Part 61 training at Redlands Municipal Airport (KREI) with a dedicated instructor in an IFR-equipped Cessna.
The certificate that lets you be paid to fly. Bring every maneuver up to the commercial standard in the Cessna 172 at Redlands, build the 250 hours in the cheapest IFR-equipped airplane on the field, and fly the night work at the towered airports a few minutes away.
The path
Commercial Ground School: Commercial privileges and limitations, aerodynamics at the edges of the envelope, performance, systems and the 100-question knowledge test — online at your own pace, with your instructor on the whiteboard for the hard parts.
Commercial Maneuvers: Chandelles, lazy eights, eights on pylons, steep spirals, accelerated stalls, emergency descents and the power-off 180 accuracy landing — the same 172 you know, flown to tolerances half the size of the private.
Cross-Country, Night & Complex Time: The two 100 NM cross-countries with your instructor, one by day and one at night; the 300 NM cross-country with landings at three airports; ten night takeoffs and landings at a towered field; and the 10 hours of complex or technically advanced airplane time.
Checkride Prep: Three hours of polish in the two months before the test, a logbook audit against every line of 61.129, a mock oral on privileges, systems and performance, and a mock ride with every maneuver in the Commercial ACS.