I agree - if you're looking at commercial flying, forget about the NPPL completely.
I'll try to give you a slightly fuller picture. There are a number of different licenses. Then, onto each license, you can add ratings.
The licenses are, as you said:
- PPL. (Requirements: 45 hours of training, and a skills test)
- CPL. (Requirements: 200 hours total time, including 25 or 28 hours of training, depending which ratings you want on it. Also, you have to complete the ground exams first. Allows you to get paid for flying)
- ATPL. (Requirements: 1500 hours total time, including 500 hours on a multi-pilot aeroplane. Allows you to act as captain (rather than just first/second officer) on a multi-pilot aeroplane)
The requirements I've listed are hugely over-simplified, but give you a rough idea of the kind of person who would have each license.
As for ratings, there are a couple of different types:
"Class ratings" allow you to fly a particular class of aeroplane. The most common are:
- Single-engine piston land-planes (which you get with your PPL)
- Multi-engine piston land-planes (which many people get together with their CPL - that's what increases the minimum time by 3 hours)
"Type ratings" allow you to fly an aircraft that is too complex to be covered by a class rating, for example, a B737. It's normal to only get this once you've got a job flying that type of aircraft.
And then there are various ratings for flying in cloud or reduced visibility:
- IMC Rating is a UK rating, allowing pilots to fly in cloud, but with certain restrictions, but only in the UK. Not very much use for an aspiring commercial pilot
- Instrument Rating (or IR) allows flight in clouds internationally
So, to summarise, the most common order of doing things is:
- PPL
- Ground-school and then ATPL written exams (which will enable you do the CPL and IR)
- Hour-building to the minimum required hours for the CPL (is sometimes done before the ground-school)
- Multi-engine CPL
- Mutli-engine IR
Many people then go on to do a multi-crew cooperation course after all this, which some airlines like their candidates to have. This isn't the only way of doing things by any means, but it's a good way.
If you really want all the details, I recommend you contact the CAA and ask for a copy of "LASORS", a book which will cost you £10 but explains everything you ever wanted to know about UK licenses.
FFF
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