Pilot Qualifications

• Hold at least a private pilot certificate (or apply concurrently) with the appropriate airplane rating
• Read, speak, write, and understand English
• Receive and log ground training (or a home-study course) and an endorsement for the knowledge test; pass the knowledge test
• Receive and log flight training on the areas of operation and an endorsement for the practical test (61.65(a))

• 50 hours of cross-country time as PIC, of which 10 hours must be in an airplane
• 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time in the areas of operation, of which 15 hours must come from an authorized instructor who holds an instrument-airplane rating
• 3 hours of instrument flight training in an airplane within 2 calendar months before the practical test (61.65(d))

One cross-country flight in an airplane with an authorized instructor, performed under IFR on a filed flight plan, that involves:

• A flight of 250 NM along airways or by directed ATC routing
• An instrument approach at each airport
• Three different kinds of approaches with the use of navigation systems (61.65(d))

With the instrument rating, you may:

• Fly in IMC on an IFR clearance
• Operate in Class A airspace — all operations there must be conducted under IFR (91.135)
• Fly Special VFR between sunset and sunrise — night SVFR requires an instrument-rated pilot and an aircraft equipped for instrument flight (91.157(b)(4))

Without it, you may not act as PIC under IFR or in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR (61.3(e)). The limitation: the rating alone isn't enough — exercising it also requires 61.57(c) recent instrument experience, covered below.

Within the 6 calendar months preceding the month of the flight, you must have performed and logged — in actual conditions or simulated with a view-limiting device:

• Six instrument approaches
• Holding procedures and tasks
• Intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems (61.57(c)(1))

You may not act as PIC under IFR or in weather less than VFR minimums until current again.

• Inside the six months after losing currency, you can regain it yourself: perform the 61.57(c) tasks in VMC with a safety pilot under simulated conditions, or in an approved simulator, FTD, or ATD.
• Once you've been non-current for more than six calendar months, the only way back is an instrument proficiency check (61.57(d)).

The IPC must include the areas of operation in the instrument ACS and be conducted in an aircraft of the appropriate category or a representative full flight simulator or FTD.

It may be given by:

• An examiner
• An authorized instructor (CFII — the typical route)
• A U.S. Armed Forces instrument-flight-test authority
• A company check pilot (121/125/135/91K)
• A person approved by the Administrator (61.57(d)(3))

Yes. The tasks may be flown in a full flight simulator, FTD, or ATD — alone or in any combination with an aircraft — provided the device represents the category of aircraft and the tasks are performed in simulated instrument conditions. Your logbook entry must record the device, time, and content of the session (61.51(g)(5)). No instructor is required by 61.57(c)(2) for currency in a device.

For simulated instrument flight:

• The other control seat is occupied by a safety pilot holding at least a private pilot certificate with category and class ratings appropriate to the aircraft
• The safety pilot has adequate vision forward and to each side (or a competent observer supplements it)
• The aircraft has fully functioning dual controls — with a narrow exception for a single throwover control wheel (91.109(c))

You (under the hood): PIC time as sole manipulator of an aircraft you're rated in (61.51(e)), plus instrument time — recording the location and type of each approach and the safety pilot's name (61.51(g)(3)).

The safety pilot: may log SIC time, since more than one pilot is required by the regulation the flight is conducted under (91.109(c)), provided they hold the appropriate category and class ratings, and an instrument rating if the flight requires one; a non-instrument-rated safety pilot can't log SIC on a flight conducted under IFR (61.51(f)(2)). If you agree the safety pilot is acting as PIC, they may instead log PIC for that time (61.51(e)(1)(iii)).

Only for flight time when you operate the aircraft solely by reference to instruments under actual or simulated instrument conditions. To count toward 61.57(c) currency, the entry must include the location and type of each approach and the safety pilot's name if one was required (61.51(g)).

Yes — BasicMed doesn't restrict IFR, so long as you hold the instrument rating and are current. The conditions and limitations:

• Aircraft authorized for not more than 7 occupants, flown with no more than 6 passengers, max takeoff weight 12,500 lb or less
• At or below 18,000 ft MSL — so no Class A — and 250 KIAS or less, within the U.S. unless authorized (61.113(i))
• Valid U.S. driver's license; held any FAA medical after July 14, 2006; online medical course every 24 calendar months; comprehensive medical examination by a state-licensed physician (documented on the CMEC checklist) every 48 calendar months (61.23(c)(3))

Currency is the legal floor: six approaches in six months, all of which you could have flown under the hood in clear, calm air. Proficiency is being able to hand-fly an approach to minimums, single-pilot, in turbulence, after a reroute. You can be perfectly legal and dangerously rusty — which is why the ACS calls out proficiency versus currency as a risk element (IR.I.A.R1) and why personal minimums exist.

Self-imposed limits more conservative than the regulations — your own ceiling/visibility floors, wind limits, and recency requirements. If the weather is below your personal minimums, delay or cancel; the IFH's planning scenario treats that as the baseline good decision (IFH ch. 10). Raise them when anything is unfamiliar: a new-to-you aircraft, different avionics or flight display systems, or a long gap since your last approach in actual (IR.I.A.R2, R4).

• Full flight simulator or FTD: up to 30 hours if completed under a part 142 training center program, otherwise up to 20 hours
• Aviation training devices: up to 10 hours in a basic ATD or up to 20 hours in an advanced ATD (FAA-approved, with an authorized instructor providing the time)
• Except for the part 142 case, no more than 20 total hours of device time may be credited, in any combination (61.65(h), (i), (j))

Everything that degrades an instrument scan degrades it faster in IMC: fatigue, stress, illness, medication, and hypoxia. The stakes are higher because instrument flight removes the natural horizon — the vestibular illusions that cause spatial disorientation (the leans, graveyard spiral, and friends) are only overcome by a disciplined scan and trust in the instruments, both of which erode when you're tired or impaired (IFH ch. 3). If you wouldn't be sharp enough to hand-fly an approach to minimums today, the answer is no-go.

Because instrument flying is procedural, and the procedures live in the equipment. A different autopilot, GPS navigator, or PFD changes how you load an approach, sequence a missed, or recognize a failure — at exactly the moment your attention is fully committed. Mitigate it:

• Get transition training before flying IFR with new equipment
• Rehearse the button-flows on the ground
• Raise your personal minimums until the avionics are second nature