Modular route to a CPL

[Obs cop]

Kirkuk,

Firstly a quick question.........what would your son plan to do with a CPL but not a multi engine or instrument rating? The reason I ask is that a single engine CPL has very limited employment options such as flying instructor, banner towing, glider towing, aerial phgotography and parachute dropping. All of these roles are low pay.

If your son's aspiration is airlines then additional bits are needed which are not included in the single engine CPL. A multi engine rating is needed as well as a multi engine instrument rating and the 14 ATPL exams must be completed not just the CPL exams. Likewise the multi crew co-operation course must be completed.

For your information I have posted a break down of the minimum qualification/hours to start the courses, and the minimum hours of the course length. It should be noted that there are variations to this route but there are certain key restrictions. For licence issue a CPL applicant must have 200 hours total flight time with 100 hours P1. You will note that the mandatory training courses only include 12 hours of P1 (ie. solo). The skills tests for each course have not been included but can generate 6 or 7 hours P1. This still leaves 80+ hours solo hours building to be flown as part of this route.

PPL
min start hours - nil
min course length - 45 hours including 10 hours P1

Night Qualification
Min start qual - PPL
Min course length - 5 hours including 2 hours P1

ATPL Exams (training must be from approved school either Distance Learning or full time)
Min start qualification - PPL

Multi engine CPL (CPL course combined with multi engine rating)
Min start qualification - PPL plus Night Qual plus ATPL exams passed
Min start hours - 150 hours for CPL including 70 hours P1 for multi engine training
Min course length - 28 hours

Instrument rating (5 hour reduction to course for having CPL)
Min start qualification - CPL and multi engine rating with ATPL exams passed
Min start hours - none specified (if I recall correctly!)
Min course hours - 50 (of which a maximum 35 can be completed in an approved simulator)

MCC course
Min start qual - CPL with multi engine instrument rating
Min course hours - 20 hours in an approved simulator

At this point a candidate is qualified to go for airlines but all of the above is the easy bit!


As an idea of costs, I have included a break down of my budgeted costs and actual costs below. I started with a PPL and 30 hours solo before going down this route so you would need to budget an additional sum to cover PPL (£5000 ish) plus £2000 pounds for 20 hours of flying plus £450ish for intial class 1 medical.

Course; Budget; Actual (costs vary due to changes
in VAT, CAA costs and my
muppetry!)

Distance Learning; £1995; £1995
Module 1 Exams (5); £310; £310
Module 2 Exams (4); £248; £252
Module 3 Exams (5); £310; £315

Night rating; £793; £724
Night rating on licence; £78; £80

Hours building (70 hours); £7000; £6395

M/E CPL Course; £8125; £8053
Test Fee; £729; £1271
Licence issue; £231; £231

MEIR; £14675; £12887
Test Fee; £762; £1524
Rating addition; £108; £108

MCC; £1998; £1998

Totals; £37362; £36143

Please note the above is rarer than lunch on the moon in as much as I came in £1200 under budget and that could easily have been eaten in 3 to 4 hours of additional Multi Engine training or another retest. You must, must, must have a contingency budget as for example I've seen CPL students need 15+ hours additional training which adds thousands of pounds to the costs. As an indicator I was only 3% under my planned budget and these figures don't include my PPL, medicals or 20 hours prior to starting my commercial flight training


Hope this helps,
Obs