Flying piston twins without an fATPL??

[jhales71]

Hi

Is it possible to fly piston twins commercially without an fATPL? Maybe I’m being a little naïve, but I was hoping to gain hours and experience commercially on twins before going on with further training.

Not sure what to do now.....any advice?

[redsnail]

You can fly a piston twin on a ppl with the appropriate training.
ie an understanding of Vmc (not the weather) and how that a light twin doesn't guarantee you performance with one out. A good flying school and instrutor will sort you out there.

If you want remuneration for it, you'll need a CPL (and all those fun exams).
Note, a "frozen" ATPL is a marketing/short hand expression for CPL with IR and ATPL subjects completed.

[FlyingForFun]

What license/ratings do you have?

Reddo has answered the question pretty well. The only thing she's missed is that you need either an IMC rating or an IR if you're going to fly in anything other than VMC. Since you don't appear to have a fATPL, my guess would be that you don't have an IR yet.... in which case, if you also don't have a IMC rating, the job opportunities would, I expect, be fairly limited.

FFF
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[Tinstaafl]

Short answer: To fly anything commercially you need at least a Commercial Licence. Some things require an ATPL or at least the ATPL theory exams passed.

Slightly longer answer: You don't *need* the ATPL subjects for most piston twins although very few people get a CPL without doing it via the ATPL theory route (instead of the CPL theory route).

As said by others, you could quite happily fly a multi on a PPL. Not in commercial ops though (your specific question). As a PPL you get to pay for the experience. Earning money with a PPL is a no-no.

[witchdoctor]

Also most piston twins seem to be operated commercially as single pilot ops. If you want to cart pax about, then there are additional restrictions on the operator's AOC requiring something like 700hrs +.