Instrument Training: Where Pilots Are Made
Flying blind never felt so empowering.
Your instrument rating isn’t just another box to check on your way to becoming a professional pilot—it’s where everything starts to click. Where flying becomes precise. Where the margins narrow. Where you finally understand what it means to fly the airplane—even when you can’t see a thing.
Instrument training is the bridge between a recreational pilot and a proficient aviator. It’s also where many students feel like they’re drowning in checklists, procedures, and acronyms. But if you stick with it, your skills will grow exponentially—and so will your confidence.
What Is the Instrument Rating, Really?
At its core, your Instrument Rating (IR) allows you to:
• Fly solely by reference to instruments
• Legally enter Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC)
• Operate in Class A airspace (above 18,000 feet)
• File IFR flight plans
• Fly approaches to minimums
• Keep flying when VFR-only pilots are grounded
It’s a game-changer—especially if you plan to go commercial or fly in diverse weather conditions.
Once you’re instrument-rated, you can fly above the clouds, into controlled airspace, through busy corridors—and do so legally, confidently, and safely.
The Learning Curve
Here’s the truth about instrument training: it’s hard.
Not impossible. Not miserable. But challenging in a way that Private Pilot training isn’t. You’ll spend a lot of time:
• Under the hood—wearing a view-limiting device that blocks everything but the instrument panel
• Eyes on the six-pack—or glass cockpit, depending on your aircraft
• Flying in straight lines—precision becomes the goal
• Learning new procedures—approaches, holds, departures, alternates
• Dealing with ATC—a whole new layer of communication
There are also more regulations to absorb. More aeronautical decision-making to master. And it’s easy to start feeling disconnected from the joy of flying—especially when you’re flying in and out of gray, on an imaginary line, staring at nothing but numbers and needles.
That’s why it’s important to remember the joy.
Take a minute at the end of some lessons to take the hood off. Look out the window. Fly along the coast. Catch a sunset. Reset your mindset.
And when your instructor agrees, throw in an emergency procedure or two to keep your skills sharp for the commercial phase that lies ahead.
Playing the Long Game
If your private pilot instructor had the foresight—and you were already planning your aviation career—hopefully, you logged a few instrument hours during your PPL training.
That’s where every little bit counts:
• A practice ILS here
• An unusual attitude recovery there
• 0.2 simulated instrument under the hood on a cross-country flight
It all adds up. Just remember: you still need to meet the VFR flight experience requirements for your PPL, so don’t lean too far into instrument time too early. It’s a careful balance.
Looking ahead to commercial training? We’ll talk more in that chapter about split time—a strategy where two qualified pilots log PIC time together to build hours more affordably and efficiently.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s address the big, controversial topic looming in every instrument student’s journey: the simulator.
Sim Time: Tool or Trap?
This is where the battle lines are drawn.
Flight schools don’t all agree on the value—or usage—of Aviation Training Devices (ATDs) in instrument training. Some swear by them. Others see them as expensive filler.
Here’s the nuance: not all sim time is created equal. We’ll dive into this debate in the next chapter.
But here’s a preview: when used well, the simulator can be a powerful tool for sharpening your instrument procedures without the cost or stress of actual flight. When used poorly, it becomes a profit center for the school—and a distraction for you.
Final Thoughts
Your Instrument Rating is where you start to become the real deal. You’ll think faster. Fly smarter. Respond more precisely. And, more importantly, you’ll be able to fly safely and legally in a wider range of conditions.
It’s a mental workout. Some days will feel like you’re swimming upstream. But stick with it. Push through the plateaus. Because this is the rating that makes all the others possible.
And don’t forget to look outside the cockpit every now and then—both literally and figuratively.
The view is still there. You just have to lift the hood.
Ready to get into the simulator debate? In our next post, we’ll unpack the good, the bad, and the “maybe just skip it” side of using ATDs for instrument training.
