Instrument rating requirements
One section of the regulation does almost all of the work. 14 CFR 61.65 sets who may apply, what has to be taught, what the logbook has to show, and how much of it a simulator may cover.
Instrument rating requirements: what is the list?
Hold at least a current private pilot certificate with the right category rating, read and speak English, receive the ground and flight training 14 CFR 61.65 specifies, log fifty cross-country hours in command and forty hours on instruments, pass the IRA knowledge test, and pass the practical test.
14 CFR 61.65(a) handles eligibility, and it is unusually accommodating in one respect: you may hold a private pilot certificate already, or be applying for one at the same time, provided the category rating matches the instrument rating you want. The rest of (a) is the ordinary shape of a part 61 rating — training received and logged from an authorized instructor, an endorsement saying you are ready, a knowledge test and a practical test.
The experience is at 61.65(d), and it is two numbers rather than one. Fifty hours of cross-country flying with you in command, ten of which have to be in an airplane. Forty hours of instrument time, actual or simulated, fifteen of which have to be taught by an authorized instructor holding an instrument-airplane rating.
Those two numbers behave very differently. The forty instrument hours are training, they happen in sequence, and a school can schedule them. The fifty cross-country hours are flying you mostly do yourself, and they are the requirement people are surprised by, because a newly certificated private pilot rarely has them.
Take a position here. Start counting cross-country time on the day you pass your private checkride, not on the day you decide to add an instrument rating. That single habit removes the most common delay in this rating and it costs nothing.
What does each part of 61.65 require?
Five paragraphs matter to an airplane pilot. Here is what each one asks for, and where it bites.
(a) Eligibility
At least a current private pilot certificate with an airplane rating, or a concurrent application for one. English read, spoken, written and understood. Ground training or a home-study course covering the knowledge areas in (b). Flight training from an authorized instructor on the areas of operation in (c). An endorsement saying you are prepared. Then the knowledge test and the practical test.
(b) Aeronautical knowledge
The regulations that apply to flight under instrument flight rules; the relevant material in the Aeronautical Information Manual; the air traffic control system and its procedures; IFR navigation and approaches; the use of en route and instrument approach procedure charts; obtaining and using aviation weather reports and forecasts; safe and efficient operation under instrument flight rules; recognising critical weather and avoiding windshear; aeronautical decision making and judgment; and crew resource management.
That list is also the syllabus for the IRA knowledge test, which is why the ground study and the written test are the same piece of work rather than two.
(c) Flight proficiency — the eight areas of operation
Preflight preparation. Preflight procedures. Air traffic control clearances and procedures. Flight by reference to instruments. Navigation systems. Instrument approach procedures. Emergency operations. Postflight procedures.
The practical test measures the same eight against the FAA’s Instrument Rating — Airplane Airman Certification Standards. If a task is not traceable to one of those eight headings, it is not on the test.
- Preflight preparation and preflight procedures
- Air traffic control clearances and procedures
- Flight by reference to instruments
- Navigation systems
- Instrument approach procedures
- Emergency operations
- Postflight procedures
(d) Aeronautical experience
Fifty hours of cross-country flying logged in command, of which ten have to be airplane time. Forty hours of instrument time, actual or simulated, in the areas of operation at (c), of which fifteen have to come from an authorized instructor holding an instrument-airplane rating.
Inside those forty sit two specific items. Three hours of instrument instruction, in an airplane appropriate to the rating, falling within two calendar months of the practical test. And instrument cross-country training including one flight with an instructor, under instrument flight rules on a filed plan, running 250 nautical miles along airways or on routing an air traffic control facility gives you. An approach gets flown at every airport it touches, across three different kinds of approach on the navigation equipment.
(h), (i) and (j) — what a simulator may cover
The credit depends entirely on what the device is approved as, and the ceilings stack awkwardly. 14 CFR 61.65(h) permits at most 30 hours in a flight training device or a full flight simulator where the instrument time is completed in accordance with part 142, and at most 20 hours where it is not. 61.65(i) sets its own ceilings for aviation training devices, and 61.65(j) caps combined device credit at 20 hours in total outside a part 142 course.
The practical consequence is simple. A device is genuinely useful for procedure work and it will not carry a large share of your 40 hours. Ask any school what its device is approved as before you assume otherwise.
How do the requirements differ from the private certificate?
The private certificate is measured mostly in hours flown. The instrument rating is measured in hours flown plus a specific flight plus a recency window that never goes away.
14 CFR 61.65
A one-off set of experience requirements, met once, checked once by an examiner, and then finished.
Best forAnybody who intends to fly to a schedule rather than to a forecast.
- Cross-country PIC50 hours
- Instrument time40 hours
- Taught by an instructor15 hours
- Long IFR flight250 nm
14 CFR 61.57(c)
A rolling requirement that repeats for as long as you intend to use the rating. Miss it and 61.57(d) makes you sit an instrument proficiency check.
Best forEverybody, permanently. This is the part people forget.
- Window6 calendar months
- ApproachesSix
- Also requiredHolding, and course tracking
- If you lapseInstrument proficiency check
Every requirement and the paragraph behind it
| Requirement | The figure | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate held | Private pilot, or applied for concurrently | 14 CFR 61.65(a)(1) |
| English language | Read, speak, write, understand | 14 CFR 61.65(a) |
| Ground training | On the (b) knowledge areas | 14 CFR 61.65(a) |
| Knowledge test | 60 questions, 70 to pass | FAA testing matrix · 61.65(b) |
| Cross-country in command | 50 hours, 10 in an airplane | 14 CFR 61.65(d)(1) |
| Instrument time | 40 hours, actual or simulated | 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2) |
| Taught by an instrument instructor | 15 hours | 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2) |
| Recent instruction | 3 hours, within 2 calendar months | 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(i) |
| The long IFR cross-country | 250 nm, approaches at each airport | 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(ii) |
| Kinds of approach on that flight | Three different kinds | 61.65(d)(2)(ii)(C) |
| Simulator or FTD credit | 30 hours under part 142, 20 hours otherwise | 14 CFR 61.65(h) |
| Combined device credit | 20 hours outside part 142 | 14 CFR 61.65(j) |
| Practical test | Eight areas of operation | 14 CFR 61.65(c) · the ACS |
| Currency afterwards | 6 approaches per 6 calendar months | 14 CFR 61.57(c) |
Which requirements catch people out?
Four, and three of them are about counting rather than flying.
The fifty cross-country hours in command
Not instrument hours, and not dual. Fifty hours of cross-country flying with you as the commander, ten of them in an airplane. A private pilot who flies locally can hold 200 hours and still not qualify to sit the instrument checkride.
The fifteen taught hours
Of the forty instrument hours, fifteen have to be given by an authorized instructor who holds an instrument-airplane rating. Time flown with a safety pilot under a hood counts toward the forty and not toward the fifteen.
The three-hour recency window
Three hours of instrument instruction inside the two calendar months preceding the practical test, in an airplane appropriate to the rating. Flown in month three, they do not satisfy 61.65(d)(2)(i), and the checkride waits while you refly them.
Simulator credit assumptions
People plan around a device carrying twenty or thirty hours and then discover the ceiling that actually applies to them. Read 61.65(h), (i) and (j) together rather than separately, and ask what the specific device is approved as.
What does meeting these requirements cost?
One published figure for the rating, one published hourly rate for the flying around it, and nothing hidden behind a form.
Instrument Rating
The training that satisfies 14 CFR 61.65, priced once and fixed at enrolment.
- ✓Instrument instruction toward the 40 hours
- ✓The 250 nm IFR cross-country
- ✓IRA knowledge test preparation
- ✓No range, no quote gate
Airline Career Track
Every phase from zero hours to a commercial certificate and a flight instructor rating, including this one.
- ✓Five phases, one figure
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
- ✓Fixed before you begin
Comprehensive Private Pilot
14 CFR 61.65(a)(1) needs a private pilot certificate first. This is the program that gets you one.
- ✓55 hours single-engine
- ✓5 hours Redbird MCX
- ✓Books and materials included
Redbird MCX session
Full-motion and enclosed, and never scrubbed by weather. Useful within the credit ceilings 61.65 sets.
- ✓Excellent for approaches and holds
- ✓Poor for landings
- ✓Credit limits at 61.65(h) to (j)
What has to be true of a school for these requirements to be met?
Four capabilities and one piece of geography. All five can be confirmed before you pay anybody.
