Getting serious about the CPL

My goal is to get my CPL by the end of the summer. That said, I need to get on the ball and get organized.

I sat down a while ago and figured out how many hours I need before I have the minimum required for the CPL test. It’s totally doable in the next 4-5 months provided the weather this summer is co-operative.

I’m not too concerned about the written at all, since that can be done easily given enough study.

I took a look at the Commercial Flight Test Guide and came up with a list of things that are new and/or that I need to practice.

Here are some of the items that are different than the PPL test:

– Flight planning. You are not given the route ahead of time like in the PPL. You must complete your flight planning within 45 minutes on the day of the test. This excludes weight and balance.

– Engine Failure in Circuit. Have to land the aircraft with no power from circuit altitude to a specified point on the ground.

– Diversion. Must use mental dead reckoning (ie, you cant “follow the train tracks”) to the destination at 500′ AGL. You can not use navaids.

– Instrument Flying. Recovery from unusual attitudes with a partial panel (no attitude and heading indicators). This means timed turns with reference to the compass.

– Radio Navigation. Use an ADF/VOR/GPS Waypoint to navigate to and identify station/waypoint passage.

– Spinning. Enter and recover from a spin. If needed, identify if the spin becomes a spiral dive and recover accordingly.

That’s pretty much it for the new exercises in the CPL test. The rest of them are the same as in your PPL with a few modifications. Such as lower tolerances for error, and in the case of steep turns, two 180° turns instead of a 360° turn. The slow flight exercise introduces a 30° turn as well.

So over the next few months I will be practicing these items along with my FI. Concurrently I’m also getting my Multi Rating done. I’m unsure where I’m going to stick my IFR rating in there.

I would like to do my commercial x-country in the new G1000 Cessna. I have to study and get checked out on that plane first.