CDL requirements

[New Englander]

28 minutes ago, Dasnake said:

Gee newey, your quite a handsome fella.

Ha! I sure hope I don't look like Orville or Wilbur 😄

[806 man]

10 hours ago, New Englander said:

You guys will love this:

ICAO requires that pilots be proficient in English to fly internationally so even though this country, the UK, Ireland, etc., are all English speaking countries, we all had to have this "limitation" which really is an "unlimitation", no such word, applied to our certificates.

Mindless bureaucracy.

 

So you are qualified on multi engine, but sketchy on a single  🤓. please explain the ratings

[Owen Aaland]

Unless things have changed here in Minnesota you don't need a license to drive a fire truck much less a CDL. It's been 10 years since I did DOT commercial inspections but the last Time I recertified as an inspector (every 2 years) fire pumper equipment was not considered a vehicle since it is not used to carry cargo or people. Water tanker trucks also had an exemption for needing the inspection or license.

When I got my chauffer's license in 1969 the only requirement was to have a valid drivers license and get at least 14 out of 20 questions correct on the written test. It was good for any type of truck. When the CDL's were required I could choose what ever type of license I wanted without any testing.

[oleman]

I went with my Son to get his licensed renewed.  Has had a license since 1998 bu it expired during the Vovid lockdown. I accidentally brought COPY of his birth certificate, had to vacate his update  schedule and reschedule when we find the real Certificate.  What DO illegals use for a birth certificate?? This is in the state of Texas the land of freedom.  You bet!!  It ain't just the North East in a mess also Texas and probably everywhere else.

 

 

 

[New Englander]

2 hours ago, 806 man said:

So you are qualified on multi engine, but sketchy on a single  🤓. please explain the ratings

Sure. Pilot licenses go from private pilot - just passed to become a certified pilot allowed to carry passengers but not for hire. An instrument rating adds the ability to fly in the clouds and again, requires a test and demonstrating flying to a higher standard. A commercial pilot has to pass yet another test and demonstrate flying ability to a higher standard and can fly for hire. An Airline Transport Pilot has to be at least 23 years old, of good moral character, pass yet an even more difficult test and fly to the highest standard. (I think the good moral character thing may have been dropped since I got that certification decades ago.)

Although there is such a thing as a single engine ATP there are no operations that require it, so there's no point in pursuing the rating. No single engine aircraft in commercial operations that I'm aware of requires a type rating either. As far as single engine operations under FAR Part 91, General Aviation, The FAA is quite lenient - Y'all be careful now, hear.

A type rating requires specific knowledge of the type and a demonstration of flying to the highest standard in that type. Typically a type rating costs about -$35,000 on a late model, long range jet. All of my ratings have been paid for by my employers. Our training costs for our crews for 6 month recurrent, international procedures, general emergency training, water survival, etc, etc., runs about $60,000/year/pilot.

The type ratings I hold entitle me to act as pilot in command in commercial operations of those types and sub-types. No type rating is required for Second In Command for domestic operations but recently ICAO has required a Second In Command type rating for international operations. It mostly a paperwork exercise and doesn't require anywhere near the training and cost for a PIC type rating but satisfies the Europeans.

The same ratings apply to seaplanes. I do not hold a seaplane rating of any sort.

 

[Dasnake]

2 hours ago, Owen Aaland said:

Unless things have changed here in Minnesota you don't need a license to drive a fire truck much less a CDL. It's been 10 years since I did DOT commercial inspections but the last Time I recertified as an inspector (every 2 years) fire pumper equipment was not considered a vehicle since it is not used to carry cargo or people. Water tanker trucks also had an exemption for needing the inspection or license.

When I got my chauffer's license in 1969 the only requirement was to have a valid drivers license and get at least 14 out of 20 questions correct on the written test. It was good for any type of truck. When the CDL's were required I could choose what ever type of license I wanted without any testing.

Is that country wide also? Up here the courses grind on harder for us than a regular driving course, partially I've been told because of the proximity that emergency vehicles are put in.

[vtfireman85]

11 minutes ago, New Englander said:

Although there is such a thing as a single engine ATP there are no operations that require it, so there's no point in pursuing the rating. No single engine aircraft in commercial operations that I'm aware of requires a type rating either. As far as single engine operations under FAR Part 91, General Aviation, The FAA is quite lenient - Y'all be careful now, hear.

Though what you say is Greek to me, my FIL’s 57’ 182 was purchased new as a charter plane for sightseeing tours. I am curious how those ratings apply to it. 

[vtfireman85]

6 minutes ago, Dasnake said:

Is that country wide also? Up here the courses grind on harder for us than a regular driving course, partially I've been told because of the proximity that emergency vehicles are put in.

Same in VT no special license for fire truck/ambulance/town plow truck (in a storm, the way it is written is something like ‘anyone hired to operate trucks must have CDL etc etc’” essentially some qualified elected official can step in and help when it is necessary. however they, fire trucks and ambulances are to be registered, and inspected, ours tend to lapse by 5-10 years until someone gets a hair crossed about “what if something happens and there is a lawsuit “ and we do a department wide go through and get everything up to snuff and new stickers. IIRC municipal plates ate $60 for 12 years. 

