Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Need advise on most efficient way to obtain Commercial License.

Asked by: 3025 views Commercial Pilot

Hey guys, I got a few questions for you, but let me explain my situation and see if you guys could give me some advise of how to best do it.

I am an American but I live in South America, I am planning to go after getting my CPL, I had planned to do a majority of the training reading the materials and doing the online courses and doing my flight time in South America.  Then when I have logged the appropiate hours and and ready for the tests to fly back to the states and do it so it is all FAA certified and I don't have to go through doing all the paperwork later if I want as FAA certified is obviously accepted worldwide without question.  The schooling programs here are generally 18-24 months and I can't take 10-12 months living in the states.  Is my plan of studying online materials and programs and doing the actual flying in South America while passing the tests in the US very flawed?  I plan for now to build my hours in South America to at least get to 2000 hours and then I can decide from there.  I appreciate any feedback.  Thank you.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. John D. Collins on Jan 19, 2013

    I don’t see any problem with your basic plan, particularly if you can get your training from a US certified CFI and CFII (the instrument portion). The training you receive from a non US CFI or CFII can be credited towards the Commercial rating, but you will need a US CFI to make the required endorsements, see 61.41 quoted below for your convenience. In many countries there are training schools certified by the FAA and that have FAA designated examiners. If you can find one locally, then you don’t have to travel to the USA. Often, there are pilots in the country that have their USA flight instructor certificates.

    “Sec. 61.41 Flight training received from flight instructors not certificated by the FAA

    (a) A person may credit flight training toward the requirements of a pilot certificate or rating issued under this part, if that person received the training from:
    (1) A flight instructor of an Armed Force in a program for training military pilots of either–
    (i) The United States; or
    (ii) A foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
    (2) A flight instructor who is authorized to give such training by the licensing authority of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the flight training is given outside the United States.
    (b) A flight instructor described in paragraph (a) of this section is only authorized to give endorsements to show training given.”

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.