There are six categories of aircraft for which flying privileges are provided: balloon, glider, aeroplane, ultra-light aeroplane, helicopter, and gyroplane.
There are four classes of aeroplanes for which privileges are further specified: single-engine land aeroplane, single-engine sea aeroplane, multi-engine land aeroplane, and multi-engine sea aeroplane.
Commercial Pilot candidates must complete their written examination for the licence before they can be recommended to attempt their flight tests. Also, Commercial Pilot students must be timely in completing their flight test--the results of the written examinations are valid for only 24 months—i.e., successful qualification for the licence (both written examination and flight test) must be accomplished within two year of writing the written examination, and the flight test results are only valid for one year.
If a persons fails a written examination, there is a waiting period. In the event of a first failure, the person must wait 14 days; with a second failure, the waiting period is 30 days; and in the case of third or subsequent failures, the person must wait 30 days plus an additional 30-day period for each failure in excess of two failures, up to a maximum of 180 days.
This waiting requirement does not apply to the PSTAR examination required for the Student Pilot Permit.
The Commercial Pilot written examination is composed of “sections,” and the waiting requirements do not apply if a person obtains a passing grade on the overall examination, but fails one or more sections
.
Additionally, re-writing an examination only requires that you rewrite the failed sections.
The holder of a license endorsed with a Night Rating1 may exercise the privileges of a Private Pilot license in night VFR conditions.
The holder of a license endorsed with a VFR Over-the-Top (VFR OTT) Rating may exercise the privileges of the license while flying VFR above a cloud ceiling.
The holder of a Commercial Pilot License may exercise the privileges of Pilot-in-command of any aircraft engaged in a commercial air service where the aircraft minimum flight crew document requires a minimum flight crew of one pilot—e.g., air taxi-or the privileges of co-pilot (Second-in-command) of any aircraft type that is endorsed on his or her license.
Commercial Pilots receive a Blanket Aircraft Type Rating2 for “all single pilot, non-high performance single engine land aeroplanes;” however, they can fly any aeroplane other than the blanket type provided they have received an Individual Aircraft Type Rating (discussed below), which may require additional ratings, examinations, and flight examinations.
The holder of a license endorsed with an Instrument Rating may exercise the privileges of the license in IFR conditions—i.e., instrument flight rules, which is when the pilot can fly in cloud without visual reference to the ground.
Instrument Ratings are issued on the basis of Groups. A Group 1 Instrument Rating applies specific instrument privileges to fly any conventional multi-engine or single-engine aircraft, while the Group 3 Instrument Rating applies specific instrument privileges to fly only single-engine aircraft.
The holder of a license endorsed with a Multi-engine Rating may exercise the privileges of the license in aircraft equipped with two or more engines.
Multi-engine training generally revolves around managing engine failures—engine failure during takeoff, engine failure in departure, engine failure in cruise, engine failure during a steep turn, engine failure during a stall, and single engine approach and landings. It is not uncommon for the flight test to be less than an hour.
The holder of a license endorsed with a Seaplane Rating may exercise the privileges of the license in aircraft equipped to land and takeoff on water.
Must receive a minimum of 7 hours training including a minimum of 5 takeoffs and landings as the sole occupant of the aeroplane, as well as the following exercises: taxiing, sailing, docking, takeoffs and landings, and, as conditions exist, operation on glassy water, rough water and in crosswind conditions.
The holder of a Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL)—the most senior license issue by Transport Canada—may exercise the privileges of Pilot-in-command or Co-pilot of any aircraft engaged in a commercial air service where the aircraft minimum flight crew document requires a minimum flight crew of two pilots—i.e., commuter or airline aircraft.5
There are two categories of type ratings (CAR 421.40), the first, as discussed above, is referred to as a Blanket Type Rating. The second category of type ratings is referred to as Individual Type Ratings, which cover specific aircraft types not included in the Blanket Type Rating. Individual Type Ratings are required to pilot any multi-crew aircraft (e.g., requiring a co-pilot), as well as any high performance aircraft. A high performance aircraft, in turn, is defined as aircraft with a never exceed speed (Vne) of 250 KTS indicated airspeed (KIAS) and greater, or a stall speed in a landing configuration (Vso) of 80 KIAS and greater. The rating is referred to as Individual Type as the high performance aircraft for which a pilot receives qualification is listed individually on his or her license.
Every holder of a flight crew permit, license or rating must maintain a personal log for the purpose of documenting experience and recency.9
For each flight, this log must contain the following information:
No person shall make an entry in a personal log unless the person is the holder of the log, or has been authorized to make the entry by the holder of the log.
