Steps to becoming an Instrument Rated Pilot:
If you are new to flying a Cirrus Aircraft
If you’re new to Cirrus, you will first go through a Transition course with your instructor and attain a VFR checkout. This can be done over 3 full days or 6 half days of training which will then give you the opportunity to build PIC time yourself and gain more avionics and systems specific experience. In addition to the 3-day course, the ‘ground’ portion of this course is completed with thorough Cirrus Aircraft videos, found in their learning catalog. More information on this course is on our website here.
Complete ground training through a home-study course:
exam with a grade of at least 70 percent:
Once you have completed the on-line ground training course, your instructor must ensure your understanding of the material before you take the FAA knowledge exam. This involves going to an FAA-approved testing center and answering 60 multiple-choice questions in 2.5 hours.
Complete, at a minimum, 40 hours of actual or simulated Instrument time with your instructor and 50 hours of PIC cross-country flight time:
As many of the training flights with your instructor will be cross countries, these hours can be counted towards your 50 hours PIC cross country time requirement. 20 hours of your required 40 hours of instrument time can be accomplished on our state-of-the-art AATD simulator.
Pass a practical flying test (known as a “checkride”) administered by an FAA-designated evaluator:
This includes an oral and a flight exam. You will have to demonstrate different tasks like IFR cross country flight planning, unusual attitudes and flying instrument approach procedures. The test takes about four hours.
While learning to fly in one of our state-of-the-art Cirrus aircraft, we do recommend that you also complete the Cirrus Instrument Procedures Course.
This is an amazing on-line course that has been developed by the Cirrus Aircraft factory and is a valuable course with Cirrus specific videos and content.
