Class and Type Ratings

A pilot licence says what a pilot may do; the ratings in it say in which aircraft. A class rating covers a group of aeroplanes similar enough in handling and systems that one qualification serves them all, such as single-engine piston landplanes. A type rating is issued for one particular type, or a family of closely related variants, whose systems and procedures are complex enough to need a dedicated course and skill test, such as a jet airliner.

EASA and the FAA use the same words in different ways. In Europe class and type ratings have a period of validity and must be revalidated, and the licence is issued for a category of aircraft, such as aeroplanes. The FAA certificate carries category, class and, where needed, type ratings that never expire, and relies instead on the flight review and recent experience rules to keep pilots in practice (see flight time logging and recent experience).

Category and class

The aircraft category is the broadest division: aeroplanes (airplanes in FAA usage), helicopters and other rotorcraft, powered-lift aircraft, gliders, and lighter-than-air aircraft such as balloons and airships. ICAO's classification of aircraft is set out in Annex 7 (see aircraft registration and documents). EASA licences are issued for a category of aircraft, marked by a letter: PPL(A) for aeroplanes, PPL(H) for helicopters.

Within the aeroplane category a class rating groups aircraft by propulsion and operating surface. Part-FCL class ratings include single-engine piston (SEP), land and sea, touring motor gliders (TMG) and multi-engine piston (MEP). A PPL, CPL or ATPL holder may not act as pilot of an aeroplane without a valid and appropriate class or type rating.

The FAA puts both levels on the certificate as a category and class rating, for example airplane single-engine land (ASEL) or airplane multiengine land (AMEL), alongside single-engine and multiengine sea. Aircraft within a class can still differ a great deal, so both systems add training for particular features. The FAA requires instructor training and a logbook endorsement before a pilot acts as pilot in command of a complex airplane (retractable landing gear, flaps and a controllable-pitch propeller, or FADEC), a high-performance airplane (an engine of more than 200 hp) or a pressurised airplane able to fly above 25,000 ft MSL (the high-altitude endorsement). Part-FCL covers such differences within a class or type through differences or familiarisation training (see pilot endorsements and additional ratings).

Single-engine piston and ASEL

The EASA single-engine piston (SEP) class rating is the first rating most pilots hold. Like the other single-pilot single-engine class ratings it is valid for two years, whereas other class and type ratings are valid for one. It can be revalidated in either of two ways:

• by experience: within the 12 months before the expiry date, at least 12 hours of flight time in the class, including 6 hours as pilot in command, 12 take-offs and 12 landings, and a refresher training flight of at least 1 hour with an instructor, which a proficiency check or skill test may replace;
• by proficiency check with an examiner within the 3 months immediately before the expiry date, in which case the new two years run from the old expiry date.

Revalidation by experience alone is a privilege of the SEP and TMG ratings only; every other class and type rating needs a check.

The FAA's ASEL rating has no expiry date. A private pilot who has not flown for years may fly again, with a valid medical, after a flight review and, before carrying passengers, three take-offs and landings in the preceding 90 days.

Multi-engine ratings

A multi-engine (ME) rating adds the handling of an engine failure: asymmetric thrust, the minimum control speed and single-engine performance (see asymmetric flight). Under Part-FCL the multi-engine piston (MEP) class rating is valid for one year. Revalidation needs both a proficiency check in the final 3 months before expiry and route-sector experience as pilot of the class or type during the validity period, normally at least 10 route sectors.

The FAA multi-engine rating is added to the certificate as the AMEL class rating. A commercial pilot who has flown only Cessna 172s and is asked to fly a Cessna 421, a piston twin with engines of more than 200 hp, retractable gear and pressurisation to 30,000 ft, needs the AMEL class rating and the complex, high-performance and high-altitude endorsements, but no type rating, because the 421 is neither turbojet-powered nor over 12,500 lb.

