What is the Commercial Pilot's Licence?

The Commercial Pilot's Licence (CPL) is designed to teach students who hold a Private Pilot's Licence and the ATPL theoretical examinations to a higher degree of skill, accuracy, airmainship and awareness of commercial factors. The CPL entitles its holder to receive renumeration for flying, which is not possible with a PPL, and is therefore a prerequisite for a career in aviation.

Training for the CPL

The standard course consists of 25 hours of flight with instructor ("dual") time in a single engine aircraft. At EFT, all of this training is always completed in aeroplanes, rather than in flight simulators or synthetic flight training devices which can never replace the experience and quality of teaching in an actual aeroplane. Some schools use simulators to try to lower CPL course costs, which is a disadvantage for their students, who frequently end up paying for additional, out-of-syllabus training.

The EFT CPL course includes training in the following areas:

Aircraft pre-flight / assessment of airworthiness
Aircraft handling skills in various conditions and configurations of flight
Airport arrival / departure procedures
Visual enroute navigation procedures
Instrument enroute navigation procedures
Emergency procedures (system/ engine/ instrument failures, fires, etc)
Calculation of aircraft performance factors; pre-flight planning
Aircraft handling proficiency in special conditions (stalls/slow flight)
Awareness of various commercial aspects of aircraft operation

Upon completion of the course, pilots will be required to pass a flight skill test. This test will be booked by EFT and will take place at one of our bases. The CPL course requires a pre-entry flight test be passed assessing your suitability for CPL training, which generally means flying to a good PPL standard. This is currently $200 an hour in a C172. If you do not pass this test you will be offered additional training at PPL rates to prepare you for the CPL. Assuming you had good quality hour building this flight is normally only one hour long.

Multi-Engine CPL Training courses

EFT offers students the possibility to obtain a multi-engine CPL. This course consists of 20 hours in a single-engine aircraft (C172) followed by 8 hours in a multi-engine aircraft (BE-76). All multi engine training is done entirely in the aircraft, NO SIMULATORS are used.