ASEL add-on to Commercial

[weekendwarrior]

I have a friend who soon will have his commercial certificate, with rotory wing and instrument ratings.

Question is, if one were to add on fixed wing to this, how do you get the PIC time in airplanes if not appropriately rated? Would you have to get signed off to solo, then get your 50 hours solo? Obviously there are other things that have to be met, like cross countries, instrument time in airplanes, complex, etc. But the big question is how does one add on ASEL to a commercial rotory ticket?

 

[bobbysamd]

Airplane PIC time for rotorcraft pilots

Technically, as far as airplanes are concerned, your friend is a student pilot. Therefore, your friend may need FSDO to issue him/her a Student Pilot Certificate. I'm not kidding! FSDOs do issue straight student pilot certificates. AMEs issue combination Student Pilot Certificates and medicals.

You have to provide all the pre-solo training set forth in 14 CFR 61.87. When your trainee is ready to solo, you would do it the usual way, i.e., endorsing his/her logbook appropriately, endorsing his/her student certificate, and soloing him/her.

According to 14 CFR 61.51(e)(4), the time that your student logs while flying the airplane solo may be logged as pilot-in-command time:

(4) A student pilot may log pilot-in-command time only when the student pilot --

(i) Is the sole occupant of the aircraft or is performing the duties of pilot of command of an airship requiring more than one pilot flight crewmember;

(ii) Has a current solo flight endorsement as required under §61.87 of this part; and

(iii) Is undergoing training for a pilot certificate or rating.

(emphasis added)

I guess the regs have changed over the years. At one time, pilots could not log solo time as PIC until they earned their certificates. It was just logged as solo time.

Hope that helps. Good luck training your helo student. You'll enjoy the experience. I trained two helo pilots for airplane certificates and ratings. One was an Army Reserve rotorhead at MAPD for his Private Airplane certificate; the other was a former Army helo pilot who wanted his airplane instrument rating. I found that helo pilots make excellent airplane pilots.

 

[weekendwarrior]

That's what I figured, that it would be solo time. Haven't heard of the student pilot cert from the FSDO. Should be interesting.

Yeah, the PIC during solo has changed over the years. When I did m PPSEL in 1994, I couldn't log PIC when I did solo. I think it changed 3 or 4 years ago.