What about flying for the reserves on weekends? How is that thrown into the equation

 

Mil time doesn't count as commercial time. It has zero impact in that equation.

 

But 135/121 rest is a totally different ballgame from part 91. Read some of these Coglan guys bitching on here - they fly 8 hours 121 then fly part 91 back to base - it's still a commercial operation regardless if it's 91, 121, or 135.. Which was my point - just because they can't fly 135 and they can instruct doesn't mean instructing isn't a commercial operation, but you are unfairly connecting the two together.

Really the way this is only going to come up is if there is an accident/incident and your logbooks come under review. There's a whole lot more people looking thru them when that happens besides your local FSDO.

It's calender year - Jan 1st thru Dec 31st.

This is the only thing you can point to - and it's because it's an exemption in the part 61 regs for CFI's - the only thing that doesn't fit the profile of a commercial operation. Another stupid example of the regs:

If you are a private pilot, and take your unlicensed father flying, and let him fly for 30 minutes, you can't log ANY flight time during that time because you weren't flying, even though you were technically PIC and he doesn't even have a student pilot certificate! Exemptions are retarded, I agree. That doesn't make sense, but it's the way the regs read.

 

nah thats just the progression of my thought process hahaha

 

True, it is exempt. Flying or non-flying military drill weekends frequently involve 18-20 hour days...if you try to force the airlines to quantify that they would have to give us all a day off after drill to recover...not cost effective.

 

There's your problem - ignore all the rest of the crap about using your commercial certificate and whether your CFI certificate is a license - whatever that was about.

If you get paid to provide instruction that is commercial flying, in the eyes of the FAA and counts against your commercial flying totals, which is why most companies don't want you doing it, because it limits your availability for THEIR commercial flying.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there providing instruction, getting paid for it, not telling their Part 121 employer - many of those people are flying illegally (30 in 7, 100 in calendar month or 1000 calendar year and probably all 3). It's all fun and games until you have an incident and the FAA wants to see your logbooks - then it's not so funny any more.

 

If anyone wants more flying then just pick up extra from your airline. CFI'ing is too risky to do on top of 121 anyway.

 

very true I am on reserve and with pickin up trips this month my line value is 106

 

We have an Alaska exemption which is 500 a quarter, 800 in two quarters and 1400 a year even though we are 121... so I've had paychecks going on 80 hours for a two week period before and it's still legal. No monthly limit... unless you count the 500 a quarter




As far as the CFI thing, does anyone have a letter or interpretation or reg to show that CFI counts against 121 time? These all seem to be based off of opinion right now, and saying "this is what the feds think" without backing it up can be misleading if you aren't 100% from an interpretation from them.

 

Do you have a letter of interpretation that says it DOESN'T count toward 121 maximum hours flown?

That would be the more conservative train of thought. Obviously there is no reg that directly addresses it, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. There isn't a reg that directly says you cannot taxi at 100 knots on a taxiway either.

I see the "CON" side of the argument - especially when they pull the no-medical-required tactic - however in "my" mind I see that as an exemption rather than going to show that working as a CFI isn't a commercial operation.