Report on obtaining permission to fly in US airspace. Note: This is only a personal summary. Refer to the appropriate FAA documents for details. Preamble: It has been difficult for me to locate specifics on the Internet. While the actual rules (consisting of hundreds of pages) are available from the FAA website, there is an extreme lack of summarized information. Why this is so is unknown, but appears to be (perhaps unintentionally?) snobbishness ("if you have to ask the cost, then you can't afford it"). Research indicates that there are only about 500,000 pilots in the US (this includes everyone from student to airline captain). This is only about 1% of the adult population (surprising, as there is enough interest in aviation to support a "wings" cable channel). Of those pilots, the vast majority are wealthy white protestant males, who are very clickish. For many years, and somewhat still, young persons getting into aviation were assumed to be headed to a career as an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot). GA (General Aviation) was to be just a training ground for these pilots, or a place for wealthy doctors and other professionals who wanted to own an airplane instead of a Yacht. ===== The Players: The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is the rule making body for aviation in the US. Unlike most other regulatory agencies, the FAA has made it a mission to make aviation "safe". As safety is their primary focus, they are often willing to sacrifice cost, convenience, and practicality in the process (especially if it makes good PR with the non-flying public). The primary lobbyist organization for airmen is AOPA (the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association). In their quest for safety, in the late 1960's the FAA was considering going so far as to eliminate GA completely (the airways should only be for professionals conducting business they reasoned, like AM/FM radio is only for commercial use). Only through the efforts of AOPA did GA remain. Since the 1980's, the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) has become a powerhouse in the industry (a rise that has conceded with new aircraft construction materials and the rise of interest in back-to-basics flying), and they have been responsible for the recent loosening of the FAA's prejudice against unusual aircraft design and persons wanting to fly for fun. ===== Grades of pilot: The FAA recognizes several grades of pilot, but not all grades are applicable to all types of flying vehicles. Although the higher grades require instrument flying, you do not need a Pilot-in-Command (PIC) instrument certification (the instrument time could be logged while flying with an Instructor)! Here is a summary of the various grades - [ultralight] = No formal FAA pilot training requirements; however you are heavily restricted to flying ultralight vehicles, flying Solo, flying low, and flying away from airspace used by normal aircraft. Ultralight vehicles can be gliders or powered. --- Student = Theoretically you could fly the rest of your life as just a student. Until recently few people thought about this option, but student flying is a legitimate way for ANYONE to have some fun in the afternoon. This is the basis for these new "fly a fighter plane for $99" entertainments that have recently been appearing (the thrill seeker is treated on paperwork as a beginner Student pilot). Student pilots are restricted to local flights (with an Instructor) and solo flights (without passengers). Can: Act as a PIC - solo endorsement every 90 days Fly in class B airspace - special endorsement every 90 days Fly cross country - need an endorsement every time Cannot: Fly other aircraft models or at other airports WITHOUT AN ENDORSEMENT Fly more than 25 miles from the airport WITHOUT AN ENDORSEMENT Carry passengers Fly without an aviators medical certificate Fly with less than 3 miles visibility Fly over clouds/smoke without seeing the ground Fly internationally or act as a co-pilot Fly for profit --- -Sport- (not yet official) = This category was requested by the EAA in the early 2000's, and should become official some time this year. It was developed in response to a recent ground surge of interested civilians wanting to fly small, light aircraft like those popular in the 1920's; as well as current ultralight pilots wanting to fly their aircraft in normal airspace. The aircraft industry (which is almost dead) has also lobbied that making simple (and therefor inexpensive) aircraft for which people could easily obtain a license would be a significant boost to their industry (can you say "flying car"?). Can (full list not available): Act as a PIC (and all hours are career loggable) Fly without an aviators medical certificate (driver license is enough) Cannot (full list not available): Fly a "high-performance" aircraft Fly an aircraft with more than 2 seats Fly for profit Apply TRAINING towards a Private Pilot certificate --- Recreational = This category was added in the early 1970s from pressure by AOPA for a more cost effective way to get a pilots certificate (at the time, there was NO such thing as the Ultralight category). The FAA at the time was in their anti-private pilot period and very resistant, so they placed severe restrictions on the grade so as to make it unattractive (a Recreational pilot requires about 3/4ths the training and flight hours of a regular Private pilot)! The result has been that while there are currently 132,000 Airline Transport pilots, 121,000 Commercial pilots, and 256,000 Private pilots, there are ONLY 350 recreational pilots! Recreational pilots can carry only 1 passenger. There is very little information about Recreational pilots on the web (most is for the Canadian pilot category called "recreational"), and the vast majority of flight schools don't even offer