Commercial Pilot’s Licence – CPL

Now that you have successfully obtained your PPL and your night rating, you are ready to start working towards your Commercial Pilot’s Licence (CPL). This is done in 4 phases namely Hour Building, Instrument Rating, Commercial Preparation and Multi-Engine Rating.

Hour Building For the Commercial Pilot’s Licence and Instrument Rating, a pilot must have 100 hours solo (pilot in command) and of that 100 hours, 50 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 300 nautical 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 programme 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.

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:

  • Air law and Procedures
  • General Navigation and Plotting
  • Meteorology
  • Radio Aids and communications
  • Instruments
  • Human Performance and limitations
  • Flight Planning
  • Aircraft Technical and General

General Radio Licence – CPL (ATPL)

Before a PPL licence holder can be issued with a CPL (ATPL), they must be in possession of a General Radio Licence.  Students for the General Radiotelephony Certificate have to demonstrate deeper knowledge of the subjects above as well as additional knowledge with regards to flights according to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). The written part of the examination is included in the Technical Subjects for the Commercial Pilot’s Licence. Once these are passed, the student may present him- / herself for the skills test with a Designated Radiotelephony Examiner, which entails:

  • Completing a flight plan form for an Instrument Flight Rules flight crossing at least one Flight Information Region (FIR) boundary
  • Deciphering Morse Code as used for the identification of navigational beacons
  • Oral examination in the form of talking through a simulated flight