Pilot licensing and certification

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pilot licences (in the United States, airman certificates) are issued by national aviation authorities, and establish that the holder has been trained by a qualified flight instructor and has met a specific set of knowledge and experience requirements. The licensed or certificated pilot can then exercise a specific set of privileges in the nation’s airspace. Despite attempts to harmonize the requirements between nations, the differences in certification practices and standards from place to place serve to limit full international validity of the national qualifications.

In the U.S., airman certificates are issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — and pilots are certificated, not licensed, although the word license (note the spelling) is still commonly used informally. In Canada, licences are issued by Transport Canada, and in the United Kingdom by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Anyone can handle the controls of an aircraft on a non-commercial flight, whether or not he or she is licensed. However, at all times, an aircraft in flight must be under the authority of an appropriately qualified pilot who is responsible for the safe and legal completion of the flight.

[edit] General structure of certification

Pilots are qualified to fly at a specific privilege level and in one or more specific categories of aircraft. Examples of privilege levels found in most countries are:

Student: the pilot can be trained by an instructor for his or her first full certificate and is permitted to fly alone (solo) under specified circumstances.
Private: the pilot can fly for his or her own pleasure and is not allowed to accept compensation for flying except in some specific circumstances.
Commercial: the pilot can fly for hire.
Airline Transport: the pilot can be the captain for a scheduled airline.

Others include

Sport pilot certificate (United States only), used for Light-sport aircraft, a category that was designated in 2004. These aircraft are larger and faster than U.S. ultralights, and carry more fuel and often one passenger.

The ultralight category of aircraft in the U.S. requires no specific training and no certification.

The pilot can separately add certain ratings such as the instrument rating.