Airline Pilot Forums

Need some help to a question

I am already rated in a piper apache....i am looking to build some 182 rg time for a sky diving outifit out east...do I need a complex sign off if I already am rated in a complex aircraft??? I thought I would be fine to go yet this instructor with the 182 rg insists I need the complex sign off...
Thanks much

You cannot be "rated" in an apache without a complex signoff. Assuming you have that, you do not need another complex signoff to fly other complex airplanes.

If for some reason you did NOT get the signoff when you trained on the apache, then you are illegal for any apache flying you did without the complex endorsement. You need to find the instructor who trained you on the apache and get him to give you a back-dated complex endorsement. Obviously it was his intent to do this...

Without that endorsement every potential employer will see a huge screw up in your logbook (assuming you have flown the apache without an instructor)

By the way, there is no such thing as an apache "rating". If you have a ME rating and a complex endorsement you can fly an apache (if it is a 250 HP aztec you need the high performance endorsement too).

The exception to this is if you had PIC in a complex airplane before the grandfather date (early 1990's IIRC). If you flew one before the complex endorsement existed you are grandfathered. EDIT: You had to fly it as PIC before the endorsement was required (1997 per Twin Wasp).

The tailwheel and pressurized signoffs started in 91, the high perforomance and complex in 97.