How long did your commercial license take to get?

[vermont]

I've been working on my PPL for a few months and I'm afraid it could take over a year if I get no winter flying done.

I'm making a few bookings every week (no less than 2) since I work full time. How long did it take people here to get their license working on it part time or full time?

[ant_321]

Less than a year. That was with the east coast wx as well. You could probably go from 0 to commercial multi IFR in 9 months or so if you really hammer down and have good wx and airplane availability.

[youhavecontrol]

It took years for me because I stopped part way and did some oilfield work to help with tuition. Everyone's path is different... Just keep at it!

[Kopes]

Going to be different for everyone.

I'm just finishing my CPL up and was fortunate enough to be able to go at the whole process full time.
Zero flying to ppl, me, mifr, cpl in just over 6 months granted that my final couple weeks go to plan.

PPL took two months flying 5 days a week at 2hr a day and a week of study prep pre exam.
Feel like I could've done everything a month or so quicker, but at the risk of sanity lol.
Would personally suggest setting a target date you want to be done by, and then breaking down the math as to how much flight/study per day/week/month to get to that point with a buffer for weather/illness/etc.

[vermont]

Going to be different for everyone.

I'm just finishing my CPL up and was fortunate enough to be able to go at the whole process full time.
Zero flying to ppl, me, mifr, cpl in just over 6 months granted that my final couple weeks go to plan.

PPL took two months flying 5 days a week at 2hr a day and a week of study prep pre exam.
Feel like I could've done everything a month or so quicker, but at the risk of sanity lol.
Would personally suggest setting a target date you want to be done by, and then breaking down the math as to how much flight/study per day/week/month to get to that point with a buffer for weather/illness/etc.

Thanks! I'm working full time so my financial/burn out limit is 3 times a week right now lol

[EmaadS]

Going to be different for everyone.

I'm just finishing my CPL up and was fortunate enough to be able to go at the whole process full time.
Zero flying to ppl, me, mifr, cpl in just over 6 months granted that my final couple weeks go to plan.

PPL took two months flying 5 days a week at 2hr a day and a week of study prep pre exam.
Feel like I could've done everything a month or so quicker, but at the risk of sanity lol.
Would personally suggest setting a target date you want to be done by, and then breaking down the math as to how much flight/study per day/week/month to get to that point with a buffer for weather/illness/etc.

where did you do your PPL and all your rating? thats super ambitious... i am looking for similar timeline

[KenoraPilot]

From Zero time to CPL in hand (+ Multi & Seaplane....which I used as time building towards CPL) was 1.5 years for me. Did it privately & not through a collage & I did it 16 years ago.

[Beefitarian]

Thirty years so far...


To be honest, I might not be as focused as some of do you know that the Westrn Pizza restaurant in Golden right on the number one highway is really good?

[Float_lover]

I've taken 5 years to complete it. Flying part-time, buying a house during that time.
When the PPL is completed, your hour will build quickly as you can do a long cross-country flight and do 3-5 hours per day.

But keep pushing! It's worth it.

[KenoraPilot]

Biggest tip I can pass along:

Look at the ATPL requirements once you're done you PPL. For your time building CPL make sure you do all your "general time building" at night and cross-country PIC. If you can nail all your requirements besides TT and PIC while you're time building for your CPL if you decide to get your ATPL in the future life becomes a lot easier.

A lot of people at Jazz are FO's and are stuck there because they need PICUS or more PIC (plus other requirements) that they didn't do while they were time building for their CPL. Do yourself a favour and get those requirements out of the way early and while you're time building vs having to pay for it later (if you feel like you're going to get your ATPL).

[jetstreams]

Hello
Kopes, my hat is off to you regarding your timeline of 1.5 years. At our school, in that time we are still working on our PPL!!

Current student of Sault College in the aviation program. Most of my class as of Mid August 2019 was still working on their private that they started in start of 2018. It has taken 2 of the 3 year program to get to this point. Its a real mess as our last year most of us went 3,4,5 weeks repeatedly not flying. So many only flew about 5 times or so over a 4 to 5 month period, it was just crazy. The Chair of the program just quite as well few weeks back, jumped ship.

[Alex335]

I've been working on my PPL for a few months and I'm afraid it could take over a year if I get no winter flying done.

