Commercial Training
14 CFR 61.129 Commercial Aeronautical Experience
Here’s a few clarifications and gotchas I discovered in my commercial training.
Foreflight Commercial Report
- Go to Logbook, Reports, Commercial AESL
- This really takes all the work out of it and it’s motivating to see green check marks!
- I showed this to my examiner and he was fine with it.
(a)(3) 20 hours of training
(i) ten hours instrument
- Have your instrument instructor add the following phrase to your logbook entry: “instrument training in accordance with 61.55 & 61.129”
- Here’s the FAA document that one of my instructors referenced: FAA Instrument Training for Commercial
(ii) 10 hours of training in a complex airplane, a turbine-powered airplane, or a technically advanced airplane (TAA)…
- This can be all TAA, described in 61.129(j)
- Dual G5s, 2 axis autopilot and a GPS with a moving map count for this.
(iii) 2-hour, 100nm one way daytime (iv) and night
- This needs to be with an instructor
- Night is defined in 14 CFR 1.1 “Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time.”
- Some pilots knock this out in one trip, fly 2 hours/100nm, get dinner, wait for dark and fly back.
(a)(4) 10 hours solo or with an instructor
Note: this is either or all; all with an instructor or all solo. FAA interpretation
300nm, straight line, at least 250nm, landing at 3 or more points.
5 hours night VFR, 10 Takeoffs and landings from the traffic pattern at an airport with an operating control tower.
- pay attention to your airports tower closing time. This was difficult for me to accomplish in the summer of 2020 when the tower was closing early.
Jason Miller The Finer Points Videos
How to REALLY fly a Lazy Eight – Commercial Pilot Maneuver – YouTube
Chandelles – Commercial Flight Training – YouTube