Commercial multi-engine add-on
Adding airplane multiengine land to a commercial certificate you already hold. The same $5,100 rating, tested to commercial standards, and the sequencing decision that saves roughly thirty hours of twin time.
Commercial multi-engine add-on: what is being added, exactly?
Airplane multiengine land, written onto a commercial certificate that is already in your pocket, under the authority of 14 CFR 61.63(c). Two requirements attach: an endorsement from your instructor attesting competence in the knowledge areas and proficiency in the areas of operation, then the practical test. No hour minimum attaches, and no further knowledge test attaches once an airplane rating sits on the certificate at that level.
The word that matters in that sentence is already. Adding a class rating and earning a certificate in a class are two different regulatory events, and confusing them is the most expensive mistake in multi-engine training. The first is governed by 61.63(c) and counts nothing. The second is governed by 61.129(b) and counts a great deal.
Once the rating is on the certificate you may exercise commercial privileges in a multiengine airplane, within whatever limitations the certificate carries. That is the point of doing it at commercial level rather than at private level: the rating is only commercially useful if the certificate under it is.
One position, stated plainly, because this page exists to help you decide rather than to sell you the longer product. Earn the commercial certificate in a single-engine airplane, then add the twin. It is the cheaper order, it is the faster order, and the certificate you end up holding is the same one.
Should the commercial certificate be earned in a twin, or should the twin come afterwards?
Add it afterwards, in almost every case. The two routes end at the same place and one of them carries roughly thirty additional hours of multiengine flying, which is the most expensive flying you will do.
What 61.129(b) actually counts
Sit the commercial practical test in a multiengine airplane and 14 CFR 61.129(b) governs your aeronautical experience, spelling out how much of it belongs in a twin. The headline stays at 250 hours, exactly as on the single-engine route. What changes underneath is the composition.
Read the sub-paragraphs and the cost becomes obvious. Ten of the twenty training hours are instrument training, and five out of that ten belong in a twin. A separate ten hours of training must happen in a multiengine airplane that is complex or turbine-powered. A further ten hours are then flown solo in a twin, or else on pilot-in-command duties in one while an authorized instructor sits alongside.
- 250 hours total, as with the single-engine route
- 5 of the 10 instrument training hours in a twin, per (b)(3)(i)
- 10 hours of training in a complex or turbine twin, per (b)(3)(ii)
- A twin day cross-country of two hours, straight-line distance beyond 100 nautical miles
- A twin night cross-country of two hours, again beyond 100 nautical miles
- 10 hours solo or on pilot-in-command duties in a twin, per (b)(4)
- The 300 nautical mile cross-country with a 250 nautical mile leg
- 5 hours at night with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings at a towered airport
What 61.63(c) counts instead
Nothing whatever. Under 61.63(c)(3) an applicant adding a class rating is released from the training-time requirements that the certificate level would otherwise impose. Endorsement and practical test are the entirety of it, and the extra knowledge test falls away under 61.63(c)(4) once an airplane rating is already on the certificate.
So the same class rating, on the same certificate, with the same privileges, reached by a route that counts no hours at all. Ten to fifteen hours of twin time is what people typically fly to reach the standard, against the thirty-plus that 61.129(b) would have required.
When the other route is the right one anyway
Two cases. If you are handed a genuine opportunity to build multiengine time cheaply — a shared airplane, a family aircraft, an employer who needs a second pilot — then the hours 61.129(b) counts are hours you were going to fly regardless, and the calculation changes.
The second case is more common and less good: a school that only trains commercially in twins. That is a fact about their fleet rather than a fact about your training, and it is worth recognising as such before you accept the extra hours as necessary.
How does a commercial-level twin checkride differ from a private-level one?
The tasks are broadly the same and the tolerances are not. You are tested against the standards for the certificate you hold, so the same syllabus is examined more tightly at commercial level.
Adding the twin to a private certificate
Legitimate, useful, and cheaper to reach because the certificate under it costs less. It does not carry commercial privileges, so it is a rating for personal flying rather than for work.
- Governing paragraph14 CFR 61.63(c)
- Tested againstPrivate pilot standards
- Privileges in the twinPrivate pilot privileges only
- Hour floorNone
- Price here$5,100
Adding the twin to a commercial certificate
The same rating and the same $5,100, examined to commercial tolerances. This is the version that matters for anyone building toward paid flying or toward an instructor rating in twins.