training. Airplane Minimum Logged Flight Hours = 35 Can: Act as a PIC (and all hours are career loggable) Fly 1 passenger Cannot: Fly at night Fly in radar controlled airspace (like around most urban airports) Fly more than 50 miles from the "home-base" airport (no cross country) Fly for profit Apply TRAINING towards a Private Pilot certificate --- Private = Most persons in aviation consider this the first "real" pilots certificate, and it makes up the bulk of General Aviation. A surprisingly large portion of Private pilots are also aircraft owners, as the cost of aircraft rental can get prohibitive if your goal is to acquire many flight hours (necessary for stepping up to a Commercial or higher certificate). Persons with a Private pilots certificate tend to economically be the same persons who would also be Yacht owners, as General Aviation aircraft tend to be similar (or higher) in cost. Airplane Minimum Logged Flight Hours = 40 (8 cross country, 3 instrument, 3 night) Can: Act as a PIC of flights with passengers worldwide Divide the flight bill equally amongst yourself and your passengers Demonstrate airplanes in flight if you have more than 200 hours as a PIC Tow gliders if you meet the respective PIC and training requirements Cannot: Carry passengers or cargo for compensation or hire Fly passengers for a business that charges passengers for the flight Act as co-pilot on a flight carrying passengers for hire --- Commercial = These are pilots who are allowed to get paid for flying. A Commercial pilot can also be an airline co-pilot. These are the pilots the FAA wants to see sitting in a pilots seat (it may sound weird, but most federal agencies prefer to support business men ["professionals"] rather than volunteers/individuals ["amateurs"]). Airplane Minimum Logged Flight Hours = 250 (50 cross country, 10 instrument, 8 night) Can: Fly passengers or cargo for compensation or hire (air taxi) Fly skydivers, pipeline patrol, and local sight-seeing flights Do aerial photography Tow banners Fly as PIC on Charter flights After 1200 hours, you may fly as PIC for Charter flights on instrument Train to become a Flight Instructor Cannot: Fly as PIC on Scheduled flights Fly as PIC certain aircraft heavier than 12,500 lbs. (large jets) --- Airline Transport = The guys who fly Scheduled flights Airplane Minimum Logged Flight Hours = 1,500 (500 cross country, 75 instrument, 100 night) Note that you cannot be an Airline Transport pilot (ATP) beyond a certain mandatory retirement age! ===== Ratings: As a pilot, you are not allowed to fly just anything. In its quest for safety, the FAA has divided flying vehicles into several "Categories" and "Classes" that it feels would require different skills. "Category" is a Major classification of flying vehicles. A pilot trained in one Category (Balloons for example) could not fly a vehicle designated as part of a different Category (Helicopters for example). For example, for a Commercial pilot in a Balloon to fly the Helicopter, he would have to become a Student in Helicopters (even though he already had Commercial privileges) and work his way up to being a Commercial pilot in Helicopters. Although the TRAINING is not transferable, SOME of the logged flight hours are, so he could reduce the amount of time needed to get the certificate versus a person who did not have a pilot certificate at all. Each Category has different requirements for training time, so a Private pilot in Balloons might need a lot less training and logged flight hours than a Private pilot in airplanes (with a corresponding difference in schooling costs). Note that many of these Categories are recent additions brought about by innovative ideas from the Ultralight community (Private pilots wanted to fly them into airports, and the FAA needed to come up with some kind of regulation [surprise] to deal with them). "Class" is a sub-set of Category. A pilot trained in a Category is certified to fly only the Class of vehicle he trained on to get his pilots certificate for that Category (for example, a pilot trained on Land aircraft could not fly a Sea aircraft, and vica-versa). Because "Class" is considered just a different kind of vehicle for which a pilot is already trained (versus a fundamentally different form of flying as is described by "Category"), there is NO need for a pilot to start again as a student. All he needs is to get "rated" (take some minor training and test flying) in the Class, whereupon he gets a stamp in his logbook and can fly the vehicle with the same privileges as he had before. Here are the Category and Class Ratings: Airplane Single-engine land Multi-engine land (1) Single-engine sea Multi-engine sea (1) Glider [all] Lighter-than-air Balloon Airship Powered-lift (VTOL) [all] Powered parachute Powered parachute land Powered parachute sea Rotorcraft Gyroplane (2) Helicopter Type-Rated aircraft Large aircraft other than lighter-than-air Turbojet-powered airplanes Other vehicles specified by the FAA as requiring aircraft type certification procedures Weight-shift-control aircraft Weight-shift-control aircraft land Weight-shift-control aircraft sea SPECIAL NOTES: 1) You cannot get a multi-engine rating before you have first gotten a single-engine rating. 