An applicant for a commercial pilots licence must be at least 18 years old. He or she must have a Class 1 medical which is completed over two days in the Aeromedical Centre in the Mater Hospital in Dublin. It is a much more stringent medical than the one needed for the PPL.

The modular course of flight and ground/theory training to become a commercial airline pilot is completed in seven stages beginning with the PPL or private pilots licence which is already covered in detail on this website. The remaining six stages would normally fall in the following order.

The Night Rating

This is a training course completed over a 5 hour flying period at night to teach the student how to fly in night time conditions. It can normally be completed in two to three nights including the ground briefings needed. There is no flight test needed for this rating and it may be added to a PPL to allow a private pilot to fly by night. A very satisfying and humbling experience.

The Airline Transport Pilots Licence Exams (ATPL's)

This is a six month period of study which is quite intense and full on and leaves the student with little or no time for much else in life, including flying. It consists of 14 subjects and exams studied and taken over 6 months in 3 modules. A more detailed look at the subjects and the course layout can be seen in the ATPL section of this website.

The subjects are hugely interesting but the time frame for completion is quite tight. At Atlantic, we have two dedicated ATPL ground instructors and two dedicated classrooms with places for twenty students. The exams are set by the Irish Aviation Authority and held at the Cork International Airport Hotel,in Cork Airport on the last week of every two months.

Hour Building

A student is required by the IAA to have a certain amount of hours as PIC or Pilot In Command to be eligible for a commercial pilots licence. Typically he or she will end up with approximately 100 PIC hours at the end of the training. This period of flying is probably one of the most pleasureable parts of the course especially if the student has just finished a gruelling six months of study for the ATPL's. It's at this point that the student can also gather a wealth of experience flying into all the different airports and airfields in Ireland and also abroad. Our hour building students here at Atlantic would normally team up in two's and three's and take turns in flying and navigating around Ireland, Great Britain and France. Exciting!

Multi Engine Class Rating (MEP)

Up to this point all the training will have taken place in a single engine aircraft, and here at Atlantic we have 4 Cessna 172's and 1 Grob 115, and now, once the student has a PPL, the ATPL exams finished and 70 hours of pilot in command completed, he/she will begin training in a multi engine aircraft. Here at Atlantic, we use Piper PA 34 twin engined turbo powered aircraft. This course is a 6 hour course and is normally completed over 3 to 4 days both flight and ground training. It is a manatory course which must be completed before the student is allowed to undertake training for a commercial licence. A flight test is not required at this point but may be taken in conjuction with the commercial flight test at a later date.

Commercial Pilots Licence (CPL)

Once the MEP is completed then it's time to start on the commercial pilots training. This training requires 25 hours of flight training of which the first 15 hours will be carried out on a single engine aircraft and the final 10 hours on the twin engine aircraft. The training is tailored very much like the PPL training with the two main differences being that the parameters are much tighter and of course the aircraft is much bigger, faster, heavier and more complex but the stages of training will more or less follow the same pattern IE upper airwork, circuit work and finally navigation. The ground school is also more complex due to facts such as commercial aviation law, performance for a bigger aircraft and an ability to plan for flights to theoretically any airport in the world whilst carrying fare paying passengers. When this training is completed and the student is signed off by the Chief Flying Instructor or the Head Of Training, then he or she will undertake a skills test (flight test) with an examiner from the Irish Aviation Authority. A typical skills test would be expected to last between 1.5 to 2 hours.

Multi Engine Instrument Rating (MEIR)

Up to this point, all the students flying will be conducted in what's known as VFR or Visual Flight Rules which means basically that the weather will need to allow a certain visibility and cloud separation for the pilot to navigate any flight he or she may wish to undertake. In other words, to be able to see everything out of the window of the aircraft. The MEIR is now going to teach the student how to fly the aircraft and navigate in IMC or instrument meteorological conditions or in other words where visibility is so poor that visual navigation is impossible. The student will now learn to fly the aircraft solely on instruments by developing what we call a scan. It is a complex form of flying but highly rewarding and hugely enjoyable learning to use instruments like VOR, NBD, ADF, ILS and much more. This course will take 45 hours of flight training of which 30 will be conducted on a single engine aircraft and the final 15 on the twin engine aircraft. The ground school is also very complex as it involves briefings on procedures and flight planning which will not have been used by the student previously. When the course is completed and the student is signed off he will undergo an MEIR flight test with an IAA examiner and this flight test can typically take between 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

CONGRATULATIONS...........you have now finished your training and hold the qualifications of a Multi Engine Instrument Rated Commercial Pilot with A Frozen Airline Transport Pilots Licence.