An instrument rating allows a pilot to takeoff, navigate enroute, and make an approach to landing by use of sole reference to flight instruments. The weather conditions can be as low as 1/2 statute mile visibility and an overcast as low as 200’ above ground level. You can fly with weather conditions less than VFR. Of course, this is all subject to the type of weather, pilot experience, and airplane capabilities.
Requirements for an Instrument Rating
A person who applies for an instrument rating in an airplane must:
- Hold at least a current private pilot certificate or be concurrently applying for a private pilot certificate.
- Be able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language.
- Receive and log ground training from an authorized instructor or accomplish a home-study course of training on the aeronautical knowledge areas that apply to the instrument rating sought.
- Receive a logbook or training record endorsement from an authorized instructor certifying that the person is prepared to take the required knowledge test.
- Pass the required knowledge test.
- Pass the required practical test.
For an instrument-airplane rating, you must have logged:
- 50 hours of cross-country flight .me as pilot in command, of which 10 hours must have been in an airplane; and
- 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument .me of which 15 hours must have been received from an authorized instructor.
- Three hours of instrument flight training from an authorized instructor in an airplane that is appropriate to the instrument-airplane ra.ng within 2 calendar months before the date of the practical test; and
- Instrument flight training on cross country flight procedures, including one cross country flight in an airplane with an authorized instructor, that is performed under instrument flight rules, when a flight plan has been filed with an air traffic control facility, and that involves—
- A flight of 250 nautical miles along airways or by directed routing from an air traffic control facility.
- An instrument approach at each airport; and
- Three different kinds of approaches with the use of navigation systems.