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View Full Version : Amount of required Crew for certain Aircraft


Bob3213
16th Dec 2013, 06:54
Where do they publish how much crew is required for a certain aircraft? This question is aimed at operating at Part 91. Excluding what the law says (Ex: two crew required to fly commercially above Fl145 or two crew required for certain MTOW). Rumour: Technically a B1900/B200/PC12/ect is a "single crew aircraft"?

The Ancient Geek
16th Dec 2013, 09:34
Any aircraft with up to 19 passenger seats can be certified by the manufacturer for single pilot operation. As a very simplistic rule of thumb manufacturers tend to certify turboprops for single pilot operation but not bizjets. Individual state regulators impose a variety of restrictions - some do not allow passenger operations with a single pilot, some do not allow IFR, etc, etc.

All rather complicated so you have to know where you are operating to make sense of it.

Any aircraft with 20 or more passenger seats requires 2 crew so the question does not arise.

MarkerInbound
16th Dec 2013, 15:11
It will be listed in the Type Certificate Data Sheet. That's where the information in the Limitations section of the AFM comes from. You can find them on the FAA web site.

A Beech 1900D is listed as requiring one pilot. However the rules you operate under can also have requirements. FAR 121.385 says the minimum crew is two pilots. And under 135 you can replace the co-pilot in some airplanes with a working autopilot.