After you receive your private pilot license, you will undoubtedly want to
take trips and vacations. This will be a lot of fun and a time saver. Then
bad weather sets in, and you have to cancel your trip, lose vacation time,
miss work days, and spend extra money. The solution is the instrument
rating. This rating states that you are qualified to fly in less than V.F.R
conditions (basically a license to fly in the clouds, fog, rain, etc. I.M.C),
1000 ft or less than 3 miles visibility. This rating is useful when trying
to make long flights 300-600 NM. It is very difficult to travel 300-600 NM
without encountering bad weather that requires instrument skills.
REQUIREMENT FOR THE INSTRUMENT RATING
Hold a private pilot certificate.
Take instrument ground school and pass a written test with a score of 70% or
better. This test consists of 60 multiple-choice airplane related question,
such as.
1. Airplane instruments
2. Aiplane systems
3. Federal Aviation Regulations
4. Airports and airspace
5. Airplane preformance
6. Aeromedical factors
7. Weather
8. Navigation
9. Cross-country flying etc.
10. Instrument approaches
11. IFR en route
Have logged.
-50 hours as pilot-in-command (P.I.C) time cross country, not counting the
10 hours from your private cross-countries.
-40 hours of simulated or actual instrument time (either under the hood or
in the clouds) and not more than 20 hours in an instrument ground trainer.
-15 hours of instrument flight instruction by a certified flight instructor
(CFII) with at least 5 hours in airplanes or helicopters.
After you have met these requirements,
you are ready for your instrument checkride (flight test).
Costs
The cost is dependent upon your ability and flight time. The national
average ranges from $1000.00 to $1500.00 which includes all flight time,
instructor fees, flight test and ground school.
HINT: Only 15 hours are required by an instructor. It is legal
to fly under the hood as long as there is another pilot in the right seat
acting as a safety pilot. Many times you can save instructor fees or split
the rental cost with another pilot to build your 40 hours. It is also
efficient and more productive to use a ground trainer for the 20 allowable
hours. Remember, when you have a question, you can press the pause button on
a simulator, but you can not stop an airplane in flight.
Time
Ground school will last approximately 12 weeks and will be very in depth.
Flight Time
Since this rating relies little on weather, it is a fairly quick rating to
receive (Approximately 1 to 2 months).
