Aircraft Category | Everything About

Posted on January 2, 2013 by busterlf

The subject of aircraft category and class can be a little confusing until someone comes along and shows you a nifty way to organize it all in your head. With any luck that will be me!

Aircraft category applies to aircraft certification and to pilot certification.

When an aircraft is designed, built, and tested it must pass certain certification standards depending on what aircraft category it will be in. There are normal category, utility category, aerobatic category, experimental category, restricted category, and transport category aircraft. Most trainers are in the normal and sometimes utility category.

Aircraft are put into different categories in respect to what the pilot’s certificate says they can fly. For example, if you learn to fly airplanes in a typical flight school your certificate will say “single engine land airplane”. In this case “airplane” is the category of aircraft that the pilot is allowed to fly and the “single engine land” portion is the aircraft class.

Private Pilot License | Everything You Wanted To Know

Posted on February 24, 2012 by busterlf

Thank you for being here!

Technically speaking, it is not a license but instead a certificate , however, far more people search for “private pilot license” than “private pilot certificate” and so in the interest of making it easier for people to find this information I will be using “license” most of the time.

private pilot license commuter

I will also be concentrating on “airplanes”, or “fixed wing”, as slightly different rules apply to helicopters and other categories of aircraft.

The biggest question I hear from people interested in becoming a pilot: “What can I do with a private pilot license and what kind of airplanes can I fly?” Glad you asked!…

You can fly airplanes with engines up to 200 horse power. Higher than 200 with ground and flight training from a FAA certified flight instructor (CFI) who can “sign you off” for the high performance endorsement.
Non complex aircraft unless trained by a CFI and signed off for the complex aircraft endorsement.
Aircraft with maximum certified ceilings of less than 25,000 feet unless trained by a CFI and signed off for the high altitude endorsement.
Aircraft with multiple seats so that you can take friends and family flying with you. No seat number limitation but with a 200 horse power limit unless endorsed for more will typically limit you to 3-4 passengers due to aircraft maximum take off weight limits.
VFR or good weather only unless you have gone through additional training and testing to have an IFR rating added to your private pilot license. In this case you can typically fly in weather that can be as low as ½ mile visibility and 200 foot cloud ceilings, depending on the airport, facilities, and aircraft equipment of course.
You can fly jets with a private pilot license, however, you do need a “type rating” which requires ground and flight training in a specific aircraft make, model, and type (with exceptions). The same goes for very “large” aircraft. “Large” in this case meaning more than 12,500 lbs maximum certified gross takeoff weight.

So really, you can fly just about anything with wings as long as you start small and work your way up. A good plan for pilot with non commercial aspirations is to set a goal to achieve a new endorsement or rating each year after you first earn your private pilot license. This will keep you current and improve your flying skills thus promoting aviation safety for all of us in the air and on the ground!

One thing that a private pilot certificate does not allow is to fly passengers or property for compensation or hire, with exceptions of course! Those exceptions are: FAA Part 61.113

A private pilot can recover expenses from fellow passengers related to operating aircraft only but the pilot must pay his pro-rata or equel share. 5 people on the aircraft means the pilot must pay no less than 1/5 of the total operating and/or rental costs.
Private pilots can fly for hire if it is a non profit charitable flight and must follow the rules as listed in FAA Part 91.146
All of your flight operating expenses can be completely reimbursed if the flight is for a government agency organized search and rescue. In fact, Harrison Ford found a lost hiker in his Bell 206 helicopter that he flies! Rescued by Han Solo himself!
Once you are a private pilot you can fly for your business need if it is incidental in nature only. Say you need to meet a client before your competitor does. You fly, he drives, you get the contract, he does not. You just made money as a pilot legally because it was incidental to that business. You cannot add the costs to any bill you charge a customer.

Making money as a pilot gets a whole lot easier and complicated at the same time when you earn a commercial pilot license but that is another story.

The private pilot license is really designed to shrink your world. It is easy to hop from state to state or even across the country in even the simplest training aircraft. Think about no security lines, point to point travel instead of “hub and spoke” airline routes, leaving when you want to leave, stay as long as you like, just pure freedom. However, just as with all freedom comes huge responsibility.

Fly safe and have FUN!

-The StarvingPilot

Finally Landed a Part 135 Scheduled air Carrier Job In Hawaii!

Posted on February 21, 2012 by busterlf

It is now official. After a long wait and much looking I finally landed a Captain’s position with an FAA Part 135 Scheduled Air Carrier.

Cessna 172 aircraft rental over Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii

The airline operates the venerable and tough as nails Cessna Grand Caravan C208B. I have nearly 4,000 hours in the C208, or the “short” version, as an air tour pilot and inter island charter pilot for which the Cessna Caravan is a perfect fit.

One of the big discussions during training has been about single engine IFR with passengers over water and the big Cessna’s engine out glide profile. Luckily the C208 has a fantastic 12:1 glide ratio rivaling some of the older training gliders as long as the big McCauley propeller is feathered as soon as possible (assuming restart is not possible) and best glide speed ~95 knots indicated airspeed is established (assuming no wind and near gross weight).

