But you can get a standalone CPL if you have a 61.75 PPL.
I think doing anything covered by the TSA without their approval is a major risk. Examiners have started asking to see the TSA approval before check rides.
You do need TSA/visa for CPL if this is an initial license?
It’s not possible to do an FAA CPL without having an FAA PPL first. It is in Part 61 somewhere… like wise the ATPL needs the CPL beforehand.
The 18hr thing has been going around “for ever” and has AFAIK never been totally clarified. One problem is that if you ask say the US Embassy, they immediately go into the anti-terrorist mode and say you need the Visa even to kick the tyres (tires!) of an aircraft in the USA….. Also, generally, you cannot keep yourself under 18hrs/week if doing the PPL or the IR, ab initio. But lots of people have done smaller stuff under 18hrs, in the USA, and one chap I know did a CPL and ATPL without TSA or Visa, in a small Part 61 school.
Also while we are on the subject. If you are getting a stand alone commercial when you hold a 61.75 PPL, you do need to get your underlying licence revalidated by your home country again. The rules are a bit vague but this revalidation has to done for the 61.75 and the first standalone licence you get.
Sure does..
If you read my earlier post it would be clear that I meant that the 18 hour per week full time course rule does not mean you are not required to hold a visa for a less intensive course. If you are undergoing flight training then the US says you need a visa.
TSA is of course required but once fingerprinted it is easy and essentially just a tax.
Read the above letter carefully. Lack of an optional add-on rating on a foreign license is not considered a “restriction” by the FAA.
Therefore, if you don’t have, for example, the night rating in your base license, but fufill the requirements of the FAA for night flights, then you can legally fly at night on your FAA 61.75 license.
Also if this weren’t the case, one couldn’t legally do what thousands have done i.e. have a foreign VFR PPL, then get the 61.75 and then do (and use) the US IR.
@Boscomantico
I do not follow your logic.
A 61.75 is with all limitations that apply to your main license on which you base your 61.75. For JAA/Easa this means night is not allowed and so the FSDO’s have been doing it right?
That they exclude night (and specifically state this on the full FAA PPL) for Alaska does not make this any different?
@Peter
You do need TSA/visa for CPL if this is an initial license?
I do not remember wether TSA was for the written or the checkride? It was all one big process.
I get TSA approval every year when I go to the simulator centre in the USA. It’s a totally painless online process and is always approved in a couple of days. A non event really. I have a US visa which has about 5 or 6 years of validity left, that WAS a pain to get involving queueing at the Embassy in London, and a total prohibition of electronic devices while inside. It’s not easy to find a place to leave your phone, car keys, etc in London, but as they say “that’s your problem Sir”
You “need” TSA even for a European checkride. Yes I know you don’t need it for a CPL (and other stuff) but that is not the interpretation adopted by those who, shall we say, make the final decision. Been there, done that. However, a further discussion of Europe based checkrides with a particular individual has in the past resulted in legal threats and other nasty stuff and I don’t want that to spill over to here. Also they were simply not available (officially) for some years, roughly 2005-2007.
I would be really surprised if you needed TSA (the fingerprinting stuff etc) for an FAA written exam. It absolutely never used to be the case and could only be a very recent development.
What is interesting is that this letter shows that FSDOs have been acting incorrectly for many years when they stamped “Night Flying Prohibited” into the 61.75 for pilots who didn’t have that (additional) rating on their base license. AFAIR, they however stopped doing this already some 15 years ago or so (since, they just write “all limitations of the xxx pilot license apply”).
Sure does..
For an initial ppl or cpl and for an initial IR and for an initial ME one needs tsa and visa before one may commence any flighttraining in the US.
This is not a real big issue though.
Offcourse you can also just go to France and fly with Tom Hughston as DPE. Not cheap but cheaper then flying to the US.
Ps. The exact working of this ruling is a bit confusing so I may be a bit of the mark but it is close enough to understand how it works. For example .. If you want to get your PPL as an initial .. You would need a tsa/visa . If you then later would want to do your cpl.. You do not. If your cpl is your initial you would need it. For later ir or ME you also need it.
If I am not mistaken you also need a TSA for doing exams (written and or flown) in europe. You do not need the visa.
