path of skipping PPL isn’t even possible unless I fly 50 hours solo for said PIC time to be eligible for the commercial license.

    Given I am not IFR rated (although I plan to add it along with multi, CFI, etc.) or wealthy, I want to create a training syllabus that conserves as much money as possible. What I’m seeing as my two options are:

    1.) Just get my Private/IFR asap to start logging for that 50h PIC minimum (seems more expensive)

    Or

    2.) Get signed off for solo asap, complete the rest of my xc solo’s and other airplane specific requirements to get PIC that way and get my a restricted commercial SEL. Then add my IFR after to make it complete. (Seems it would save a lot of dual time costs)

    Am I correct or totally crazy?!

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  3. Kris Kortokrax on May 17, 2024

    When I added a Helicopter rating to my Commercial ASEL/AMEL certificate, I first did the Private Helicopter. Then while training for the Commercial Helicopter, all the training time, including the dual, could be logged as PIC. For me, this was more economical, because I didn’t need to spend the 35 solo hours (to get the PIC time).

    You could acquire the 50 hours of PIC time while flying friends / family or while training for the Instrument and/or Commercial. The Instrument requires that you have 50 hours of XC PIC, but only 10 of that needs to be in an airplane and could easily be acquired during the training for the Instrument.

    Since you plan to eventually get an Instrument Rating, I would do the Private, then Instrument, then Commercial.

    There is no requirement for you to take the knowledge test for an add-on category rating, so the real extra expense would be the cost of the Private Practical test.

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  4. Kris Kortokrax on May 17, 2024

    I forgot to note that 61.129(a)(4) allows you credit 10 hours of flight time “performing the duties of pilot in command in a single engine airplane with an authorized instructor on board”. while this can be done, only these 10 hours may be credited toward the 50 hour PIC requirement in 61.129(a)(2).

    This is supported by a legal interpretation.

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