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Course overview
Northwest School of Aviation
offers courses for all airplane certificates from the new Sport
Pilot Certificate through and including the coveted Airline
Transport Pilot Certificate. We also offer Flight Instructor
Certificates including Instrument and Multi-Engine Instructor.
In addition, we offer the Instrument Rating and
Multi-Engine Rating.
The difference in a Certificate and a
rating -
The FAA issues pilot certificates and for
airplanes and they include: Sport Pilot, Recreational Pilot, Private
Pilot, Commercial Pilot, and Airline Transport Pilot. With
these alone, you still need to add the kind or airplane you will
be flying, and it is typically an airplane
with a single engine and takes off and lands on runways. This
is called single engine land. If you want to land on water
either on floats (pontoons) or in a hull type craft it is called
single engine sea. The other two types are in an airplane with
more than one engine called multi engine, and there is either
land or sea connected to the multi engine as well.
So to recap, there are six certificates,
and four class ratings. Now, to convolute even more, you may
only add multi engine to the Private, Commercial, or Airline
Transport pilot certificates.
In addition, when you learn to fly solely
by reference to instruments, it is called an instrument rating
and is added to your certificate, and again you must hold at
least a private pilot certificate to add the instrument rating.
Seems confusing, but when you start into
it, it all will sort out. Most people that fly for pleasure
will obtain the private pilot certificate with an airplane
single engine land rating, and then add an instrument rating to
it to fully obtain all the flexibility to go places.
The Sport
Pilot Certification course is designed with a
couple of people in mind. First, it may be used as a stepping
stone course toward more advanced certificates, or for the
person that wants to just take a friend once in a while this is
a perfect goal.
The Private Pilot Certification
course is designed to make you a more proficient pilot than the
Sport Pilot, adding night flying, some flight solely by
reference to the instruments, and more cross country experience.
Commercial Pilots may fly
"for hire," or better said as a job. The training is again more
in depth than the Private. Not only do you learn more flight
maneuvers, but learn planning, timing, coordination, and since
you are carrying passengers for money the most important (I
think) smoothness.
The
Airline Transport Pilot Certificate
(ATP) is truly the union card for the airlines. With this
certificate you may now work for your favorite airline as a
pilot. It involves lots more training, in bigger, faster
airplanes, and concentrates on instrument flying.
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