Is it wise to do commercial without IFR?

A commercial pilot without an instrument rating is limited to carrying persons or property only within 50 NM of the departure airport and then only during the day. If you don't have an instrument rating prior to your commercial, you'll still have to have at least 10 hours of instrument training anyway and still the restrictions apply until you add the instrument rating to your commercial pilot certificate. Basically, a commercial pilot without IFR is able to do air tours within 50 NM, banner towing, or taking up skydivers. Not much else. It makes more sense to go private-->instrument-->commercial. Just make sure that your CFII logs the hours for your IFR rating such that they "meet the requirements 61.139 (a)(3)(i)" so they will count for those additional hours and you won't need to pay for another 10 hours of instrument training for the commercial that you really don't need.
 
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