Commercial, why do it?

[Dana]

Can you still get a distance restricted commercial with no instrument rating?

 

[WDD]

Yes you can get a commercial without an instrument.

 

[mondtster]

Can you still get a distance restricted commercial with no instrument rating?

Minor nit to pick - not all ratings will have a restriction when you don’t have an Instrument rating. But airplane ratings will, and yes you can still do it.

 

[Kritchlow]

Minor nit to pick - not all ratings will have a restriction when you don’t have an Instrument rating. But airplane ratings will, and yes you can still do it.

In addition, the restrictions are only during commercial ops.
If exercising private privileges, they do not inhibit you.

 

[ateamer]

Correction to what is said above:
You can tow Gliders without a commercial ticket. it’s in a letter from the FAA, now whether the glider port arbitrarily wants to to have Commercial anyways is up to them. (My glider port does not, just need enough tailwheel time).

61.113(g).

 

[brcase]

61.113(g).

The History of this is that the rule (as I recall) was changed when the SSA petitioned the FAA for a waiver for compensation so that the glider pilots could legally buy the tow pilots a meal and maybe a motel room to stay in when they were towing for several days in row without violating the compensation rules. This was an issue because at soaring competitions often 3 to 10 tow pilots may be required for 1 to 2 weeks at time. Usually this means retired pilots that often don’t maintain 2nd class medicals, since they are usually the only pilots that have that much time available to volunteer. The FAA response was to rewrite the rule to allow tow pilots to receive compensation. My opinion is they thought this was simpler than managing a waiver for certain events, and towing gliders is such niche part of aviation the allowing compensation for towing was appropriate. The FAA’s response was so unexpected that the SSA requested a Legal counsel interpretation to confirm that it was indeed allowed to pay private pilots for towing services, which resulted in the letter that was mentioned previously.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

 

[MauleSkinner]

The History of this is that the rule (as I recall) was changed when the SSA petitioned the FAA for a waiver for compensation so that the glider pilots could legally buy the tow pilots a meal and maybe a motel room to stay in when they were towing for several days in row without violating the compensation rules. This was an issue because at soaring competitions often 3 to 10 tow pilots may be required for 1 to 2 weeks at time. Usually this means retired pilots that often don’t maintain 2nd class medicals, since they are usually the only pilots that have that much time available to volunteer. The FAA response was to rewrite the rule to allow tow pilots to receive compensation. My opinion is they thought this was simpler than managing a waiver for certain events, and towing gliders is such niche part of aviation the allowing compensation for towing was appropriate. The FAA’s response was so unexpected that the SSA requested a Legal counsel interpretation to confirm that it was indeed allowed to pay private pilots for towing services, which resulted in the letter that was mentioned previously.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

61.69 has allowed Private Pilots to tow gliders for as long as I can remember, but the compensation issue came up at some point (the version I heard is was the “flight time is compensation” thing) so it was added to 61.113.

 

[Gilbert Buettner]

Can you still get a distance restricted commercial with no instrument rating?

Aerial application pilots (crop dusters) need a commercial rating, but do not need an instrument rating.

 

[brcase]

61.69 has allowed Private Pilots to tow gliders for as long as I can remember, but the compensation issue came up at some point (the version I heard is was the “flight time is compensation” thing) so it was added to 61.113.

You are correct it is FAR 61.113 that was changed to allow compensation for private pilots towing gliders.

The problem it fixed was the interpretation of providing anything of value in return to services, The common practice at soaring events was to provide meals and lodging to volunteer pilots towing gliders. But it was very difficult to find enough commercially rated pilots with 2nd class medicals for these kinds of events. The logging flight time as a compensation interpretation also made it difficult to have private pilots volunteer for these events.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL