Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh

How to become a pilot in Bangladesh

Five licences, in order, each with its own minimum age, education, medical class and flight-hour requirement. Every figure on these pages is cited to Civil Aviation Rules 1984, Part I, and the written exams follow the CAAB technical examination syllabus (Issue-1, 10 August 2005).

The path, in order

1Student Pilot Licence SPLStart here. You need SSC (Science) and a medical, and you will be flying solo under an instructor's supervision within months.
2Private Pilot Licence PPL40 hours of flying and nine written papers. You may carry passengers, but never for money.
3Commercial Pilot Licence CPL200 hours for aeroplanes, 150 for helicopters, and HSC (Science) with Physics and Maths. This is the licence that lets you be paid.
4Instrument Rating IRA rating on top of your licence, for flying in cloud. Airlines treat it as compulsory.
5Airline Transport Pilot Licence ATPL1,500 hours for aeroplanes, 1,000 for helicopters, and 21 years of age. The captain's licence.

+Flight Instructor Rating FIROptional, and the usual way to build hours towards an airline job while being paid. It branches off from the CPL rather than sitting on the main ladder.

Compare the licences

Licence	Min age	Education	Medical	Hours — aeroplane	Hours — helicopter
SPL	16 years	SSC in the Science group, or equivalent, plus demonstrated aptitude for a pilot	Medical fitness under rules 51 and 53	—	—
PPL	17 years	SSC, or equivalent	Class 2 Medical Assessment	40 hours	40 hours
CPL	18 years	HSC (Science) with Physics and Mathematics, or equivalent	Class 1 Medical Assessment	200 hours	150 hours
IR	Set by the licence you already hold	HSC (Science) with Physics and Mathematics, or equivalent	As required by the licence you hold	50 hours	50 hours
ATPL	21 years	HSC (Science) with Physics and Mathematics, or equivalent	Class 1 Medical Assessment	1,500 hours	1,000 hours
FIR	Set by the commercial pilot licence requirement	The knowledge requirements for a Commercial Pilot Licence, plus twelve instructional subjects	As required for the Commercial Pilot Licence	The Commercial Pilot Licence experience for the category	The Commercial Pilot Licence experience for the category

Hours shown are the total flight-time minimum. Each licence page breaks that down into pilot-in-command, cross-country, instrument and night time, with the rule for each.

What the written exams cover

CAAB examines nine technical subjects. PPL is examined on its own syllabus; CPL, ATPL and the Instrument Rating share one, with each topic marked for the licences it applies to — which is why the syllabus pages are split by licence and by aircraft category.

Browse the syllabus

Pick your licence and aircraft category and the syllabus filters down to just your topics — all eight syllabus pages.

A note on the sources

The syllabus cites rule numbers that no longer exist

The 2005 syllabus cites a pair of rules for each licence — one for aeroplanes, one for helicopters. In the current CAR 84 the second of each pair reads "Deleted": the aeroplane, helicopter, powered-lift and airship variants were consolidated into a single rule with per-category sub-rules. The requirements on this site cite the current numbering.

Deleted in the current CAR 84: r.28, r.29, r.30, r.31, r.32A, r.33.

CAR 84 also now provides for a Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL) (r.25). The Issue-1, 10 August 2005 syllabus predates it and publishes no examination syllabus for it, so this site does not cover it.

This site is not CAAB and does not publish regulation. Read the source documents: Civil Aviation Rules 1984, Part I — Personnel Licensing and Pilots' Technical Examination Syllabus for PPL, CPL, ATPL, IR & FIR (Issue-1, 10 August 2005). Flight-training organisations, course fees and the licence application procedure are not in either document and are not covered here.