Commercial Multi-Engine Add-On

Airplane multiengine land added to a commercial certificate under 14 CFR 61.63(c): an instructor endorsement, a practical test, and no training-time floor. The syllabus is the same as at private level; the examiner marks it against commercial standards. $5,100 here, fixed at enrolment, flown in a Piper Seminole.

The rating itself is identical — airplane multiengine land. What differs is the certificate it sits on and therefore the tolerances the examiner applies. The confusing case is a program that earns the commercial certificate itself in a twin under 61.129(b), which is a much bigger purchase and a different regulation.

Under 14 CFR 61.129(b) the named items that must be flown in a multiengine airplane come to roughly thirty hours inside a 250-hour total: five of the ten instrument training hours, ten hours in a multiengine complex or turbine airplane, a two-hour day cross-country, a two-hour night cross-country, three hours of test preparation, and ten hours of solo or supervised pilot-in-command duties.

Commercial first, then the twin added afterwards, in almost every case. The class rating route, at 61.63(c), carries no multiengine hour requirement at all, whereas earning the certificate in a twin under 61.129(b) carries about thirty hours of the most expensive flying on any training fleet.

A restriction printed on the certificate when the multi-engine practical test could not cover the instrument tasks, which is what happens when the applicant is not instrument rated. 14 CFR 61.45(b)(2) is the mechanism: a test may be flown in an aircraft that cannot show every task, and the rating is then issued with a matching limitation. Removing it later means another practical test.

It appears when the multi-engine test is flown in an airplane whose engines sit on the fuselage centreline rather than out on the wings, because such an airplane cannot demonstrate the asymmetric tasks. It does not arise here: the Piper Seminole has wing-mounted engines, so the asymmetric work is flown and no limitation attaches.

Not as a matter of 61.63(c). But a commercial pilot without an instrument rating who takes the multi-engine test will collect an Airplane Multiengine VFR Only limitation under 61.45(b)(2), and most commercial pilots are instrument rated anyway. If you are not, take the instrument rating first.

Ten to fourteen days flying consecutive days, the same as at private level, and often nearer the bottom of that range because a commercial pilot arrives with better hands. The systems ground work does not shorten, and neither does the drill repetition that engine-out handling needs.

No. 14 CFR 61.63(c)(4) waives the extra knowledge test wherever an airplane rating already sits on the certificate at that level, which it does for any commercial pilot. There is still an oral at the practical test, and at commercial level it goes further into systems than most candidates expect.

Not on this rating alone. Teaching in a multiengine airplane needs a flight instructor certificate carrying a multiengine class rating, which is a separate practical test. On top of that, five hours as pilot in command of the specific make and model is what 14 CFR 61.195(f) demands before an instructor may teach toward a rating in it.

No. Ground and flight training in a complex airplane, a finding of proficiency, and a single logbook endorsement are what 14 CFR 61.31(e) asks for, and that signature is separate from the 61.63(c)(1) endorsement for the practical test. In practice you will receive both while training in the Seminole, but they answer different questions.

No. Type ratings are reserved by 14 CFR 61.31(a) for large aircraft, turbojets, powered-lift, and whatever else the Administrator names through type certificate procedures. A conventional light piston twin falls outside all of those, so the airplane multiengine land class rating is the whole of what you need.