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AOPA petitions FAA for change to Part 141 that would reduce costs for flight school students

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration for a change to FAR Part 141 that would make it less expensive for some flight school students to obtain a commercial pilot certificate for single-engine airplanes.

“We’re asking the FAA for a simple, common-sense change that will make a big difference for flight students at schools like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University but won’t affect safety,” said Dennis Roberts, AOPA vice president of government and technical affairs. “Frankly, the FAA’s current rule is inconsistent and illogical.”

What AOPA wants is simple enough: Allow students in Part 141 certificated pilot schools to count training time in a complex, multiengine airplane toward the training required to obtain a commercial pilot certificate for single-engine operations. Pilot school students used to be able to do that. Students training under Part 61 (the rules governing flight training operations at many FBOs) still can.

Under Part 61, a single-engine commercial pilot student needs (among other requirements) 10 hours of training in a complex airplane with retractable landing gear, flaps, and a controllable-pitch propeller. Either a complex single-engine or multiengine airplane fits the bill.

But when the FAA rewrote parts 61 and 141 in 1997, it added an extra word to Part 141 (which governs certificated pilot schools) but not to Part 61. In section D(4)(b)(1)(ii), the FAA said a candidate for a single-engine commercial pilot certificate must have 10 hours of training in a complex single-engine airplane.

That hit students at some certificated pilot schools hard.

That’s because some Part 141 schools train their commercial pilot students in multiengine airplanes. Students can then opt to add a single-engine rating to their commercial multiengine pilot certificates. Under the old rules, a student could satisfy the required 10 hours of complex airplane training for both ratings in a multiengine airplane.

But the FAA changed the rules. Now a student at those flight schools has to obtain another 10 hours of training in a complex single-engine airplane, at a cost of well over $1,000, in order to add on the single-engine commercial pilot rating.

“AOPA believes that a multiengine commercial pilot has already met the necessary training and experience requirements for single-engine commercial pilot certification,” said Roberts. “Let’s face it. If you can handle a complex multiengine airplane, you can handle a single-engine one.”

AOPA petitioned the FAA to remove the single-engine requirement from Part 141 D(4)(b)(1)(ii).

“This change will not adversely affect neither the quality of flight training nor flight safety,” AOPA told the FAA. “The change directly benefits the public because it will create consistency in language between parts 61 and 141, and it will substantially reduce the economic burdens placed upon airmen and flight schools operating under Part 141.”

A copy of AOPA’s petition is available on AOPA Online.

The 345,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is the world’s largest civil aviation organization. AOPA’s watch on FAA regulations is just part of the association’s work to make flying safer, affordable, and more fun.

99-1-042

February 11, 1999