[New Englander]

14 minutes ago, vtfireman85 said:

Though what you say is Greek to me, my FIL’s 57’ 182 was purchased new as a charter plane for sightseeing tours. I am curious how those ratings apply to it. 

'57 is too far back for me and the rules certainly were less stringent. If flying for hire, such as sight seeing, pipeline patrol, fish spotting, etc., in a 182, one should have commercial privileges on their certificate.

I had commercial single and multi engine ratings and took my Airline Transport Pilot ride in a multi engine jet, therefore I don't have ATP privileges in a single but as I wrote, I don't know of any operation where you'd need one. I do know guys who have ATP single engine because they took the check in a single but it's really useless.

[New Englander]

Many moons ago I had a MA class 2 license. As I recall it was any straight job. The way the rules were written the class of license applied to the vehicle driven so even though we could not drive a semi we could legally tow one!

All changed now and I'm quite glad my career took a different turn.

[DWF]

3 hours ago, Owen Aaland said:

Unless things have changed here in Minnesota you don't need a license to drive a fire truck much less a CDL. It's been 10 years since I did DOT commercial inspections but the last Time I recertified as an inspector (every 2 years) fire pumper equipment was not considered a vehicle since it is not used to carry cargo or people. Water tanker trucks also had an exemption for needing the inspection or license.

When I got my chauffer's license in 1969 the only requirement was to have a valid drivers license and get at least 14 out of 20 questions correct on the written test. It was good for any type of truck. When the CDL's were required I could choose what ever type of license I wanted without any testing.

I had the same thing as Owen, probably in 1969 too. I went in the Army in 1970 and got out in 1972 and when I went to renew I had my choice too. In the 1980's I had to take a written test for air brakes. In 2007  got a part time job school bus driving, but I had to take a written and driving test for that. I moved from Mn to Wi in 2018 and when I went to Wisconsin DMV they said no problem to get Class A CDL, just pay. Lady saw that I had School bus endorsement, She said that I would have to start from scratch for that. Still driving bus today.

DWF

[806 man]

21 hours ago, New Englander said:

An Airline Transport Pilot has to be at least 23 years old,

Thanks for explaining ratings.  I'm always fascinated with all jets mainly military stuff. At a younger age I didn't like flying, Seeing a little grey hair in the cockpit helped me relax. These days flying isn't a problem for me granted I don't like bouncing  around inside of can, I tell myself it's no different then driving my pu on a rough road.

thank you for many safe years of flying CS people like myself around.

Also if you choose to answer, how many flight hrs have you logged over years, asking for a friend.

[AKwelder]

Had to do some training yesterday, at the end the head compliance and training guy comes in.  Heck of a speaker, and remembers everything g he ever read.  He takes some time to make the safety pitch and moves on to CDL’s and driving.  The company just had another DOT audit. And of course we got dinged on something, every driver with hazmat and tanker endorsements is required to take a tanker road test every three years.  That’s a new one on me.

 

So let me get this straight. In order to deliver gasoline to the local station the g driver has to have A CDL with numerous endorsements, health card, finger prints to keep his hazmat, take a drivers test every 3 years, and put up with all the crap to do it?  No wonder it’s so hard to find drivers. Here in Alaska the delivery cost of heating oil is 30 cents or more over at the pump. I see why.

 

it looks like keeping my CDL and working as a summer dump truck driver might pay more than my plumbing license, good grief 

[searcyfarms]

frustrating requirements - the new CDL stuff is a mess and its causing a huge issue for the employers and training companies not to mention the people trying to get licenses - i talked to a lady last week ( working on getting permit due to my job situation ) that runs a training company to get their CDL and she said its so difficult for many to be out of work for 6 wks to do the training and pay 5K or more and then not be able to work or get a paycheck while they are in the classes. 

She said everyone in the industry is concerned on how things will get even more delayed/behind and have fewer people with cdls that can be hired. She said they all think this will only continue to cause more delay in shipments, and higher prices for products but the delivery prices and wages may continue to climb. 

 

 

[New Englander]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:55 AM, 806 man said:

Also if you choose to answer, how many flight hrs have you logged over years, asking for a friend.

Sorry, just noticed this when the thread got a new reply.  Company log page said I've got in excess of 16,500 hours last time I looked. That number has the hours I had when hiring on but doesn't include any outside flying I've done since. I stopped keeping a paper log for work once they started tracking currency. I can get a printout if I want. We get a FRAT, a Flight Risk Assessment and a trip release which has the training and currency status on it. I do keep an electronic log of single engine flying for my personal airplane as single engine has its own currency requirements. Typically those of us flying business jets don't log the hours our airline brethren do as we often take folks somewhere and may stay for a day or two then go somewhere else while an airline pilot is strapped in until he gets his hours for the month. I had enough of an airline back at Eastern. We're typically on the plane for a week to ten days +/-. That period may include an extensive overseas trip with lots of hours crossing the Pacific or a few milk runs around the 'States. As an airline pilot I'd have been retired by now and would have logged about 25,000. As it is I can fly domestically under 91 or 135 but only internationally under FAR 91 due to other countries ICAO rules. All gibberish, I know.