Originally Posted by
LuckyDucky7
No laughs here, I know plenty of places that use the second crew member 135 (had buddies that skipped out on CFI that way). No limitations on the SIC except that he needs the appropriate commercial certificate. Their only fight is with the insurance. The issue is that I am like 90% sure that both the multicrew 135 and the VFR 135 are required to be on their 135 certificate. That's why it doesn't matter if you could see clear to Hong Kong, you have to go IFR; it is part of their operating certificate. Similarly, the multicrew 135 is required by the FAA if the plane does not have a three axis autopilot system. Now if you have the three axis, you can still get the multicrew requirement on your 135 cert, but if you DON'T have the multicrew cert and you use three axis instead for single pilot, you can't just one day decide to hire FOs (well you could, but they wouldn't be required crew, and therefore could not log SIC).
This is all to the best of my knowledge. I could be wrong, but this is how I always understood it.
You are correct... sort of... Under FAR 135.101 a SIC is required for part 135 IFR flights... but only applies to passenger carrying flights. There is no law requiring 135 cargo flights to have an SIC. Under 135.105, these passenger carrying flights can use an Auto-Pilot in lieu of SIC provided they have the appropriate OpSpec (A015 I believe).
So this debate comes up quite often and the Chief Counsel has put out numerous LOI’s about it. They usually say that logging SIC in a plane that doesn’t require one through the type certificate can only be accomplished under FAR 135.101 (meaning only if it’s a passenger carrying operation). They routinely reiterate that you cannot log SIC in a single pilot airplane flying cargo (and no OpSpec can change that). So I have idea how MAC plans for guys with 250 hours to be able to log flight time in a Caravan.