Why don’t you want to fly during the winter? Winter is way better than summer when flying training aircraft that have no AC and climb like dogs in the summer heat.

Took me 6 months for my PPL with most of the time being during winter. Only weather related issues was the solo cross country time since the weather minimums are quite strict for unlicensed students.

Once you start CPL things move much faster, once licenced can be dispatched in higher winds, and worse weather that otherwise grounds PPL solos. The CPL training itself is not the time consuming part, it’s more the cross county and instrument hours for an instrument rating that take up the majority of the training time. The minimum 35hrs of dual instruction will easily be covered by just doing the IR, NR, ME ratings, the rest is just time building to hit 200hrs. Make those time building hours count though, do night cross country as much as possible since this will be needed for ATPL.

Night flying makes it go very fast since aircraft availability is amazing after dark. At most schools you can practically show up any night and fly. Can easily get 10-15hrs per week to build up 200hrs in no time, plus have the 50hrs of cross country done for the instrument rating.

[vermont]

I've been working on my PPL for a few months and I'm afraid it could take over a year if I get no winter flying done.

Why don’t you want to fly during the winter? Winter is way better than summer when flying training aircraft that have no AC and climb like dogs in the summer heat.

Took me 6 months for my PPL with most of the time being during winter. Only weather related issues was the solo cross country time since the weather minimums are quite strict for unlicensed students.

Once you start CPL things move much faster, once licenced can be dispatched in higher winds, and worse weather that otherwise grounds PPL solos. The CPL training itself is not the time consuming part, it’s more the cross county and instrument hours for an instrument rating that take up the majority of the training time. The minimum 35hrs of dual instruction will easily be covered by just doing the IR, NR, ME ratings, the rest is just time building to hit 200hrs. Make those time building hours count though, do night cross country as much as possible since this will be needed for ATPL.

Night flying makes it go very fast since aircraft availability is amazing after dark. At most schools you can practically show up any night and fly. Can easily get 10-15hrs per week to build up 200hrs in no time, plus have the 50hrs of cross country done for the instrument rating.

Anything to watch out for during night cross countries, or things to keep in mind? (aside from the obvious, make sure the fuel/fbo are open etc)

[Foregone]

Biggest tip I can pass along:

Look at the ATPL requirements once you're done you PPL. For your time building CPL make sure you do all your "general time building" at night and cross-country PIC. If you can nail all your requirements besides TT and PIC while you're time building for your CPL if you decide to get your ATPL in the future life becomes a lot easier.

A lot of people at Jazz are FO's and are stuck there because they need PICUS or more PIC (plus other requirements) that they didn't do while they were time building for their CPL. Do yourself a favour and get those requirements out of the way early and while you're time building vs having to pay for it later (if you feel like you're going to get your ATPL).

Took me 5 years. Then a year and a half before finding the first job. I second this recommendation to have a little foresight while time-building. I did most of my time-building as cross-country and about half of that at night. Also I did my IFR before commercial so I did some time-building under actual IMC conditions as well once I became more comfortable flying in the clouds.

[Alex335]

Anything to watch out for during night cross countries, or things to keep in mind? (aside from the obvious, make sure the fuel/fbo are open etc)

Yes FBOs definitely close if not going to large airport with scheduled service. Like going from Toronto to Montreal, St Hubert has poor availability, but there is Pierre Elliott Trudeau available 24hrs so no big deal. With a little planning it’s no big deal.

I like to stay over wide highways while fling in a single at night, so generally follow a large highway like the 401 or 407 and pick nearby airports.

If flying a twin I would go wherever I feel like lol. I guess even something like an SR22 with CAPs I wouldn’t mind an off airport forced approach but I’m sure it’s not a nice touchdown.

[ShawnR]

Thirty years so far...


To be honest, I might not be as focused as some of do you know that the Westrn Pizza restaurant in Golden right on the number one highway is really good?

I laughed hard at this one. ....

[ShawnR]

PPL was 11 months less a couple of those where I did not fly for a whole month. Everyone, short of those in a college program are going to be different. It has been about 1 1/2 years for my cpl so far. I own the plane so that is not the issue. Life is, though, for us part timers....

CPL almost done .....