- Governing paragraph14 CFR 61.63(c)
- Tested againstCommercial pilot standards
- Privileges in the twinCommercial, within certificate limits
- Hour floorNone
- Price here$5,100
Two limitations worth avoiding at the outset
Both are printed on certificates and both are cheaper to prevent than to remove. 14 CFR 61.45(b)(2) is the mechanism: take a test in an aircraft whose characteristics prevent some of the required tasks and the rating is issued with an appropriate limitation attached.
- Limitation oneAirplane Multiengine VFR Only
- Caused byNot flying the instrument tasks on the test
- Limitation twoLimited to centerline thrust
- Caused byTesting in a twin without asymmetric thrust
- Mechanism14 CFR 61.45(b)(2)
What does the commercial multi-engine add-on cost?
$5,100, fixed at enrolment, the same figure whether the certificate underneath it is private or commercial. The rating is the product; the certificate level changes how the examiner marks it, not what it costs to teach.
Multi-Engine Add-On
Airplane multiengine land added to a private or commercial certificate under 61.63(c).
- ✓Twin time to checkride standard
- ✓Dual instruction on all of it
- ✓Instrument tasks flown, so no VFR-only limitation attaches
- ✓Ground and systems teaching for the oral
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
Airline Career Track
One price covering the whole sequence: private, then instrument, then commercial, then the twin, then the instructor rating. The sequencing argument on this page is already built into it.
- ✓Commercial flown in a single, twin added after
- ✓Five phases, one number
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
Instrument Rating
Worth holding before the twin add-on, because the instrument tasks on the practical test are what keep a VFR-only limitation off the certificate.
- ✓40 instrument hours under 61.65(d)
- ✓The 250 nm IFR cross-country
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
Assessment flight in the twin
An hour of dual instruction in the Seminole. Loggable, and credited whole against a program you enrol in inside a day.
- ✓Sixty minutes in the multi-engine trainer
- ✓You do the flying
- ✓Credited against the program
What can you check before committing to a commercial add-on?
Four things, all of them verifiable by asking rather than by trusting. A commercial-level twin checkride is unforgiving, and the things that decide it are structural rather than motivational.
Make-and-model hours every multi instructor holds first
Under 14 CFR 61.195(f) nobody may give the training required for a rating in a multiengine airplane until they have flown five hours as pilot in command of that exact make and model. Ask any school how many of their instructors clear that bar on the twin you would be flying.
14 CFR 61.195(f)A twin owned rather than chartered for the day
The Seminole belongs to the operation, so the scheduling and the maintenance are ours to run. A borrowed twin is the usual reason a short rating turns into a long one.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Instructors across the operation
Commercial certificate or ATP, a flight instructor certificate above it, a current medical. On every flight the instructor is legally the pilot in command, which is a legal fact rather than a courtesy.
14 CFR 61.183 · 61.23A full-motion simulator session, priced openly
The Redbird MCX is enclosed and full-motion, never cancelled for weather, and useful for the flows and identification drills that a commercial-standard test examines closely. It is weak on landings and we would rather say so than sell it as a substitute.
$189 a sessionPrices behind an enquiry form
None. $5,100 is published, itemised, with no spread and nothing to request.
Published in fullHow do you compare commercial multi-engine quotes?
By checking whether the two quotes describe the same regulatory route before comparing their numbers. This is the one place in flight training where two schools can quote for what sounds like the same thing and be selling products that differ by thirty hours.
Ask first which paragraph the quote is built on. If the answer is 61.63(c), it is an add-on and the hours are whatever competence takes. If the answer is 61.129(b), the training includes multiengine hours that the regulation counts, and the number will be much larger for a reason.
Then ask whether the instrument tasks are flown on the practical test. If they are not, the certificate can carry an Airplane Multiengine VFR Only limitation, and removing that later is a second training event with a second examiner fee. A quote that is cheap because it omits those tasks is not cheap.
Then ask what the airplane is. A twin without asymmetric thrust produces a certificate limited to centerline thrust, under the mechanism at 14 CFR 61.45(b)(2), and that limitation is a genuine restriction on what you can then fly. This is not a hypothetical distinction; it is printed on real certificates.
