Author: Capt. James Harlow
Capt. James Harlow is an Airbus A320 and Airbus 330 Captain with over a decade of commercial aviation experience. Currently flying with a major Gulf carrier based in the UAE, he holds licences under GCAA (UAE) regulations and has accumulated thousands of hours on the A320 family across Middle East, European and Asian routes. James founded Crew Daily to provide accurate, experience-based aviation content covering pilot careers, aircraft systems, cockpit operations and Gulf aviation, written from the perspective of someone who flies professionally every day.
Not every airliner is certified to land on water. The regulation that covers it opens with a conditional: “If certification with ditching provisions is requested.” Ditching approval is something a manufacturer asks for, not something every aeroplane has. Photo: NORTLAUKAU 26088 JP / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 What follows comes from 14 CFR 25.801, the certification rule for ditching, and 14 CFR 121.339, which sets the equipment an airliner must carry over water. Ditching certification is optional, and that is the first surprise An aeroplane only has to meet 25.801 if the manufacturer asks for ditching provisions. When they do, the…
A pilot licence does not expire. Currency does, and it expires in several different ways at once. A pilot can be perfectly legal to fly alone this morning and illegal to take a friend up this afternoon, without anything about them or the aeroplane having changed. Cirrus SR20 (N8148M, cn 1357). Photo by ZLEA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All of it comes from two sections of the regulations: 14 CFR 61.56 for the flight review, and 14 CFR 61.57 for recent flight experience. The flight review: one hour, one hour, every two years The flight review is the…
A pilot medical certificate does not have one expiry date. It has several, and which one applies to you depends on what you are doing with the aircraft that day. The same piece of paper can be out of date for the job you are paid to do and still perfectly valid for flying your own aeroplane at the weekend. Photo: N717JG / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Everything below is taken from the regulations themselves: 14 CFR 61.23 for which certificate you need and how long it lasts, 14 CFR 61.113 for what BasicMed actually permits, and 14 CFR…
No drink within 8 hours, and a limit of 0.04, half the usual driving limit. Plus random drug testing that covers half the workforce a year.
Between 9 and 19 hours, depending on start time, number of flights, how many pilots are aboard and what kind of bed the aircraft carries.
Airline pilots stop at 65, on the birthday itself. But the rule covers scheduled airlines only, and almost every article misses that.
There is no legal cabin temperature. What the rules actually control, and why crew keep the cabin cooler than you would choose.
Roger is not yes and heavy is not an insult. What pilots say on the radio and over the PA, defined by the FAA rather than guessed at.
The student pilot certificate does not expire, but your medical and your solo endorsements do. Here is what actually runs out, and what the rules let you do.
Airlines rarely pay up front, FAFSA usually will not reach a flight school, and the GI Bill needs a private certificate first. Here is what actually funds training.