Single-pilot and multi-pilot aeroplanes

Part-FCL divides aeroplanes by their certificated crew. A multi-pilot aeroplane is one certificated for operation with a minimum crew of at least two pilots, as stated in the flight manual; a single-pilot aeroplane is certificated to be flown by one pilot. The operating rules can still require two pilots in a single-pilot aeroplane: in European commercial air transport, IFR or night operations in turboprops with more than nine passenger seats, and in all turbojets, need two pilots (see pilot in command and flight crew composition).

The distinction decides which licence and training a pilot needs:

• a CPL(A) holder may command a single-pilot aeroplane in commercial air transport but may fly a multi-pilot aeroplane in commercial air transport only as co-pilot; command needs an ATPL(A) (see commercial and airline transport pilot licences);
• multi-crew cooperation (MCC) training is required before a pilot exercises privileges in a multi-pilot aeroplane;
• multi-pilot aeroplanes, such as the A320 family and the 737, are flown on a type rating (see below).

When a type rating is required

Under Part-FCL, whether an aeroplane needs a type rating, and which licence endorsement covers it, is decided type by type in the certification process and published in the flight crew data of the type-certificate data sheet and the operational suitability data. EASA's data sheet for the E190-E2, for example, gives the endorsement EMB170, because the ERJ 170 and ERJ 190 series are variants of one type. The type rating course takes place at an ATO and ends with a skill test, which must be passed within 6 months of starting the course and within the 6 months before the application for the rating.

The FAA rule, 14 CFR 61.31(a), is based on size and propulsion. A pilot in command needs a type rating for:

• any large aircraft, except lighter-than-air aircraft;
• any turbojet-powered airplane, whatever its weight;
• any other aircraft the FAA specifies through type certification procedures, such as some helicopters.

One rating often covers several models. The FAA's Flight Standardization Board gives every Boeing 737, from the 737-100 to the 737 MAX, the single type rating B-737; an NG pilot adds the MAX through differences training and the special training the FSB prescribes before the first MAX flight. The A318, A319, A320 and A321, ceo and neo, share one type rating too, with differences training between the models and for different engines, and under the evaluation reports take-offs and landings on any variant count towards recent experience on all of them. An operator flying several variants keeps approved operator differences requirement tables showing how its training covers them (see airline pilot training and checking).

An FAA type rating test flown in a simulator without a circling approach can leave a limitation such as "circling approach, VMC only" on the certificate until the manoeuvre is demonstrated. Since 2013 every Part 121 pilot, second in command included, must hold the type rating for the aeroplane.

Large aircraft over 12,500 lb

In 14 CFR 1.1 a large aircraft is one of more than 12,500 lb maximum certificated take-off weight; anything at or below it is small. For a propeller aeroplane the line usually decides whether a type rating is needed. A Beechcraft King Air 200 certificated at 12,500 lb needs none, while a light business jet such as a Cessna Citation needs one because it is turbojet-powered.

12,500 lb is about 5,670 kg, close to the 5,700 kg that ICAO and EASA use as a threshold elsewhere, for example in the rules requiring ACAS II and Class A TAWS in turbine aeroplanes above that mass. EASA does not use a mass threshold for type ratings; the need for one is decided type by type in the certification data.

Revalidation vs renewal

Part-FCL uses two words that are easy to confuse. Revalidation extends a rating while it is still valid. Renewal restores a rating that has expired. The difference matters, because once a rating has lapsed the easier route, such as revalidation by experience, is closed.

A check flown within the last 3 months keeps the anniversary; for the instrument rating, one flown earlier starts the new period from the date of the check. An expired rating does not affect the licence itself, and the theoretical examinations are not retaken for a class or type rating renewal. The instrument rating adds a further limit: after 7 years without revalidation or renewal its theory examination and skill test must be passed again (see instrument rating).

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FAA ratings are not revalidated at all. The flight review every 24 calendar months, the 90-day recency rules and, for airline pilots, the operator's recurrent checks do the same job of keeping privileges matched to current skill.

Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.