Addendum – EASA Part-FCL & Part-MED — Page 548, Lesson 735

Let’s pick up with the Commercial Pilot Licence for aeroplanes — the CPL(A) — and I want to walk you through its privileges, conditions, and the training path, because this is where the licence starts to carry real operational weight. First, the minimum age. For a CPL(A), you must be at least 18 years old. That’s a hard entry requirement, so keep it in mind as a baseline. Now the privileges — what the licence actually lets you do. The CPL(A) is cumulative, meaning it sits on top of the licences below it. So the holder is privileged to exercise all the privileges of an LAPL(A) — that’s the Light Aircraft Pilot Licence — and a PPL(A), the Private Pilot Licence. So anything those two licences allow, the CPL holder can also do. Beyond that, the CPL adds three distinct operational privileges. First, you may act as pilot-in-command, or PIC, or as co-pilot of any aeroplane engaged in operations other than Commercial Air Transport — that’s CAT. So think of non-CAT operations: things like aerial work, private flying, or other commercial activity that isn’t scheduled or charter air transport. Second, you may act as PIC in CAT of any single-pilot aeroplane — so you can be the sole pilot in command on a commercial air transport operation, provided the aeroplane is certificated for single-pilot operation. And third, you may act as a co-pilot in CAT — meaning you can sit in the right-hand seat on a multi-crew commercial operation. Now the conditions attached to getting the licence. An applicant for a CPL(A) must have fulfilled the requirements for the class or type rating of the aeroplane used in the skills test. In other words, the aeroplane you fly for the skills test must be one you’re properly rated on, either through a class rating or a type rating, before you can present yourself for that test. Then the training course and skills test structure. An applicant must have completed a theoretical knowledge instruction course and a flight instruction course at an ATO — that’s an Approved Training Organisation — and must have passed a skills test. So there are two parallel streams: the ground school theory and the flying instruction, both delivered at an approved organisation, and then the practical skills test at the end. Let me walk you through the theoretical knowledge papers, because there are thirteen of them and you need to pass all of them. They are: Air Law; Aircraft General Knowledge — Airframes, Systems, Powerplant; Aircraft General Knowledge — Instrumentation; Mass and Balance; Performance; Flight Planning and Monitoring; Human Performance; Meteorology; General Navigation; Radio Navigation; Operational Procedures; Principles of Flight; and Visual Flight Rules Communications — often abbreviated as VFR Communications. That’s the full theory syllabus for the CPL(A). Now, there’s a specific note about the skills test. The applicant must pass it in accordance with Appendix 4 of EASA Part-FCL. That appendix sets out the standard and the content of the skills test. But — and this is important — special conditions apply for a holder of an MPL, the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence. So if you hold an MPL, the route to a CPL(A) is different, and that’s what the next part covers. Let me walk you through those specific conditions for MPL holders. Before exercising the privileges of a CPL(A), the MPL holder must have completed, in an aeroplane, 70 hours of flight time as PIC — pilot-in-command — or that 70 hours can be made up of at least 10 hours as PIC, with the additional flight time flown as PICUS. PICUS stands for pilot-in-command under supervision — so you’re flying in the PIC seat but under the supervision of an instructor or examiner. So the rule is: a minimum of 10 hours genuinely as PIC, and the rest of the 70 can be PICUS. Then there’s a second requirement within those 70 hours. Of those 70 hours, 20 shall be VFR cross-country — that’s Visual Flight Rules cross-country flying. And those 20 hours must be made up of at least 10 hours as PIC and 10 hours as PICUS. So again, a split: at least half genuinely as PIC, half under supervision. And there’s a specific flight embedded in that cross-country requirement. The 20 hours must include a VFR cross-country flight, flown as PIC, of at least 540 kilometres — which is 300 nautical miles — during which full-stop landings at 2 different aerodromes shall be made. So let me unpack that. The flight must be at least 540 km or 300 NM in distance. It must be flown as PIC — not under supervision. And along that flight, you must make full-stop landings at two different aerodromes — meaning you actually land and come to a complete stop at two separate airfields, not just one. So the whole picture for an MPL holder converting to a CPL(A) is: 70 hours in an aeroplane, with at least 10 as PIC and the rest as PICUS; within that, 20 hours of VFR cross-country, at least 10 as PIC and 10 as PICUS; and within that cross-country time, one specific cross-country flight of at least 540 km flown as PIC with full-stop landings at two different aerodromes. That’s the CPL(A) as it stands — the age, the privileges, the theory syllabus, and the special MPL conversion path.