Instrument rating, airplane
So you want to fly in the clouds. Here is the instrument rating.
This page is the instrument-airplane rating in § 61.65.
Helicopter and powered-lift instrument ratings are a different paragraph in that same section. The numbers below are the part 61 minimums in that section.
Who can apply
Pilot certificate
You must hold at least a current private pilot certificate, or be concurrently applying for one, with an airplane rating appropriate to the instrument rating sought.
English
You must read, speak, write, and understand English.
Medical
The medical you need is the one for the pilot certificate you are exercising.
Knowledge test
Ground training or home study
You receive and log ground training from an authorized instructor, or accomplish a home-study course, on the aeronautical knowledge areas in § 61.65(b).
Endorsement
The endorsement that you are prepared for the knowledge test.
Pass the knowledge test
You pass that test, unless you already hold an instrument rating. For airplane, the test code is IRA. The FAA allots 2.0 hours.
Knowledge areas
The knowledge test covers these areas:
- The rules that apply to IFR.
- The Aeronautical Information Manual.
- Air traffic control procedures.
- IFR navigation and approaches.
- En route and approach charts.
- Weather reports and forecasts.
- Safe and efficient IFR operation.
- Critical weather and windshear.
- Aeronautical decision making.
- Crew resource management.
Try a question
One instrument written question at a time. Pay to open the full study path.
Pure Blue Air prepares you for the instrument rating airplane knowledge test. Pass it here, then take the flight training and the checkride with your instructor.
Pass the written before you spend those hours with an instructor in the airplane. Academic mastery first means the flight lessons move faster, cost less, and you get on with a flying career.
Schedule the FAA knowledge test at PSI
Experience and the practical test
Flight training
Flight training on the areas of operation, together with § 61.65(c).
Prepared for the practical test
The endorsement that you are prepared for the practical test.
Pass the practical test
You pass the practical test.
Aeronautical experience, airplane
For the airplane rating, you must have logged:
- Except as § 61.65(g) provides, 50 hours of cross-country time as pilot in command, of which 10 hours must have been in an airplane.
- 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time in the areas of operation in § 61.65(c), of which 15 hours must have been received from an authorized instructor who holds an instrument-airplane rating.
- That instrument time includes 3 hours of instrument flight training from an authorized instructor in an airplane appropriate to the rating, within 2 calendar months before the date of the practical test.
- It also includes one cross-country flight in an airplane with an authorized instructor, under instrument flight rules, with a flight plan filed, of 250 nautical miles along airways or by directed routing, an instrument approach at each airport, and three different kinds of approaches with the use of navigation systems.
§ 61.65(h) allows a maximum of 30 hours in a full flight simulator or flight training device when the time is completed under part 142, and a maximum of 20 hours when it is not.
§ 61.65(i) allows a maximum of 10 hours in a basic aviation training device, or 20 hours in an advanced one, when the device and the training are FAA-approved and an authorized instructor provides the time.
§ 61.65(j) says that, except as § 61.65(h)(1) provides, you may not credit more than 20 total hours of that device time toward the instrument time in this section.