Prerequisites for IR, CPL, MEP and MCC

After your NF qualification the natural next step is the instrument flying rating (IR), multi-engine piston class rating and/or commercial pilot licence (CPL).

Unlike most other schools, Aeropole does not require you to hold the Night Flying qualification (NF) before (or during or after) the Instrument Rating course.

Part-FCL and national CAA’s require certain things to have been completed before the course (prerequisites), certain things before taking the skill test, while certain things only as the condition before issuing the licence or rating. You may prefer to have all those requirements fulfilled already before you start your IR, MEP or CPL course.

Experience Requirements for the Single-Engine Instrument Flying (IR) Rating

Prerequisites — before starting the single-engine IR course you must have:

  • PPL or CPL with a valid SEP (land) rating.
  • Received sufficient differences training for the DA40 aircraft model that we use in SEIR training — this we will obviously give you as required case by case.

Before taking the respective skill test, you must have:

  • 50 h of cross-country flight experience as PIC on an aeroplane.

When you send in your application to the CAA after the course, i.e. before the CAA can issue the rating to you, you must further have:

  • Class 2 medical certificate with a hearing test (audiogram). Note that deficiency in colour vision is no longer an obstacle for getting the IR rating, but may still disqualify from flying at night (VFR or IFR).

According to Part-FCL, if the applicant does not have an NF rating the privileges of IR cannot be used at night–but the requirement of needing to have NF before starting IR training has been lifted. Generally we do recommend getting NF first, but due to the seasonal variation in light in the Nordic countries, it may sometimes make more sense to start with IR training first.

Experience Requirements for the Multi-Engine Piston Class rating

Prerequisites — before starting the multi-engine piston (MEP) class rating course you must have:

  • PPL or CPL.

Before taking the respective skill test, you must have:

  • 70 h as PIC on aeroplanes; however in practice we strongly advise fulfilling this requirement already before the MEP class rating course.

Experience requirements for CPL

Prerequisites — before starting the practical CPL(A) flight training course you must have:

  • PPL and
  • 150 h of total flight experience on aeroplanes
  • at least started the CPL or ATPL theoretical knowledge course — in most cases we recommend doing the full ATPL theory course. Furthermore as the CPL practical module can be as short as only 15 h of flight time, we recommend you to be fairly close to finishing it all, including the CAA exams, to be able to take the CPL skill test right after finishing the practical flight training course.
  • Furthermore, as Aeropole gives the 5-hour “complex” part of the CPL training on the multi-engine DA42(NG) aircraft type, a MEP class rating (or at least having completed the MEP class rating course at Aeropole) is required before undertaking those CPL flights.

Upon finishing the course, before taking the skill test for CPL(A) you must have

  • 200 h of total flight experience, of which
    • 100 h as Pilot in Command (PIC) on aeroplanes.
    • 10 h of instrument flight training (which will be part of your CPL course, unless of course you already have the IR rating), of which 5 h may be in an FNPT II.
    • 20 h cross-country flight experience as PIC, including a flight of at least 300 NM in total involving a landing at two different aerodromes other than the departure aerodrome.
    • at most 30 h may be as a PIC on TMG or glider
  • The Night Flying (NF) rating, or having finished the respective training at Aeropole.
  • Passed the respective CAA theoretical knowledge examination on all subjects.

When you send in your application to the CAA after the course, i.e. before the CAA can issue the licence to you, you must further have/be:

  • Class 1 medical certificate.
  • 18 years of age.

Note that the 25 h (15 h for IR holders) flown during the CPL course will increase your total flight experience (cf. above requirements of 200 h and 10 instrument hours), but they do not increase your PIC cross-country flight experience.

Prerequisites for MCC

To undertake MCC training, you will need to have

  • a multi-engine rating with instrument privileges: in practice, MEP (land) IR.
  • have at least a PPL(A) licence: in practice, we recommend finishing the CPL course first.

Starting Dates

We’ll start whenevery you want! We have a rotating schedule with the theory ground schools and scheduling of practical flight training is done according to your own targets.

More Information

See the FAQ.

Interested? Contact us and we’re happy to tell you more.

Contact us

Disclaimer: All information without warranty. Laws and regulations in effect, as interpreted by the competent authorities, prevail over any information on this web site.