How to get an ATPL license

How to get an ATPL license

The airline pilot license for airplanes or helicopters (ATPL acronym that you have seen in many previous chapters) is a license that is not obtained in a flight school. Even if it seems strange, this license is obtained in an airline. The only thing that a school can offer you is the ATPL theoretical course, that course that you can attend during your studies to become a commercial pilot and that includes ˗ as we have already said in previous chapters ˗ both the theoretical part for the commercial license (CPL) and the theoretical part for the instrument flight rating (IR).

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Let’s take a step back: with a commercial pilot license (obtained with modular or integrated), an instrument flight rating, the MCC (multi crew coordination) course and the ATPL theory exams, you can become an airline pilot… or you can become an “airline co-pilot”.

The distinction lies in this small clarification: aircraft or helicopters that require two people to be piloted will have a “multiple crew” composed of a commander and a co-pilot.

To become a “line co-pilot” it is necessary to have the basic requirements of a professional (CPL + IR + MCC + ATPL frozen) while to become a “line commander” it is necessary to have the airline pilot license (ATPL).

 

Now, it would have been much easier if instead of “airline pilot license” they had called it “multi-crew commander license”. However, that’s how it works!

So, to summarize: with the commercial license (and the various ratings) you can become a co-pilot in a multi-crew, with the ATPL license you will become a multi-crew commander.

 

Fun fact: even for those who do not carry out scheduled activities, such as air taxi companies or air rescue helicopters, flying in a multi-crew, a “line commander” and a “line co-pilot” are required on board. It seems incredible… but it is true.

 

So the schools that promote courses to become airline pilots do not actually sell courses to obtain the ATPL license but they sell courses to become “airline copilots”. They rightly try to cut through all this explanation that we have given you by concluding that with their courses you can go and work in an airline as a copilot!

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