Those who hold a flight crew permit, license, or rating can only exercise the privileges of their permit, license, or rating if they have acted as Pilot-in-command of an aircraft within the preceding five years (CAR 401.05). In the event that they have not acted as such within this time period, privileges can only be reinstated if they undertake the following:
The holder of a flight crew permit, license, or rating can only exercise the privileges of their permit, license, or rating if, within the preceding 24 months, they have completed a recurrent training program (CAR 421.05) which may take the form of any of the following:
An expired Medical Certificate invalidates licensing privileges, beginning on the first day of the month following the month in which re-validation was required (CAR 404)
The Category 1 certificate requires an electrocardiogram (ECG) for the initial medical, and every two years between the ages of 30 and 40 years; after the age of 40, the ECG is required every year. The Category 1 certificate also requires a hearing test for the initial medical, as well as the first medical examination after the age 55. The Category 3 certificate requires a ECG every 5 years after the age of 40. Category 4 certificates simply require a Medical Declaration unless clinically indicated otherwise.
Upon the expiration of a Medical Certificate, license privileges are suspended until a medical examination is again undertaken; privileges expire at midnight on the final day of the month in which the medical was required; in the event of a Category 1 Certificate expiring, commercial flying privileges are rolled back to private flying privileges for an additional 12 or 6 months, depending on age.
Pregnant female pilots may fly up to and including their 30th week provided the pregnancy is without complications; after the 30th week, pregnant pilots are considered temporarily unfit in view of the possibility of pre-term delivery. Medical fitness must be re-certified after delivery.
1 Night privileges are automatic with a Commercial Pilot License; the same applies to the VFR OTT Rating. The Night Rating is typically the first portion of Commercial Pilot air instruction, beginning with the 5 hours required for the Night Rating.
2 The Blanket Type Rating is identical to the Blanket Type Rating that you currently hold as a Private Pilot.
3 With regard to the earliest time at which you can write the Commercial Pilot written examination. CAS 421.13(4) requires that 50% of the total flight experience required for a license be completed prior to the candidate writing the written examinations required for a license; therefore, since the total flight experience required for the CPL is 200 hours, you require a minimum of 100 hours. Note that the result of any Transport Canada written examination are valid for only 24 months; you must fully qualify for the CPL before this time limit.
4 Special attention should be directed to ensure that these 30 hours are properly documented in your Pilot Log Book. You must be able to demonstrate that you were in fact improving your flying skills by way of practice (exercises flown, for example, must be recorded). Also, Transport Canada will strictly apply the letter of the law in regard to the long cross-country flight—be sure your planned route qualifies prior to investing the resources in the actual flight.
5 Note that the ATPL is not required with respect to the Co-pilot duties.
6 The question will arise as to when a Commercial Pilot can write the ATPL written examinations. Two factors to consider here, the first is the minimum flight experience requirements—in this case, CAS 421.13(4) requires that 50% of the total flight experience required for a license be completed prior to the candidate writing the written examinations required for a license. In the case of the ATPL, the total flight experience required is 1500 hours; therefore, you required a minimum total flight experience of 750 hours. The second consideration is the validity period of written examinations—in all cases, 24 months. Therefore, to write the ATPL, you need only 750 hours, but you must complete all requirements for the ATPL within the subsequent 24 months, or the written examination results become invalid.
7 The ground trainer time cannot be applied toward the 1500-hour flight experience requirement.
8 A Pilot Proficiency Check (PPC) is basically a flight test examination, conducted by a Transport Canada inspector. The ride includes speciality takeoffs and landings, steep turns, stalls, and various emergencies. In the case of multi-engine aircraft, emergencies requiring engine-shutdowns are typically examined, and in the case of an IFR PPL, holds and instrument approaches in simulated or actual IMC conditions are examined.
9 All commercial pilot students should take note that their pilot log books will be audited by Transport Canada when they apply for the Commercial Pilot License, and also when they apply for their Airline Transport Pilot License. One of the problem areas which Transport Canada pays particular attention to is the practice of “double-dipping” instrument training and night flying; specifically, if a commercial student is obtaining instrument training at night, and the flight lasts .8 air time and 1.0 flight time, for example, only a maximum of .8 can be accredited instrument time and this has to be allocated to the Pilot Log’s “day” flight time, while the remaining .2 (the difference between air and flight time) can be allocated to “night” flight time. It sounds confusing, but is required by Transport Canada. Also, care and attention when making entries is therefore important. Many professional pilots maintain two sets of duplicate log books, the first being a rough copy, to be carried during operations, and the second being a neat copy kept in a secure place.