2) Gyroplane is classified with Rotorcraft even though it is actually a type of airplane. This is a legacy from the early 1960's. Gyroplanes were an early attempt at an ultralight vehicle, and the FAA at that time did not like the idea of ultralights. Grouping Gyroplanes with Helicopters (the justification being a revolving wing) effectively squelched the upstart gyroplane community. Recently the FAA has been making amends, and Gyroplane may soon be regarded as a form of aircraft to persons holding the new 'Sports' pilot certificate (with its associated low cost and easy training requirements). *) Any of the above vehicles if they fall within the weight (and certain other) restrictions can be classified as an Ultralight. (One of the restrictions is gas tank size. Some ultralights were getting so light that people were able to add big gas tanks and still stay within the weight limits. The FAA didn't like the idea of ultralight pilots being able to fly hundreds of miles just like the heavily regulated private pilots, so they imposed a "gas tank" size limit). Ultralights can be flown by anyone, whether a pilot or not. (The FAA has never liked Ultralights, and their recent support of the new Sports pilot grade is an attempt at doing a Microsoft and bring regulations through an end-run maneuver... Embrace the low-end aircraft including ultralights, Extend the kinds of aircraft you are now allowed to fly, Extinguish the desire to be an ultralight ONLY pilot when you can instead very easily become an [FAA regulated] 'Sport' pilot). ===== Instrument Rating: Although you may be allowed to fly a certain kind of vehicle, you are only allowed to operate the vehicle in high visibility conditions (called Visual Flight Rules or VFR). When the weather turns bad, you are stuck on the ground. Thanks to high-technology (air traffic control radars, GPS, computerized cockpit instrumentation), a person could still fly a plane without being able to see out of the cockpit. The FAA realizing this has created a category of rules called Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) that allows persons with specific training to fly as PIC in bad weather conditions. Becoming certified to fly on instruments is not a requirement (except for an ATP), but it is a great skill to have (like the skill of being able to train other pilots as a Certified Flight Instructor or CFI). Only Private Pilots, Commercial Pilots, and Airline Transport Pilots can get an Instrument rating. Also, you can only get an instrument rating for the categories of Airplanes, Helicopters, and Powered-lift vehicles. ============= Instructors: You must be trained (and hold the appropriate category and class rating) before you can instruct. Additionally, there are certain categories and ratings in which you must obtain a certification before you can instruct them. Ground Instructor Certification Categories = Basic Advanced Instrument Flight Instructor Certification Categories = Sport pilot Airplane Single-engine Multi-engine Instrument Glider Powered-lift (VTOL) Instrument Rotorcraft Gyroplane Helicopter Instrument ================ There are no federal regulations specifying costs for flight training. Training costs therefore are "what the market can bear". Typically, a Flight Instructor will be giving lessons in order to pay back the costs for his own training. He probably also wants to make some "easy money" through selling his services as an instructor. Because most wanting to fly are wealthy (doctors, lawyers, etc.), prices for training are typically quite high. Typical MINIMUM costs for acquiring a Commercial license for various vehicle types are: $6,300 for Balloon; $22,800 for Airplane; or $28,200 for Helicopter. Private Pilot: Balloon = Ballooning usually requires owning your own Balloon (not cost prohibitive however) and traveling around with a ground crew. Private pilot certificates run about $1,800 if you have your own Balloon (or about $2,800 if you don't). The minimum mandated flying hours for training is 8 (and 8 is usually enough). Airplane = Basic "Single-engine land" Private pilot certificates cost at least $4,300 for the mandated minimum 40 flying hours (50 hours is the national average flown before the Private pilot certificate is issued). Typical aircraft rental rates for a Cessna 150 is about $65 per hour (so expect to tack on at least $650 + instructor to the training costs) Helicopter = Private pilots certificates cost at least $8,500 for the mandated minimum 40 flying hours (60 hours is the national average). The biggest chunk of the cost is for helicopter rental ($160 per hour for a little Robinson). Commercial Pilot upgrade: Balloon = $2,300 with your own balloon ($3,500 without). Flying hours earned while training are not less than 10. You can immediately begin training once you hold a Private pilot certificate from ANY category of flying vehicle (balloon, helicopter, airplane, etceteras). Airplane = $3,400 bare bones minimum. Flying hours earned while training are not less than 20. You must be a Private airplane pilot before you can begin training. To get your certificate you must have 250 flying hours minimum. 40 can be deducted for Private pilot training, and 20 for Commercial training, but you still must get 190 Solo hours on your own. Getting these hours is a real killer. If you choose to rent a plane for the 190 hours, it will cost a MINIMUM (based on a Cessna 150) of $12,400. Owning a used airplane or joining a flying club may allow you to fly somewhat cheaper. You don't have to get ALL the hours in an airplane though, only 100 hours (of the 250) needs to be in powered aircraft (and only 50 of those hours needs to be cross-country flying in an airplane). A large majority of persons seeking to be Commercial pilots choose to own their own airplane (often kit-built). Helicopter = $5,300 minimum (renting your helicopter for training is the norm). Flying hours earned while training are not less than 20. You must be a Private helicopter pilot before you can begin training. To get your certificate you need only 150 flying hours minimum. 40 can be deducted for Private pilot training, and 20 for Commercial training, but you still need to get 90 Solo hours on your own. Renting a helicopter to get these hours will cost a MINIMUM (based on a small Robinson) of $14,400. Fortunately you don't need to get ALL the hours in a helicopter, only 50 (of the 150) hours needs to be cross-country flying in a helicopter.