Regulation Text
(a) No person may operate the following airplanes without a flight crewmember holding a current flight engineer certificate:
(1) An airplane for which a type certificate was issued before January 2, 1964, having a maximum certificated takeoff weight of more than 80,000 pounds.
(2) An airplane type certificated after January 1, 1964, for which a flight engineer is required by the type certification requirements.
(b) No person may serve as a required flight engineer on an airplane unless, within the preceding 6 calendar months, that person has had at least 50 hours of flight time as a flight engineer on that type airplane or has been checked by the Administrator on that type airplane and is found to be familiar and competent with all essential current information and operating procedures.
Research Notes
Section 91.529 — Flight engineer requirements — requires a flight engineer on certain large airplanes where the type certificate requires three crewmembers.
Scope: Older large aircraft (Boeing 727, DC-10 in certain configurations, certain legacy jets) certificated with three-crew flight decks require a Flight Engineer. Modern transport category aircraft are certificated for two-pilot crews via the EICAS/automation requirements.
Flight Engineer certification: The Flight Engineer must hold an FE certificate per Part 63 with appropriate category ratings (turbojet, turboprop, reciprocating).
Modern scope: § 91.529 still applies to operators of older three-crew aircraft (some cargo operators, certain warbird operations, some museum aircraft).
Reference: Part 63 (Flight Engineer certification); AC 63-3A.
Amendment History
Amendment History Coming Soon
Every time this regulation changes, we'll record it here — the date, what was amended, and a plain-English summary of what shifted.