Cloud and low visibility · FAA Part 141
Instrument Rating
The instrument rating teaches you to fly in cloud and low visibility with no outside visual reference, using instruments and air traffic control alone. It is the rating that turns a fair-weather pilot into one who can actually use an airplane for transport.
- Prerequisite
- Private pilot
- Instrument time
- 40 hr
- PIC cross-country
- 50 hr
- Aircraft
- PA-28-181 Archer
Taught at Schenectady County Airport
What to Expect
It is widely considered the hardest rating to earn and the most useful to hold. The workload is mental rather than physical — cockpit management, instrument scan and dividing your attention between flying, navigating and talking. Our Archer is IFR certified and is the aircraft most instrument students fly here.