If you plan on continued training after your private pilot’s license, generally the progression is to get your instrument rating next. Not only will becoming instrument rated make you a better and more proficient pilot, it will also allow you to fly more because you aren’t as limited by the weather conditions as compared to non-instrument rated pilots.
Getting your instrument rating can be a grueling process and requires 40 actual or simulated instrument flight hours, which is the same number of hours required to even get your private pilot’s license (PPL). It is a challenging rating both mentally and from an endurance perspective. Because it’s not a small commitment, a common questions pilots ask is how much does an instrument rating cost?
An instrument rating costs around $8,000 which is primarily driven by the 40 required actual or simulated instrument flight training hours, as well as small costs for study materials and examination fees. Up to 10 training hours can be completed in an approved simulator which can reduce your costs by up to $1,000 or more.
Prices will obviously vary based on your geography and how often you are able to fly. There are also some pre-requisites to getting your instrument rating that if you have not already completed by the time you start your training you’ll need to add in for a true estimate of what the rating actually costs. The rest of this post will cover these costs in more detail so that you can make adjustments for your unique scenario.
If you prefer video format, here is this post covered on our YouTube Channel:
The Costs of Getting an Instrument Rating
As with other ratings, your main costs in training are going to be the airplane, the instructor, ground school and study materials, and examination fees. The instrument rating also has a unique pre-requisite for cross-country pilot in command time, and we’ll detail that later in the post as it could end up being something you hadn’t considered when pricing out how much an instrument rating will cost.
Airplane Costs for the Instrument Rating
The instrument rating requires that you have 40 hours of flight training in actual or simulated instrument flight conditions. If you were planning ahead during your private pilot training days you might have already gotten a couple hours of simulated instrument time so you’d have a very small head start. But most pilots are starting out with zero instrument time so using 40 hours as your flight estimate is a good starting point.
The exact cost of renting an airplane for 40 training hours will vary a lot based on the airplane itself, your geography, wet or dry rental rates (i.e. does it include fuel charges or not), if instructor fees are already included in the airplane rate, and if you buy bulk hours or not.
All of that to say, using an average of about $125 per flight hour to rent an airplane that includes fuel but no instructor is a good average. 40 flight hours at $125 per hour is $5,000.
Sometimes if you decided to buy all of these hours upfront you can get a decent discount on the price. Buying the hours upfront (if you’re able to do so) will also help provide some accountability to finish the rating and not give up part of the way through.
Side note: If presented with the option to do your instrument training in an airplane with traditional “steam gauge” avionics package versus an all-glass avionics package, I highly recommend learning on steam gauges. It is MUCH easier to transition to glass from steam gauges than the other way around. Learning “the hard way” on steam gauges will make you a more proficient pilot in my opinion. However if you will always be in a position to fly glass avionics (financially capable of doing so, or you’re going to the airlines to fly new equipment) then there is an argument to be made to go ahead and learn on glass since it is definitely easier and you have a lot more tools and situational awareness at your fingertips.
Instructor Costs for the Instrument Rating
Depending on if you’re training at a flight school or with an individual instructor, the costs of your instructor’s time may or may not already be included in the price of the airplane. For the purposes of this article we are assuming that they are charged separately. All of the instructors I have had (including at a flight school like American Flyers) have either only charged for actual flight time (basically get the pre and post-flight briefings for “free”), or they would charge their ground school portions at a fraction of the flight time cost.
For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume that you are only charged for flight time costs, but I will use a slightly higher hourly rate than the average to compensate for this. 40 hours of flight training from an instructor at $50 per hour is another $2,000. We’ll cover ground school in the next section, so this $2,000 estimate is just training for actual flight time.
Ground School and Written Exam Costs for Instrument Rating
Ground school for the instrument rating is incredibly important. A lot of it is new material like the new maps, approach plates, and procedures. Some of it is review from your private days but with much more scrutiny. Sure you covered vacuum pump failures in private ground school, but it didn’t have the same consequence in VFR conditions versus when you’re in the clouds flying an approach. You’ll cover weather in a lot more detail than you did in private training because instead of just avoiding weather, you’ll be flying in the weather and need to have a deeper knowledge of how it works.
The written exam for the instrument rating costs $150 as of this writing (you get $10 off with an EAA or AOPA membership, hooray). In order to take the exam you’ll need an endorsement from an instructor indicating that you are prepared. For the instrument rating I took my ground school at an intensive 3-day ground school at American Flyers, and at the end of it they sign you off to take the exam. It cost about $300. I have always found that method extremely effective to just get immersed in the material and crank out your written, but it’s not for everyone.
