A commercial pilot certificate is a significant step towards becoming a professional pilot. This license type allows you to operate as a paid pilot. It builds on the skills learned as a private pilot, but with tighter restriction on medical certificate (second class required), and the pilot must be able to demonstrate superior airmanship with a series of performance maneuvers held to a higher standard than previous certificates. There are separate single and multiple engine commercial ratings, and pilot will be required to obtain a type rating for different larger aircraft. This does not enable you act as a pilot in a scheduled passenger airline – for that, you will need an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate.

Entitlements

A commercial pilot may act as pilot of an aircraft and be paid for the work.

Requirements

In order to obtain a commercial pilot license, you will need:

Second Class medical certificate

At least a private pilot certificate

A full list of commercial pilot aeronautical experience requirements can be found in FAR 61.129 – the main requirements are:

At least 250 hours of logged pilot time, including, 100 hours of pilot in command time, of which 50 hours must be cross country

20 hours of training that includes

10 hours of instrument training

10 hours of training in a complex aircraft

One 2-hour cross country daytime flight (distance > 100NM)

One 2-hour cross country nighttime flight (distance > 100NM)

3 hours of single aircraft instruction time by an authorized instructor in the preceding 2 months

10 hours of solo or PIC flight time, that includes

One cross country flight of not less than 300NM, minimum 3 landings, one leg must be over 250NM

5 hours of night VFR flying with 10 takeoff/landings at a tower controlled airport

If a commercial multi-engine rating is sought, many of the above requirements will have minimum multi-engine times

Pass the aeronautical written knowledge test

Pass an oral examination and check ride, which includes advanced performance maneuvers and higher test standards than a private pilot certificate.