Finally, ask in writing what an overrun costs. The answer here is nothing: $5,100 stops moving the moment you enrol.
No school is named on this site and no rival's figure is printed here. Where another total lands above $5,100 for the same class rating in the same class of airplane, the difference is buying something, and the four questions above will usually reveal what it is.
What the rating permits, and what we are not claiming
Holding a commercial certificate that carries a multiengine class rating lets you be paid for flying a twin, subject to whichever operating rules govern the flight and to any limitation printed on the certificate itself. It is not by itself an airline qualification: 14 CFR 121.436(a) requires an airline transport pilot certificate and a type rating for both pilot seats in part 121 operations.
Training here happens at Van Nuys Airport under part 61. This is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and there is no cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring relationship with any carrier. Nothing on this page offers an interview, a job or a salary, and no carrier is named anywhere on this site.
No pass rate and no graduate count are published here, because the operation is new and the sample would be too small to mean anything. What is published instead is the syllabus, the price, the hours people typically need and the regulation behind each requirement.
What people ask about the commercial add-on
An endorsement from your instructor, then a practical test marked to commercial tolerances. For a pilot whose commercial certificate already carries an airplane rating, that is the entirety of 14 CFR 61.63(c). The hour floor is removed by 61.63(c)(3) and the extra knowledge test by 61.63(c)(4). The price here is $5,100.
They are the same class rating reached by the same paragraph. What differs is the certificate underneath and therefore the standard the examiner applies. Adding airplane multiengine land to a commercial certificate is tested to commercial tolerances; adding it to a private certificate is tested to private tolerances. The price here is $5,100 either way.
None at all, provided the commercial certificate itself is earned in a single-engine airplane and the class rating is added afterwards under 61.63(c). Take the commercial test in a twin instead and 61.129(b) governs, calling for five instrument hours in a twin, ten hours in a complex or turbine twin, and ten more flown solo or on pilot-in-command duties in one, alongside its other requirements.
Commercial first, in a single-engine airplane, then the twin added afterwards. That order avoids roughly thirty hours of multiengine flying that 61.129(b) would otherwise count, and multiengine hours are the most expensive hours in training. The end result is the same certificate with the same class rating.
A restriction printed on a certificate when the instrument tasks are not flown during the multiengine practical test. 14 CFR 61.45(b)(2) is the mechanism: where an aircraft's characteristics prevent an applicant from performing all the required tasks, the rating is issued with an appropriate limitation. Removing it later means further training and a second examiner fee.
It means the multiengine rating was earned in an airplane whose engines do not produce asymmetric thrust, so the asymmetric handling tasks could not be examined. The certificate is then issued restricted to that configuration, again through 61.45(b)(2). A conventional twin, with an engine out on each wing, avoids it entirely.
Not to add the class rating itself. You want one anyway, because the instrument tasks on the practical test are what keep a VFR-only limitation off the certificate, and because 14 CFR 61.133(b)(1) already constrains a commercial certificate that lacks one: no paying passengers after dark, and none carried on a cross-country running beyond 50 nautical miles.
Ten to fourteen consecutive days for most commercial pilots, covering ten to fifteen hours in the twin. Commercial pilots tend to be at the shorter end because the airmanship is already there and what remains is systems knowledge and the asymmetric handling.
No, provided an airplane rating already sits on your certificate at that level, because 61.63(c)(4) lifts the extra knowledge test in that situation. There is still an oral at the practical test, and at commercial level it goes into systems, performance and single-engine limitations in real detail.
Not yet. Teaching in twins calls for a flight instructor certificate carrying a multiengine class rating, applied for separately under 14 CFR 61.191. On top of that, 61.195(f) wants five hours as pilot in command of the exact make and model behind you before you may teach in it. A commercial multi-engine rating is the prerequisite here, not the qualification.
Where to read next
The rest of the multi-engine cluster
Multi-engine ratingMulti-engine rating costAccelerated multi-engine trainingMulti-engine checkride and the V_MC demonstrationPiper Seminole trainingThe certificate underneath
Commercial pilot licenseCommercial pilot license requirementsInstrument ratingOne hour in the twin, before you decide the order of anything
Fly the Seminole for an hour with an instructor and the sequencing question answers itself. The hour is loggable, you do the flying, and enrolling inside a day takes the fee off the program.
Fly the aeroplane once, then decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →