Instrument Rating Requirements
Two experience figures, one long flight, seven knowledge areas, eight areas of operation and a three-hour window that catches people out. This page walks 14 CFR 61.65 from paragraph (a) to paragraph (j) and does not round anything.
Who Is Allowed To Start An Instrument Rating?
Anyone holding at least a current private pilot certificate with a category rating that matches the instrument rating being sought — or anyone applying for that certificate at the same time. That is 14 CFR 61.65(a)(1), and the concurrent route is real rather than theoretical: paragraph (g) exists precisely to make a combined private and instrument application work.
Paragraph (a) then adds four more conditions. English language proficiency, at (a)(2). Logged ground training from an authorized instructor, or a completed home-study course, covering the knowledge areas at (a)(3). An instructor endorsement saying you are ready for the knowledge test, at (a)(4). And logged flight training on the areas of operation, at (a)(5), followed by a second endorsement for the practical test at (a)(6).
Nothing in paragraph (a) mentions a medical certificate, and that surprises people. The instrument rating adds no medical class of its own; you carry whatever certificate 14 CFR 61.23 requires for the privileges you are already exercising. If a first-class medical is in your longer plan, the argument for getting it early is that it tells you something you would rather learn now than after $11,700.
What Do These Requirements Cost To Meet?
One program price covers the instruction, the ground work and the long cross-country. The cross-country hours you bring with you; the checkride and the written you pay for separately.
Instrument Rating Program
Everything 14 CFR 61.65 asks an instructor to teach, sold as one number rather than by the hour.
- ✓The 15 taught hours at 61.65(d)(2), and then some
- ✓The 3-hour window at 61.65(d)(2)(i)
- ✓The 250 nm cross-country at 61.65(d)(2)(ii)
- ✓Ground work across the seven 61.65(b) subjects
Cross-Country Hour Building
If you are short of the 50 hours at 61.65(d)(1), the fix is flying somewhere, not sitting still.
- ✓Wet, single-engine, enrolled students
- ✓The airplane and its fuel; instruction is separate
- ✓The same hours feed 14 CFR 61.129(a)(2) later
Redbird MCX Session
The device on this field is an advanced aviation training device, so 61.65(i) puts as much as 20 hours of it toward the rating.
- ✓Full-motion and fully enclosed
- ✓Never cancelled by a marine layer
- ✓Ceilings at 61.65(h), (i) and (j)
What If You Do Not Hold A Private Pilot Certificate?
Then 61.65(a)(1) is your first requirement, not your fifth. Two routes exist and they cost differently.
Standard Private Pilot
Built to the regulatory floor at 14 CFR 61.109, which is where the 40-hour minimum lives.
- ✓40 hours logged, 38 of them single-engine
- ✓2 hours in the Redbird MCX
- ✓30 hours dual, 3 hours ground
Comprehensive Private Pilot
Sixty hours logged. The extra twenty are the ones that make an instrument rating start well rather than start slowly.
- ✓60 hours logged, 55 of them single-engine
- ✓5 hours in the Redbird MCX
- ✓50 hours dual, 10 hours ground
Airline Career Track
Both certificates and every rating after them, sequenced once and priced once.
- ✓Private, instrument, commercial, multi, instructor
- ✓Financing available from $2,500 down
- ✓No repricing between stages
What Are The Aeronautical Experience Requirements At 61.65(d)?
Two figures, and they behave completely differently. The first: fifty hours of cross-country flying logged as pilot in command, ten of which have to have been flown in an airplane. The second: forty hours of instrument time, actual or simulated, of which fifteen have to be flight training given by an authorized instructor who holds an instrument-airplane rating.
The fifty is a prerequisite in disguise. Nothing in it has to be instrument flying, nothing has to be taught, and nothing has to happen during the rating — it can all be behind you before you start, and for most people a good deal of it is. It is also the number that quietly decides your start date, because a freshly certificated private pilot with 45 total hours does not have it.
The forty is the one you buy. Fifteen taught, and the remaining twenty-five built any legal way you like: with a safety pilot under a view-limiting device, in real cloud, or on an approved device inside the ceilings paragraph (j) sets. Take the position: get the fifty out of the way first. Starting the rating and discovering the shortfall at the end is the most common avoidable delay in this cluster.
In What Order Do The Requirements Get Signed Off?
Six checkpoints. Two of them are endorsements, and an endorsement is a sentence in a logbook, not a ceremony.
Ground Training, Logged
14 CFR 61.65(a)(3) allows either logged ground training from an authorized instructor or a completed home-study course, covering the seven knowledge areas of paragraph (b). Both routes are legal; only one of them gets corrected while you are still wrong about something.
The Knowledge Test Endorsement
At 14 CFR 61.65(a)(4) an authorized instructor has to endorse your logbook or training record to say you are ready to sit the knowledge test. Test centres check for it. Arriving without it wastes an appointment.
The Written, Inside Its Own Clock
Pass the Instrument Rating Airplane test, code IRA. 14 CFR 61.39(a)(1)(i) then starts a clock on it: the written has to have been passed inside the 24 calendar months before the month you finish your practical test.
Flight Training On The Eight Areas
14 CFR 61.65(a)(5) requires logged training on the areas of operation in paragraph (c), given by an authorized instructor in an aircraft, a full flight simulator or a flight training device representing an airplane appropriate to the rating.
The Three-Hour Window
14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(i) wants 3 hours of instrument flight training in an airplane, given inside the 2 calendar months before the month of the practical test. Book the checkride first and work backwards, because this one expires while you wait for an examiner.
The Practical Test Endorsement, Then The Test
14 CFR 61.65(a)(6) is the second endorsement. The test itself is flown against the Instrument Rating — Airplane Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-8C, which measures the same eight areas of operation the training covered.
What Is The Three-Hour, Two-Month Rule At 61.65(d)(2)(i)?
Three hours of instrument flight training, in an airplane, from an authorized instructor, completed inside the 2 calendar months before the month your practical test happens. It is a freshness rule and it sits inside the 40 hours rather than on top of them, so it costs you nothing extra if the schedule is right.
It costs a great deal when the schedule is wrong. The usual sequence of events is a student finishing training in March, waiting for an examiner, taking the test in June, and discovering that the last instrument training in the logbook is now four months old. Those three hours have to be flown again. Nothing about that is unfair — the rule is doing exactly what it says — but it is entirely avoidable.
So we schedule backwards from the examiner rather than forwards from the syllabus. Get a checkride date, then place the last three hours of instruction inside the window that date creates. If the date moves, the three hours move with it.
What Are The Eight Areas Of Operation?
14 CFR 61.65(c) names them, the training covers them and the practical test measures them. In order.
Preflight Preparation
Weather, notices, performance, the alternate, and whether the flight is a good idea at all. Most of an instrument flight is decided here.
Preflight Procedures
The airplane, its instruments and its navigation equipment, checked for the flight you are actually about to make rather than the one in the checklist.
Air Traffic Control Clearances And Procedures
Copying, reading back and flying what you were given, including the parts you did not expect.
Flight By Reference To Instruments
Attitude, heading, altitude and airspeed held on the panel alone, including with instruments failed.
Navigation Systems
Course interception and tracking, and using the equipment in the airplane rather than the equipment you wish were in it.
Instrument Approach Procedures
Precision and non-precision approaches, missed approaches and circling, flown to standards rather than to the runway.
Emergency Operations
Partial panel, loss of communications, and approaches flown with something important not working.
Postflight Procedures
The shortest area of operation and the one people forget is graded.
What Knowledge Does 61.65(b) Require?
Seven subjects. They are also the blueprint for the IRA knowledge test, which is why the written and the oral cover the same ground twice.
Rules, Publications And The System
The first three subjects are procedural. Federal Aviation Regulations that apply to flight under instrument flight rules. The material in the Aeronautical Information Manual that applies to the same. And the air traffic control system and the procedures used inside it for instrument operations.
Read together they answer one question: who is responsible for what, and when. A great deal of instrument flying is knowing whose problem the next thirty seconds is.
- 61.65(b)(1) — IFR regulations
- 61.65(b)(2) — the Aeronautical Information Manual
- 61.65(b)(3) — the air traffic control system and its procedures
Navigation, Charts And Approaches
Two subjects that in practice are one. Navigation and approaches flown using navigation systems, and the use of en route and instrument approach procedure charts. This is the bulkiest part of the ground work and the part with the shortest half-life once you stop flying.
- 61.65(b)(4) — navigation and approaches by use of navigation systems
- 61.65(b)(5) — en route and approach procedure charts
Weather, And Judging It Yourself
The sixth subject is the interesting one. It asks for the procurement and use of aviation weather reports and forecasts, and for the elements of forecasting weather trends from that information and from your own observation of the conditions.
That last clause is doing real work. The regulation is not asking you to read a forecast; it is asking you to form a view about what the weather is going to do, and then to compare it with what the weather then does. It is the only knowledge area that expects you to disagree with a document.
- 61.65(b)(6) — weather reports, forecasts and trend forecasting
Putting It Together
The seventh subject is the safe and efficient operation of aircraft under instrument flight rules and conditions. It is deliberately broad and it is where an examiner goes when the scripted questions have run out.
- 61.65(b)(7) — safe and efficient IFR operation
How Much Simulator Time Can Count Toward The Forty Hours?
It depends on what the machine is approved as, and the difference is a factor of two. 14 CFR 61.65(i) allows 10 hours from a basic aviation training device and 20 from an advanced one. The Redbird MCX here is an advanced device, so the right-hand column is the one that describes us. Anywhere else, ask which letter the device holds rather than assuming from the model name.
BATD
A basic aviation training device, approved under its own FAA letter of authorization.
Best forprocedure rehearsal and instrument scan between lessons
- Ceiling At 61.65(i)10 hours
- Instructor RequiredYes
- Counts Toward The 40Yes, up to the ceiling
- Combined Cap At 61.65(j)20 hours
AATD
An advanced aviation training device, approved by letter rather than by appearance. This is the class our own Redbird MCX holds.
Best forthe same work, with twice as much of it creditable
- Ceiling At 61.65(i)20 hours
- Instructor RequiredYes
- Counts Toward The 40Yes, up to the ceiling
- Combined Cap At 61.65(j)20 hours
Every Device Ceiling In 61.65
| Device And Paragraph | Maximum Creditable | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Flight Training Device Or Full Flight Simulator, 61.65(h)(1) | 30 hours | Instrument time completed under 14 CFR part 142 |
| Flight Training Device Or Full Flight Simulator, 61.65(h)(2) | 20 hours | Outside a part 142 course |
| Basic Aviation Training Device, 61.65(i) | 10 hours | Training received from an authorized instructor |
| Advanced Aviation Training Device, 61.65(i) | 20 hours | Training received from an authorized instructor |
| Everything Combined, 61.65(j) | 20 hours | Except where 61.65(h)(1) applies |
What Exactly Must The 250 Nautical Mile Cross-Country Contain?
14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(ii) asks for instrument flight training on cross-country procedures, and inside that, one flight with four separate conditions attached. It must be in an airplane, with an authorized instructor. It must be flown under instrument flight rules. It must cover a distance of at least 250 nautical miles, routed on airways or on whatever an air traffic control facility assigns you. And it must include an approach at every airport it lands at, with three different kinds of approach flown on the navigation equipment.
Read the fourth condition carefully, because two clauses are often collapsed into one. An approach at each airport is one requirement. Three different kinds of approach is a separate requirement, and it is satisfied across the whole flight rather than at any single field. A three-leg route with one approach type at each stop meets both at once, which is why routes get planned that way.
From Van Nuys the sensible versions of this flight head north over the mountains or out along the coast, and they take most of a day. Nobody enjoys planning it and everybody remembers flying it.
What Can You Verify Before You Enroll?
Five things, each checkable by a stranger with a browser and no obligation to believe us.
Instructors, Each Holding A Current Medical
Every one holds a commercial certificate or an ATP with an instructor certificate above it. On every training flight the instructor carries pilot-in-command responsibility in law, and for the fifteen taught hours 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2) specifically wants an instrument-airplane rating behind that.
FAA Airmen Registry · 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)Airframes, Owned Rather Than Leased In
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo and Piper Seminole, with conventional and glass panels both on the field.
On the 100-hour cycle at 14 CFR 91.409(b)Areas Of Operation, Published Not Summarised
This page lists all eight from 14 CFR 61.65(c) rather than describing them in general terms, and names the standards document the practical test uses.
FAA-S-ACS-8CCalendar Months Of Knowledge Test Validity
14 CFR 61.39(a)(1)(i) requires the knowledge test to have been passed within the 24-calendar-month period preceding the month the practical test is completed. Plan the written around the checkride, not the other way round.
14 CFR 61.39(a)(1)(i)A Price On The Page, Not Behind A Form
One number, fixed the day you enroll, with no range attached and nothing to request.
Published in fullWhat Happens On The Instrument Practical Test?
An oral and a flight, measured against the Instrument Rating — Airplane Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-8C, which maps onto the eight areas of operation at 14 CFR 61.65(c). The examiner is looking for a pilot who can be trusted with a clearance, not a pilot who can recite one.
The oral goes where your logbook and your weather briefing take it. Expect the regulations that apply to the flight you planned, the charts for the approaches you chose, the alternate you filed and why, and the equipment in the airplane you brought. The flight then asks for approaches — precision and non-precision — holding, course interception and tracking, and at least one thing not working.
One honest note about examiners. We do not employ them, we cannot schedule one on demand, and their availability is the single most common reason a checkride date moves. That is also why the three-hour window at 61.65(d)(2)(i) matters so much: an examiner delay can quietly expire your currency for the test.
Where This Page Stops
This is a part 61 training operation at Van Nuys Airport. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and there is no cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring relationship with any carrier behind anything written here. Nothing on this page promises an interview, employment or a salary.
We publish no pass rate and no graduate count. The business is new, any figure would come from a sample too small to carry weight, and a number nobody can audit is worth less than none. The syllabus, the price, the hours and the regulation behind each requirement are published instead, and every one of them can be checked.
We will tell you the ceiling and not the total. Our device is an advanced aviation training device, so 61.65(i) allows as much as 20 hours toward the rating and 61.65(j) makes that same 20 the combined figure across every device you have used — which means what is left for you personally depends on your own logbook rather than on ours. Toward a private or commercial certificate we publish no device figure at all, because those allowances are written for full flight simulators and flight training devices and the authority for this machine is its letter of authorization.
Questions About The 61.65 Requirements
14 CFR 61.65(d) sets two minimums: fifty cross-country hours logged as pilot in command with ten of them flown in an airplane, and forty hours of instrument time, actual or simulated, of which fifteen must be flight training from an authorized instructor holding an instrument-airplane rating. The 250 nautical mile cross-country and the three-hour freshness window both sit inside the forty.
You need at least a current private pilot certificate with the appropriate category rating, or you must be applying for one at the same time. That is 14 CFR 61.65(a)(1). The combined route is explicitly supported: paragraph (g) lets an applicant for a combined private certificate and instrument rating credit up to 45 hours of cross-country time performing the duties of pilot in command with an authorized instructor in an airplane.
Yes. Nothing in 61.65(d)(1) requires the fifty hours to be flown during instrument training, to be instrument flying, or to be taught. It is cross-country time logged as pilot in command, and ten of the fifty must be in an airplane. For most people a large share of it is already in the logbook before the rating starts.
14 CFR 61.65(h) allows up to 30 hours in a flight training device or full flight simulator when the instrument time is completed under 14 CFR part 142, and up to 20 hours otherwise. 14 CFR 61.65(i) allows up to 10 hours in a basic aviation training device or up to 20 hours in an advanced one, with the time provided by an authorized instructor and the device and its tasks approved by the FAA. 14 CFR 61.65(j) then caps everything combined at 20 total hours, except where the part 142 allowance applies. Our own device is an advanced one, so 20 is the number that matters here.
They do not, and treating them as though they do is the most expensive misreading in this section. Outside a part 142 course, 14 CFR 61.65(j) allows one total of 20 hours of instrument time from a full flight simulator, a flight training device, an aviation training device or any combination of the three. So an advanced device offering 20 hours is offering the whole pool rather than a share of it, and anything credited elsewhere has already come out of it.
One flight in an airplane with an authorized instructor, flown under instrument flight rules, covering at least 250 nautical miles on airways or on a routing an air traffic control facility assigns, an approach flown at every airport it touches, and three approach types on the navigation equipment. The paragraph is 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(ii).
The rule at 14 CFR 61.65(d)(2)(i) is 3 hours of instrument flight training in an airplane appropriate to the rating, flown inside the 2 calendar months before the month your practical test falls in. It is inside the forty hours rather than additional to them, and it expires quietly while you wait for an examiner, so book the test date first.
14 CFR 61.39(a)(1)(i) requires the knowledge test to have been passed within the 24-calendar-month period preceding the month in which the practical test is completed. Beyond that it has to be taken again. Most people sit the written early in training, which is fine as long as the checkride lands inside the window.
The eight in 14 CFR 61.65(c): preflight preparation, preflight procedures, air traffic control clearances and procedures, flight by reference to instruments, navigation systems, instrument approach procedures, emergency operations and postflight procedures. The practical test measures them against the Instrument Rating — Airplane Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-8C.
Yes. 14 CFR 61.65(a)(3) permits either logged ground training from an authorized instructor or a completed home-study course covering the knowledge areas of paragraph (b). You still need the instructor endorsement at 61.65(a)(4) before you can sit the knowledge test, so a home-study route ends with an instructor either way.
No. The instrument rating adds no medical class of its own. You hold whatever certificate 14 CFR 61.23 requires for the pilot privileges you are exercising, which for a private pilot is at least a third-class medical or BasicMed where it applies. If a first-class medical is part of a longer career plan, take it early.
How These Requirements Were Verified
None of the requirements below is a policy of Airline Pilot Flight School; they come from the regulation itself and apply at every part 61 school in the country.
Every paragraph reference on this page was read against the current text of 14 CFR part 61 at eCFR and cross-read at the Cornell Legal Information Institute before publication. The two sources agree on the paragraph structure of 61.65, including that paragraph (g) governs the combined private and instrument application and that the device ceilings sit at (h), (i) and (j).
Regulations move. If a figure here disagrees with the current eCFR text, the eCFR text is right and we would like to be told. Nothing on this page should be relied on in place of reading the section yourself before a checkride.
This page states no aeronautical experience requirement that is not in the regulation, and it does not tell you how many hours you will personally need. The regulation sets minimums. Your logbook decides the rest.
Bring Your Logbook And We Will Count The Fifty Hours With You
The quickest way to find out whether you can start an instrument rating next month is to have someone add up the cross-country time you already hold and tell you the truth about it. Book an assessment flight, bring the logbook, and ask for time under a view-limiting device while you are airborne. You leave with a start date rather than an estimate.
Keep Reading
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 →