Back to over water commercial flights… Since this particular airline is a scheduled air carrier operating with 9 passenger seats or less they are governed by FAA FAR Part 135. More specifically, Part 135.183 which talks about single engine over water. This is where the good from the bad operators are separated. Basically, single engine passenger carrying commercial flights can not fly beyond glide of land except for that portion of a flight required for “landing or takeoff”.

Scenario 1. A flight is within glide distance of land for the entire flight, however, the initial approach fix of the approach in use is at an altitude and distance that places the aircraft outside of that glide distance for a short time for the purpose of landing. The weather requires the approach and there are no other approach/arrival alternatives. Note: if the weather is VFR and the flight can maintain VFR within glide distance of land then that option should be taken to comply with 135.183. So far this seems to be perfectly acceptable to the FAA and pilots do not have to be worried about violations.

Scenario #2. The weather is VFR or an approach/arrival consistent with conditions is available, however, for what ever reason Air Traffic Control issues a clearance that places the aircraft well beyond glide distance. If this was en route it would be completely unacceptable and the pilot had better refuse the clearance and ask for another. If this is with an approach controller the situation gets complicated because they are sequencing the aircraft for “landing” up to 20 miles away from the destination airport and there is No definition of where the “landing” portion of a flight begins and the FAA thus far has refused to clarify. It is not good to be a pilot in this situation because one FAA inspector could issue a violation and another may not. What is a pilot to do?

Logic and “CYA” should tell the pilot to assume the worst and stay within glide distance until at least the initial approach fix if in IFR conditions or maintain VFR and within glide distance for as long as possible when possible.

Here in Hawaii this is usually not a challenge and the air traffic controllers are pretty good at getting you what you need but there are currently two “hot spots” concerning gliding distance for single pilot IFR passenger flights. The first is arriving IFR or in marginal weather to Honlolulu Class B airspace (PHNL/HNL). This is due to the departing mainland bound airliners climbing up and out through the Molokai-Oahu Channel. If you arrive from Molokai direct to HNL between 6,000 and 8,000 feet you are right in the middle of that traffic and ATC will try to send you 15 miles south of HNL and drop you down to 1,500 feet over the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible. Not acceptable for obvious reasons. The Cessna Caravan glides pretty good but not that good! The answer here is to climb to 8,000 towards BAMBO intersection to the NE of Koko Head VOR and then get vectors high and inside of the departing heavy jets. This is a bit out of the way but it is well worth it for the safety of the passengers and the pilot’s certificate!

The Second “hot spot” is departing Kona International class D airspace (PHKO/KOA) heading NW to the other islands. Departing runway 17, the norm due to local winds, ATC will have you on a heading of West until at least 6,000 feet before even thinking about turning you North and closer to the islands. This is unacceptable. Luckily for us the Kona Airport has 350 days of sunshine per year making a VFR departure climbing along the shoreline until reaching a safe altitude to cross the Alinuihaha channel and pick up an IFR clearance possible most of the time. Of course, when the departure is IFR or ceilings less than 6,000 then we have to do as told as there are no other options other than not going at all and this is considered to be the takeoff phase of flight.

It is interesting flying single engine IFR with passengers in Hawaii and the pilot has his/her job cut out for them but it all boils down to good aeronautical decision making (ADM) and looking for options and alternatives to have on hand when the clearance is issued. Welcome to my “Office With A View”.

Aloha,

The Starving Pilot

Looking for Flying Jobs In Honolulu Today…

Posted on December 16, 2011 by busterlf

It was a long day of door to door hunting for flying jobs and networking at the Honolulu airport today.

I have recently decided to make the move to Oahu for many reasons with the main underlying reason being that Oahu is where the people and opportunities are.

The move is being made from the Big Island, Kona side, with a population of about 60,000. Options are limited but you could retire if all you want to do is be a flight instructor or tour pilot. Head to Oahu and the population jumps to 800,000 and that many more visitors! Aviation jobs at the Honolulu airport range from flight training schools, to large turbine cargo, to legacy airline Hawaiian Airlines, and everything in between.

So there I was walking up and down Lagoon Drive stopping at every hole in the wall, every marble floored jet center, shaking every hand at the HNL airport making friends and contacts that will serve me well for years to come… I hope! Smiles and hand shakes do go a long way anywhere in the world.

So far some good leads needing follow up emails and phone calls. Also nice, I located a 2008 Cessna 172 G1000 that is available for rent! Good because Hawaii is a great place for visiting pilots that want to take an instructor along to help keep them safe and tell them all about what they are looking at so I am in business right off the bat.

north shore molokai on our way to find flying jobs at the honolulu airport.

George’s, Marjet, Kamaka, Makani Kai, Hawaii Life Flight, and a couple of flight schools were my targets today… I think it went well but no job yet! Soon though, I can tell. I have had resumes in to Hawaiian, and Island Air for a while now but I’m not holding my breath.

The best part about today? Got to fly the Cherokee 6X from KOA to HNL and man was it a beautiful day! It is good to be a pilot!