Instructors who can give the taught hours
14 CFR 61.65(d)(2) needs fifteen hours from an authorized instructor with an instrument-airplane rating. All eleven here hold a commercial certificate or an ATP, an instructor certificate above that, and a current medical.
14 CFR 61.65(d) · 61.183Airframes with panels worth learning on
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo, Piper Seminole. Owned outright, every one. Conventional instruments first and glass afterwards is the better order, and having both makes it available.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Nautical miles of airway within easy reach
The long IFR cross-country at 61.65(d)(2)(ii) needs somewhere to go. From Van Nuys the airway structure and the approach variety across the region make that flight straightforward to plan.
14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(ii)A simulator with a published price
The Redbird MCX, full-motion and enclosed. What it may contribute toward your forty hours is fixed by 14 CFR 61.65(h) to (j) rather than by anybody’s enthusiasm for it.
$189 a sessionDays a year training is possible
From NOAA ASOS observations recorded at this field over the twelve months ending 1 August 2026, counting a day only where four daylight hours held a 3,000 ft ceiling and five statute miles.
NOAA ASOS via the Iowa Environmental MesonetThe limits of a summary
This page paraphrases federal regulation for planning purposes. The controlling text is the current 14 CFR at eCFR and it is amended from time to time. Where this page and the regulation differ, the regulation governs and you should read it directly before making a decision that costs money.
This school teaches at Van Nuys Airport under part 61. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and no cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring relationship with any carrier exists here. Nothing on this page promises an interview, a job or a salary.
No pass rate and no graduate count is published anywhere on this site. The business is new, the sample would be meaningless, and inventing a figure to fill the gap would be worse than leaving it open.
What people ask about instrument rating requirements
A current private pilot certificate with the matching category rating or a concurrent application for one, English, the ground and flight training set out in 14 CFR 61.65, fifty cross-country hours logged in command, forty hours on instruments with fifteen of them taught, a pass in the IRA knowledge test and a pass in the practical test.
Fifty hours flown as pilot in command, ten of which have to be in an airplane, under 14 CFR 61.65(d)(1). It is the requirement most new private pilots have not met, and it is worth accumulating deliberately from the day your private certificate is issued.
Only if the flight was a cross-country flight and you were acting as pilot in command. The two requirements at 61.65(d) are separate: one counts cross-country command time, the other counts instrument time. A single flight can contribute to both when it qualifies for both.
Fifteen of the forty, and the instructor has to hold an instrument-airplane rating, per 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2). The remaining hours may be flown with a safety pilot under a view-limiting device, in actual conditions, or in an approved device within the credit ceilings.
One flight with an authorized instructor, under instrument flight rules on a filed plan, covering 250 nautical miles along airways or on routing given by an air traffic control facility. An approach at every airport the flight touches, across three different kinds of approach on the navigation equipment. The paragraph is 61.65(d)(2)(ii).
Partly. 14 CFR 61.65(h) allows at most 30 hours in a flight training device or full flight simulator where the instrument time was completed in accordance with part 142 and at most 20 hours where it was not, 61.65(i) sets separate ceilings for aviation training devices, and 61.65(j) caps combined device credit at 20 hours outside a part 142 course.
They have to fall inside the two calendar months before the date of the practical test and be flown with an authorized instructor in an airplane appropriate to the rating. The paragraph is 61.65(d)(2)(i). It is the single most commonly missed timing requirement in this rating.
You need whatever medical your underlying certificate requires in order to fly, and 14 CFR 61.39(a)(4) requires at least a third-class medical for the practical test where one is needed for the flight. The rating itself does not add a medical standard on top.
14 CFR 61.57(c). Inside the preceding six calendar months you have to have flown and logged six approaches, holding procedures and tasks, plus the interception and tracking of courses on the navigation equipment. Lapse far enough and 61.57(d) requires an instrument proficiency check.
14 CFR 61.65(a)(1) allows an applicant to be applying for the private certificate concurrently, so a combined route exists. In practice most people finish the private certificate first, then build cross-country command time, then begin instrument training.
Related reading
Up to the pillar
Instrument ratingMost people are closer than they think, or further than they hoped
Bring the logbook to an assessment flight and we will total the cross-country command time against 61.65(d)(1) before you commit to anything. If you are short, you will leave knowing by how much and what kind of flying closes the gap. Enroll within a day and the fee comes off the program.
Fly the aeroplane once, then decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →