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Comment by dorfsmay | Hacker News Reader

Safeguards are known:

  - Instrument rated pilots

  - special, expensive, instruments (radars, etc...)

  - extra pair of skilled eyes (2 pilots)

  - n + 1 engines / APU

  - bigger planes that have less restrictions (more power which means you can bring more weight (more luggage), take off safely from higher altitude, manoeuvre in higher cross winds etc....)

Those companies that fly those airplanes with those pilots already exists, there are known as air taxi and small air charters.

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FWIW none of these things are actual commercial flight regulations. In particular, it's quite possible (though I'm guessing uncommon) to get a commercial license without an IFR, and it's definitely very common to run single-engine, single-pilot operations with plain vanilla instruments (avionics).

I'm not familiar with air transport regulations, however, and some of these things may apply there.

You are correct.

14 CFR 61.133 (b)(1) states:[0]

  A person who applies for a commercial pilot certificate
  with an airplane category or powered-lift category rating
  and does not hold an instrument rating in the same 
  category and class will be issued a commercial pilot 
  certificate that contains the limitation, “The 
  carriage of passengers for hire in (airplanes) 
  (powered-lifts) on cross-country flights in excess of 
  50 nautical miles or at night is prohibited.”

So you can technically get a commercial license without an instrument rating, but you won't be able to get a job until you do. My guess is it happens only in that someone is taking the courses for both and just happens to finish the commercial part first. In practice though I've never heard anyone who did that.

[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/61.133

Crop dusters, and the guys who inspect power lines / pipelines. Also those guys who tow banners over the sportsball stadiums. None of them have much to do when its dark or cloudy.

I was replying to:

> I would seek companies that provide internal safeguards

Those aren't the types of safeguards I was referring to...but you know what also already exists? Pilots flying the exact same flights the FAA has decided must be banned (solely because of the commercial element).

My comment was narrowly referring to OP's lack of imagination in envisioning solutions to the "bad weather" criticism raised.

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