Someone posed me an interesting question earlier today. At least I think it’s interesting. Suppose a pilot has a Commercial Pilot Licence. And their boss asks them to conduct a ferry flight. Small plane – only one pilot needed. A Cessna 172, let’s say. So they look up their CPL privileges in the regulations:


401.30 (1) Subject to subsection (3), the holder of a commercial pilot licence — aeroplane may, by day or night,

(e) exercise private pilot licence — aeroplane privileges until the end of the medical validity period specified for the private pilot licence.

Interesting. This pilot reasons as follows: This isn’t a PPL task, because I’m being paid to fly, and PPL’s can’t be paid. But the only option that seems to apply is (c), and that can’t be right, because this flight is a ferry flight and the aircraft is empty – it’s not providing a commercial air service to anyone. Am I allowed to ferry this airplane or not?

This confusion is founded in mixing together two different concepts in the regulations – when you can be Pilot In Command (PIC) of an airplane, and when you can get paid for it.

The pilot’s reasoning is correct in one sense – this isn’t a flight in commercial air service. So (c) of 401.30 doesn’t apply. Under what clause can they be a pilot then? The answer is (a) – which says that a CPL can exercise PPL privileges. And PPL privileges are listed in 401.26, of which (a) applies here:

401.26 The holder of a private pilot licence — aeroplane may act as

(a) pilot-in-command or co-pilot of an aeroplane of a class and type in respect of which the licence is endorsed with ratings;

This is correct: a CPL can fly a ferry flight because a PPL can too. What a PPL can’t do is get paid for it. Getting paid to fly is something only a CPL (or ATPL) holder can do. But being paid to fly is not, under the regulations, a 401.26 “privilege”. Instead, getting paid to fly is forbidden to PPL holders under a different rule, 401.28:

401.28 (1) The holder of a private pilot licence shall not act as the pilot-in-command of an aeroplane or helicopter for hire or reward unless the conditions set out in subsection (2), (3), (4) or (5), as applicable, are met.

You’ll have to trust me but none of the exceptions listed in (2)-(5) apply to a ferry flight.

So where we’ve got to is that a ferry flight is a PPL privilege – but to get paid and avoid an infraction you need to be exercising that PPL privilege as the holder of a CPL.

You might ask what difference it makes. Practically, I guess, not very much. But looking at the regulations in this level of detail appears to flag up two loopholes.

First loophole: While 401.30 says a CPL holder can act as PIC of a flight in commercial air service – paragraph (c) – 401.26 doesn’t say that a PPL holder can’t act as PIC of a flight in commercial air service. In fact it says that a PPL holder can act as PIC in command of any flight (of an appropriate airplane). So on a first reading, a PPL holder can fly a commercial air service flight, too. That seems like an obvious miss, by whoever drafted those clauses.

The second loophole involves medical certificate validity periods. If you’re paid to fly ferry flights, or for that matter any flights other than commercial air service or training flights – so that includes part 604 private flights – you’re exercising PPL privileges, not CPL privileges. And for a CPL holder, PPL privileges are validated by your category 1 medical certificate until the end of the medical validity period specified for the private pilot licence. – 401.30(e). So your medical renewal schedule becomes every 5 years for under 40 year olds (compared to every 2 years), and every 2 years if you’re over 40, compared to every six months. That seems like a big win.

Do I think that’s what Transport Canada intended? No. I’m not a lawyer and it’s not my advice that can legally switch to a PPL-schedule of medical renewal if you fly for hire and reward as a ferry pilot or in a 604 private aviation scenario. But it looks like it does meet the regulatory requirements if you do.