Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Commercial Pilot Licence

Commercial Preparation
The commercial preparation is divided into two sections, theory and practical. For a commercial pilot, there are 8 examinations to be written. Preparation for these exams is done on an individual basis. We offer Commercial Ground School over the course of 16 weeks, with a week break between subjects to enable the student to write and pass the examinations one at a time. Practical training is done on the Piper Turbo Arrow III, with final training being done on the multi engine aircraft, to combine both the instrument rating and commercial flight tests.

Subjects:
Airlaw and Procedures
General Navigation and Plotting
Meteorology
Radio Aids and communications
Instruments
Human Performance and limitations
Flight Planning
Aircraft Technical and General

Hour Building
For the Commercial Pilots Licence and Instrument Rating, a pilot must have 100 hours solo (pilot in command) and of that 100 hours, 20 hours must be cross country flying. In addition, 5 of these hours must be night hours. There are also two specific cross country flights required – one of more than 300nautical miles from base with two full stop landings and another of more than 100 nautical miles from base, completed at night. There should also be no less than 10 landings and take offs at night. The hour building phase is normally hours that students just fly wherever they want, and not focused on training.

Our hour building program is structured to gain the most benefit from the hours being flown. All hours are structured. All flights are properly monitored and all paperwork must be completed. This includes navigation logs, weight and balance calculations, performance data and various other requirements.

Most of the hour building is completed on the Cessna 172, with final training on the Piper Turbo Arrow III. This allows the student the benefit of flying a retractable undercarriage and variable pitch aircraft for many hours, giving them valuable confidence on the aircraft when it is time to commence preparation for the Commercial Flight Test.

We have also structured various hire and fly rates in order for our students to take an aircraft away for a few days. Three or four times a year we also arrange fly-aways to various destinations next to the South African coast and into Botswana. This way we not only assist students with their International and coastal flights, we also make the experience fun-filled and interesting.

Instrument Rating
The instrument rating includes 40 hours of Instrument Flight Training of which 20 are done in the simulator. During the simulator training, the emphasis is placed on decision making. All flights are subject to certain abnormal or emergency procedures which require command decisions to be made from the flight crew. During the training on the simulator, students are introduced to many types of equipment and instruments. This allows the Commercial Pilot to integrate easily into the commercial environment on any type of aircraft. Aircraft training is completed on the applicable complex circuit.

During the instrument rating, various briefings are conducted to improve the knowledge and skills of the commercial and instrument rated pilot.This ensures that the knowledge gained through the theory can be integrated into the practical flight training.

Final testing for the instrument rating is unique to Superior Pilot Services. Final testing is based on planning an actual charter flight provided by the CAA Designated Examiner. This includes the weather and the planning of the route to be flown, including standard departures, arrivals and flying on airways. This type of testing ensures the commercial and instrument pilot is ready to work in the commercial environment.

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