If you need a curriculum but want to go at your own pace, I highly recommend King Schools’ curriculum. I used that for my commercial written exam and got an A on the test. It’s really easy to follow and downloadable on all smart devices or web browser. Whether you do a weekend ground school or an online program like King Schools, factor about $300 for ground school and written test prep.
Practical Test Examiner Fees for Instrument Rating
At the end of your training you’ll have an oral and practical flight check ride, just like your private check ride. Examiner fees vary from city to city but $600 is a conservative estimate. You’ll pay this at the time of the exam. Examiners make a good living! The actual flight portion is usually only about an hour or hour and a half, so you’ll obviously need to rent an airplane for this time as well (around $125 or so).
Total Cost and How to Reduce
If you total up $5,000 of airplane rental fees, $2,000 of instructor costs, $450 of written test prep and exam fees, and $600 of check ride fees, that comes out to about $8,050. It will obviously vary with your specific regional costs as well as what kind of airplane you are training in, but $8,000 is a good starting point for an estimate. Be sure to keep reading through the end where we outline some hidden costs you might not be considering in that $8,000 (but we’re considering it “hidden” costs as it might not apply to everyone).
Here are a few ways to reduce the cost of the instrument rating:
Fly Often
In the above example we are assuming that you take your check ride when you have exactly 40 hours of instrument flight experience, which will vary from person to person. The more often you fly, the higher chance you have at being ready for your check ride after the minimum 40 hours of training because you won’t have to repeat lessons as much (if at all) and you will learn the material at a faster pace.
During my instrument training I was able to fly 2-3 times per week because I did 95% of my training at night and would just head to the airport after work. That’s one perk of the instrument rating schedule-wise – you can do it during the day or at nighttime, in good weather and bad! If the weather is crummy one day, what a perfect time to go do your instrument training! Take the hood off and get some actual IFR time in your logbook.
Use the Simulator
Up to 20 hours of the 40 instrument flight hour requirement can actually be completed in an approved simulator or AATD (advanced aviation training device) per 14 CFR 61.65. Time in the simulator will almost always be less expensive than renting an actual airplane and so I highly recommend using the maximum amount of training hours you can in an AATD. Not all simulators meet the definition of an AATD to be counted towards the rating, so make sure you are logging this time appropriately based on the device.
Buy Training Hours in Bulk
You can usually get a discount if you buy a block amount of hours versus a pay-as-you-go type system. If you are serious about your training and can afford it, buying bulk hours can cut down on your training costs.
Choose a More Affordable Airplane
Getting your instrument rating in a Cessna 172 with a G1000 glass panel will cost a lot more than a Cessna 172 with traditional steam gauges and a modest GPS. Often times flight schools will have a few types of airplanes to choose from, so be mindful that there might be a more affordable airplane on the ramp that you can select.
Utilize Free Training Resources Available to You
YouTube has become an amazing learning tool for just about anything. If there are areas of your training that you are slow to comprehend, perhaps seeing it explained in video format would help it “click” in a way that hasn’t with just a verbal explanation from your flight instructor.
Also when you get ready to prepare for your check ride, be sure to download (or buy… it’s inexpensive on Amazon) the ACS which shows you exactly what you’ll be asked during your exam. There should be no surprises because you already know what they’re going to test you on! Be sure to do plenty of self-study for this through the ACS and also YouTube. There are lots of good videos that show mock instrument check rides and the like.
Hidden Costs in the Instrument Rating
First of all, the cost estimate above doesn’t leave much (or any) room for additional training time. To be conservative I would factor in about 20% more training (airplane rental and instructor fees) time. Keep in mind that the $8,000 estimate did not include the use of an approved simulator for 10 of the flight training hours, which would reduce the overall cost. That can be used to offset the extra buffer you add to your training budget.
Secondly, the instrument rating does require 50 hours of cross-country pilot in command time. If you’re just coming from your private pilot training you will probably only have about 5-10 hours of cross-country PIC. This means you have another 40 or so hours to go fly cross-country before you are eligible for the instrument rating.
However you can double dip some of this with your instrument training as you’ll be able to still be PIC even with an instructor on board. The FAA doesn’t distinguish meteorological conditions for the purposes of logging PIC time so if your IFR training takes you cross-country (50+ nautical miles straight line distance between the place of landing and your originating airport) then you can log it.
Conclusion
Although it can be a hefty investment right after coming out of your private pilot training, getting your instrument rating is a real investment in your safety and proficiency as a pilot. As with other ratings you can be economical in your training costs by flying often, buying in bulk, and being selective about where and what you fly. 40 hours under the hood is pretty grueling but it’s very worth it in the end. For related reading be sure to check out “how long does it take to get an instrument rating”.
Happy training!
