General Question Help..

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Davis276

Filing Flight Plan
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Jun 7, 2019
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Gypsy00
Hey guys,
I have a question about pilot licensing that I believe I understand correctly I just really wanted to confirm with you experienced guys.
If I am wanting to just fly for banner towing..or take sky divers up. My understanding is I will need a COM license to be paid. I have seen there is Com ME and Com SE...Hours aside...to an extent..I would just need to obtain my Private, Instrument..then Single Commercial..THEN if I wanted to go take ME or Cfi I could later. Am I misunderstanding anything?

Thank you.
 
You don't need the instrument for the Comm if you're just wanting to fly banners. Plenty of AG pilots don't bother with an instrument ticket. You just have restrictions on your comm, but again if you're just dropping meat bombs or towing banners you will be fine.
 
You'd also probably need to get high performance and complex endorsements, thinking about the planes you might fly while dropping skydivers and banner towing.
 
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Would you be doing this in your own plane or for a company that owns the plane? This doesnt change the Commercial requirement...however if you are planning to do this with your plane other requirements will need to be met.
 
Sinistar said:
Would you be doing this in your own plane or for a company that owns the plane? This doesnt change the Commercial requirement...however if you are planning to do this with your plane other requirements will need to be met.
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Could you elaborate...and for the time being I would just be flying a company plane.
 
WDD said:
You'd also probably need to get high performance and complex endorsements, thinking about the planes you might fly while dropping skydivers and banner towing.
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I never thought about that..I really need to call a few places around here and ask specifics. Thank you.
 
simtech said:
You don't need the instrument for the Comm if you're just wanting to fly banners. Plenty of AG pilots don't bother with an instrument ticket. You just have restrictions on your comm, but again if you're just dropping meat bombs or towing banners you will be fine.
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I probably would still grab the instrument at some point as I might need it later if I decide to take flying futher.
Thank you.
 
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question guys.
 
Davis276 said:
Could you elaborate...and for the time being I would just be flying a company plane.
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Really no need to elaborate if you are flying someone else's plane. If it were your plane then more rules apply regarding the business (what operator FAR part, the planes 100hr inspection, etc).
 
Could someone realistically be a commercial pilot and expect to throw meat bombs on the regular w/o an instrument ticket? They go a lot higher than me schlepping along at 3500 MSL and need to be able to circle up through cloud don't they?
 
iflyvfr said:
Could someone realistically be a commercial pilot and expect to throw meat bombs on the regular w/o an instrument ticket? They go a lot higher than me schlepping along at 3500 MSL and need to be able to circle up through cloud don't they?
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I know a couple of pilots here in who have comm, drop meat bombs all day long and don’t have instrument rating or have an expired one. Meat bombs just like us mortal VFR pilots are not allowed to go through clouds (not saying they don’t )
 
Davis276 said:
Could you elaborate...and for the time being I would just be flying a company plane.
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There are very different rules for a commercial pilot being hired by a company or individual to fly that company's or that individual's aircraft, vs. a commercial pilot offering services using their own aircraft. In the latter case, you are a commercial operator and need to operate under that framework of rules. It's a much, much bigger deal than just being hired to fly.

On a different note, yes, the instrument rating is optional for what you describe (banner towing and skydivers), though this path comes with some limitations, e.g. how far from the departure airport you can fly. So if somebody wanted to pay you to fly their plane somewhere else and tow a banner there or pick up skydivers there, it might be a constraint. Either way, most people will agree that the instrument rating makes you a better pilot and is valuable to have in the long run.

- Martin
 
The military drops parachutes through the clouds. The drop plane was the traffic ahead of me. He was in the clouds while dropping.

Not directly relevant to the question, but adds some unusual information.
 
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