About Personnel Licensing
What can be found somewhat overwhelming for a freshman introducing him-/herself into aviation is the level of regulation. And personnel licensing is not an exception.
You cannot just get your licence once and fly for the rest of your life like you would normally do with your driving license.
Every new situation or type of aircraft might require you to perform additional theoretical and/or practical training, pass skill test and obtain new rating (addition to you license giving you extra rights), which is in most of the cases has its life-time requiring you to re-validate it in another year or two.
Have you ever watched Disney cartoon series “TaleSpin” (1990)?
Let’s imagine that the main character of TaleSpin - Baloo the bear - is living in the real world and being a law-obedient pilot. Then, you probably can expect him possessing at least the following:
Commercial airplane pilot license — CPL(A).
To get paid for his flying. You can’t earn by having just private pilot license — it’s illegal and my lead to license withdrawal.
Nevertheless, CPL requires you to first get PPL, build some flying hours, and then proceed with training for CPL. (A) stands for “airplane”. Which means it’s limited to only airplane type of aircraft only. No helicopters or balloons.
Although the license never expires, it doesn’t automatically give you the right to fly. For this you need valid ratings within this license which need to be current.
Baloo also could posses even more advanced airline transport pilot license (ATPL), but I’m not sure if his activities fall under airline transportation criteria.
Single-engine piston rating — SEP.
For controlling aircraft with single engine. It’s very basics you start with.
Multi-engine piston rating — MEP.
Controlling aircraft with multiple engines is a different story. You need special training for this.
Additional seaplane endorsement on single-/multi-engine rating.
For landing on water. This is not a separate rating exactly, but it’s a variant of single- or multi-engine rating. Baloo needs both land and sea variants.
Night qualification — NQ.
Required for flying visually in night conditions. In many countries, however, you need instrumental rating for this.
Instrumental rating — IR.
Absolute must if you want to fly in bad weather when the visibility is low, or at night if NQ is a no-go, by using your instruments only. In this case, IFR (instrumental flight rules) are applicable. However, first you need to obtain NQ to proceed with IR. But, good news is that this rating will be already included into programme for preparting to CPL(A).
Type rating.
Baloo’s plane seem to have been weighted more than 5.7 ton. For such you need a special training for this specific type of aircraft.
Mountain rating.
I remember him flying in mountains. You need a training for this as well.
Glider towing rating.
Not sure if this is appropriate as he was towing not a glider but another character of the cartoon. But let’s keep it here.
Medical Certificate Class 1.
You should have good health to fly. Especially commercially.
English language proficiency at least at ICAO 4 level.
To be permitted to communicate via radio in general. Obtaining maximum level of 6 will exempt you from re-validating your proficiency forever.
VFR and IFR Radiotelephony Certification
To know the right phraseology and its usage in visual and instrumental flight rules.These are two different sets of phraseology and you need to be certified in both if you want to use radio while flying visually and by instruments. These certifications are not valid without English proficiency.
In this list I was referring to the current European regulations of EASA, but I can imagine that picture will be alike for FAA. Anyway, all of this is a lot and requires permanent practice (and money) to maintain.
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