Additional ratings and licenses
There are a lot of other ratings and licenses that you can in your aviation career, some more important then others depending on what you want to do to start making money from flying after getting your Commercial Pilots Licenses. One of these many licenses that you can get is your glider license.
Glider License
You do not necessarily need to get your Commercial Pilots License to get your Glider Licenses since its an easier license to get then the previous ones. The first step in going about getting your glider license is getting a student pilot permit to begin your training which allows you to fly solo after getting your PSTAR and ROC exams completed. As well as every other license you must do some ground school along with the flight hows which is just the same as your Private Pilot License.
Just as well your Private and Commercial Pilots license you must do quite a bit of flight training. You must have some dual flights with a flight instructor with the student taking control from the first lesson. A minimum of at least 20 solo flights must be completed and a practical flight test with an instructor must be done. Once you have done that then you must take a written exam and pass to get your full license.
There are some requirements you must get to get your license which are the same as the other two licenses which is having a valid Category 3 medical license.
Sport Pilot License
Another great license that people can get is the sport pilot license. Many people get this license because it take less training to get the full license and then get flying light sport aircraft.
Once again pilots must hold at least a Category 4 medical certificate to be able to fly solo and must complete the PSTAR and ROC exam. The flight hours are not as bad as other licenses since you only need a total of 25 flight hours to meet the criteria to get the license. These 25 hours of flight time must have a minimum of 15 dual hours with your instructor and 5 solo hours with the rest being whatever gets you to the hours and to where you feel confident. There is some ground school that goes along with this license as well which is doing the PSTAR and taking the Transport Canada Ultra exam with getting over 60% to pass. Once all of these requirements have been met you can get your Sport Pilot License.
There is also some restrictions that come with this license which one of them being if you got your license in Canada then you can only fly in Canada with no cross border flights permitted under this license. You may only fly a single engine, non high performance, four seats or less aircraft. As well as that you can take a maximum of one passenger. You are only able to fly in day VFR (Visual Flight Rules) so no night flying and instrument flying.
The key differences between a Private Pilots License and a Sport Pilots License is that the SPL is a lot simpler than a PPL. With a PPL you are able cross border, fly at night, and even do some international flights.
In all getting your Sport Pilot License is great if you just looking to fly for recreational use and not go any further with your aviation career in the future.
Seaplane Rating
Getting your Seaplane Rating is not as daunting of a task at it may seem. The real challenge is adjusting to landing on water and learning to board.
You must have some prerequisites done before you can start on this rating with the main one being having a valid Recreational Pilot Permit or a Private Pilots License and a valid Transport Canada Category 1 Medical Certificate.
The flight training for this rating is very low compared to others. You must have a total of 7 hours of flight time with 5 hours of dual instruction with an instructor as well as 5 takeoffs and landings as the sole pilots in control. There is no exam or flight text required for this rating, just a recommendation form is needed from an instructor and submitted to Transport Canada.
Some skills that are covered is taxiing, sailing, and docking. As well as pre flight inspection which includes floats and water rudders. You can get this rating done within 2-3 days so you could get it in one weekend and get out on the water after a weekend of training. There is some advanced training that pilots can take which take 15-25 hours which is available for those who want greater proficiency or industry entry.
Getting your Seaplane Rating is a great way to fly more in different conditions and see the world more with a new opening.
Flight Instructor Rating
A big pathway that many pilots take after getting their Commercial Pilots License is getting their Flight Instructor Rating to start making money from flying.
Once again there is a massive prerequisite that must be done before starting on this rating is having your Commercial Pilots License or your Airline Transport Pilot License which both allow you to make money from which is required for this rating.
There is quite a bit of training required for this rating. You start of with having a minimum of 25 hours of ground school with a class 1 Instructor that covers teaching techniques, lesson plans, theory, and briefing/debriefing. You must also have a minimum of 30 hours of flight training which is dual instruction with a class 1 Instructor, this also includes 5 hours of instrument training.
There is of course some exams that you must do, one written and a flight test. The written part is the Transport Canada Class 4 Flight Instructor Rating exam that you must score a 70% or higher to pass. The flight test is done with a Transport Canada Inspector where you are demonstrating instructional ability and knowledge as per Transport Canada.
After all of that you will get your Class 4 Flight Instructor Rating which is where all flight instructors start with progression being able to be made later on. After 100 hours of instruction and recommending 3 or more students for tests you will get your Class 3 rating. You then can progress to Class 2 & 1 after further experience, this allows you to train other instructors and become a Chief Flight Instructor (CFI).
Airline Transport Pilot License
Your Airline Transport Pilot License is most likely your last license you get in your aviation career is you go all the way to airline pilot.
There is a very long pathway to get the your Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). Everything you have done up until starting your ATPL counts so you have to start your journey with your Private Pilots License. From there you must get your multi engine rating and instrument ratings as well as your night rating, you can do this before or after you get your Commercial Pilots License. After this step you can then take your ATPL written exams which is the SAMRA/SARON exam. The SAMRA is a meteorology exam and the SARON is Aviation Regulations/Navigation/ Flight Planning. You then need to build your hours up to 1500 hours of flight time in total. Once you have done your hours you can send in your ATPL application and take your final exam which is the Pilot Proficiency Check (PPC) which you must take in a two-person aircraft.
The hours is the biggest struggle with getting this license, however it is the most enjoyable part for pilots since they get to do what they love, fly. To your Airline Transport Pilot License you must have a total of 1500 flight hours. This includes 250 hours as pilot in command, 100 hours of night flying as pilot in command or co pilot, 100 hours of pilot in control cross country or 200 hours as co pilot, 75 hours of instrument flight time with 25 being able to be in a simulator, and 500 hours in multi pilot operations which is most of the time a requirement for airlines.
There is also a skill test which is a Group 1 Instrument Rating taken in a multi engine aircraft within 12 months of application. There is also some integrated ATPL course that let you write exams with having less hours then required which is at around 750 hours with you getting issued the license once you have reached the 1500 hours mark. The Instrument Flight Rules/Airline Transport Rating Authorization exam allows you to fly for airlines as a First Officer with 250 hours but is not the same as the full ATPL.
After you finish all of this and get your full Airline Transport Pilot License you will be able to apply to multiple airlines and hopefully get your dream job at an airline and get your full aviation career started.
