So you've finally made up your mind and you are serious about becoming a pilot. While there are probably a million questions floating around in your mind about that whole process, one of the most common ones is simply "How many hours do I need to become a pilot?". The bad news is that, like most things you will find in aviation, the answer is not exactly straightforward. The good news is that in this article, we'll look at all of the flight experience requirements you'll knock out on the way to your Private Pilot Certificate.
One quick note before we begin, this article outlines the requirements for a Private Pilot Certificate for a fixed wing, single-engine, land airplane training under Part 61 of the Federal Aviation Regulations. While most flight training is conducted under Part 61, many people train under Part 141 and each Part 141 school will have its own approved training course. For more on the differences between Part 61 and Part 141 training, check out this article.
The Requirements
The following is a list of the aeronautical experience requirements laid out in §61.109 of the Federal Aviation Regulations. You can click on the requirements to take you to the section where we'll discuss each one in greater detail.
20 hours of dual flight training which must include:
3 hours of cross country flight training in a single engine airplane
3 hours of simulated instrument time in a single engine airplane
3 hours of checkride preparation in a single engine airplane
3 hours of night flight in a single engine airplane which must include:
A cross country flight of over 100nm total distance
10 take offs and full stop landings
10 hours of solo flight in a single engine airplane which must include:
40 Total Flight Hours
The number that flight schools too often tell their prospective students regarding flight time needed to become a Private Pilot is 40 hours. While this is technically true, it's the bare minimum the FAA allows, and it is very rare for a student pilot to be checkride ready at 40 hours, especially with the airspace and technology that the modern pilot must master. The national average, according to the FAA, is 75 hours. There is nothing wrong with that, but be wary of any flight school selling a 'complete private pilot course' that only includes 40 hours.
What is great about this number is that, unlike many of the experience requirements, these hours don't have to be in a single engine airplane. That means as long as you received flight training in an aircraft of some sort, it counts. If you had an instructional flight in a glider at 14, as long as it was logged, it counts! A discovery flight in a helicopter? If a CFI logged it, it counts! Because it is unlikely someone will be ready for their checkride in less than 40 hours, these different types of hours become more helpful when working towards your Commercial Pilot Certificate, but regardless, if they were logged, make sure you keep the records!
Three Hours of Dual Cross Country
Of the 20 hours required for dual training, at least three of those hours must be cross country time. While §61.1 of the Federal Aviation Regulations defines a cross country flight as any flight in which you navigate and land at another airport, for the purposes of earning aeronautical experience towards a pilot certificate you must follow the definitions laid out later in the section. To count flight hours towards the cross country requirements for the Private, Instrument, or Commercial Pilot Certificates, the airport you navigate to and land at must be at least 50nm from your departure airport. Additionally, these three hours must be in a single engine airplane. Time in a helicopter or glider won't help you here.
Three Hours of Simulated Instrument
While the Private Pilot Certificate doesn't allow a pilot to fly into clouds or low visibility conditions, poor planning, poor decision making, or rapidly deteriorating weather conditions can occasionally result in non-instrument rated pilots finding themselves in instrument conditions. For years, accidents resulting from visual flight rules, or VFR, flight into instrument meteorological conditions, or IMC, have been the deadliest category of accidents in aviation with a fatality rate well over 80%. This is why simulated instrument training is so important to new pilots.
During these lessons, you will wear a view limiting device, sometimes called foggles, that block your view of the windshield and only allow you to see the instruments. You will practice basic flight maneuvers, such as straight and level flight, turns, climbs, and descents. Additionally, you will practice recovering the aircraft from unusual flight attitudes that you identify solely by reference to instruments. This training isn't nearly enough to safely operate in the clouds, but it serves as a foundation for an emergency situation.
Three Hours of Checkride Preparation
While everyone's flight training journey looks a little different, usually you start out with the basic fundamentals of flight. From there you will transition to learning flight maneuvers, and once the maneuvers are clean, generally you will begin working on your cross country portion of training. Depending how long the process takes, by the time you have completed all of the cross country requirements some of those maneuvers may be a little rusty.
These three hours are designed to knock off the rust and the requirement protects the pilot from being checkride ready and losing proficiency while they wait for an examiner. These hours must be logged within two calendar months of your checkride and they must be accomplished in a single engine airplane. So let's say you receive your endorsement from your instructor to take your checkride but an examiner won't be available for 90 days. Sometime in that 90 days you will have to go back up with your instructor and work on checkride preparation, and make sure it's logged. Otherwise, you won't get very far on the checkride.
Three Hours of Night Training
Because the Private Pilot Certificate allows a new pilot to fly around the clock, it's important that they get some training experience flying at night. Like most of the training requirements, this time must also be in a single engine airplane. Within these three hours, you and your instructor must complete a cross country flight of over 100nm total distance, and remember to count as a cross country flight for the purposes of the Private Pilot Certificate, one of the airports must be at least 50nm from the original departure airport. As long as you choose an airport that is over 50nm, this makes for an easy out and back trip with one stop that satisfies the requirement.
During your night training, you also need to log 10 takeoffs and landings at night and each landing must include a flight in the traffic pattern. The primary reason for this is that there are optical illusions at play when flying at night that can be especially dangerous when coming in for a landing. These required landings give you the opportunity to experience the differences involved with landing a plane at night before you do it alone. And like all night landings that we log for currency, these 10 landings must be to a full stop. Touch and go's don't count!
Once these requirements have been met, the rest of the 20 hours of required training can be spent in any way you and your instructor see fit. There's no reason you can't dedicate more time to each of these areas than is legally required.
Three Take Offs and Landings at a Tower Controlled Field
You don't need a special license to fly into an airport with an Air Traffic Control tower, so the FAA wants to make sure you get experience doing it early in your aviation journey. For some people flying out of a towered field, you will knock out this requirement on your first solo. For others, this may be the most daunting requirement of all. Getting on the radio and talking to ATC scares a lot of pilots, but with a little practice you'll be a professional in no time. It's important to remember that if you let ATC know you are a student pilot, they will slow it down for you and help you out a little more. Although these landings will almost certainly be during the day, each one is required to be to a complete stop and include a flight in the traffic pattern.
Five Hours of Cross Country Solo Flight Time
Most of us became pilots to go places, and this requirement is all about getting to experience just that. The experience you gain by going to unfamiliar places and figuring things out is invaluable, and it's one of the most fun things about aviation! There isn't a lot to this requirement other than that you must make sure, like in the training cross country flights, that you make sure the destination airport is at least 50nm from your departure airport.
Long Cross Country
As part of your solo cross country time, you will have to complete a cross country flight of at least 150nm total distance. This is often called the long cross country. This flight must consist of full stop landings at three locations and at least one of the segments must be at least 50nm. Often this flight satisfies the remaining cross country hours you need and is one of the last things you do before beginning to focus on checkride preparation.
Conclusion
These handful of items are the legal requirements for how much you have to fly in order to be eligible for a Private Pilot Certificate. Remember, very few people are ready at the bare minimum, and this is your safety and the safety of those in the air with you. It's worth taking your time. Although it sometimes seems like it is taking forever, its just a small blip in your aviation journey, and in my 6 years and hundreds of hours in the air, I've never once been faced with a situation and wished I had less experience to draw on to handle it. So get out there and get that experience!
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