How to Prepare

Updated July 2026 · by Jeff, pilot and builder of Zeekin Around

The instrument rating is the most procedure-dense training most pilots ever do. The good news: procedures are exactly what retrieval practice and chair flying are built for. Here's the path from private pilot to instrument checkride, and how to study each leg of it.

1. Know the gate: what 61.65 requires

To take the practical test you need: a private certificate (or concurrent application), a knowledge-test endorsement and a passed written, and the aeronautical experience of 61.65(d) — 50 hours of cross-country PIC time (at least 10 in airplanes), and 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time including at least 15 hours with an instrument-airplane instructor. Within that time you need 3 hours of instrument training within 2 calendar months of the test and one instructor-accompanied IFR cross-country of 250 nautical miles along airways or ATC-directed routing, with an instrument approach at each airport and three different kinds of approaches. Simulators and training devices can credit a healthy share of the 40 hours — up to 20 hours outside a part 142 program (61.65(h)–(j)) — so a home sim with an instructor is worth real money here.

2. Take the written early

The IRA knowledge test covers regs, weather, charts, and procedures — material this guide drills. Passing it early front-loads the theory so every flight lesson reinforces something you already understand. 61.65(a)(3) allows a home-study course; log your ground training and get the endorsement from your instructor.

3. Study to the ACS, not around it

FAA-S-ACS-8C is the literal blueprint of your oral and flight test — the examiner is required to evaluate every task. The task pages in this guide mirror it exactly: work through each task's knowledge, risk, and skill elements and honestly grade yourself. A gap in the guide is a gap on checkride day.

4. Test yourself instead of rereading

Currency rules, alternate minima, lost-comm logic — this is exactly the material that evaporates when you only reread it. Use quiz mode on the task pages and the spaced-repetition flashcards: say the answer out loud, then reveal. The scheduler brings each card back right as it starts to fade, so the 1-2-3 rule is still there on test day, not just the night you crammed it.

5. Chair-fly the procedures

Holds, approaches, the miss, partial panel — every one has a flow, and flows are learned on the ground for free. The chair flying section scripts each procedure step by step with your own aircraft's numbers. Rehearse the callouts out loud: "glideslope alive — gear down — final descent." When you fly it for real, the airplane is the only new part.

6. Fly the oral like a flight

Instrument orals live on scenarios: "File to this airport tonight — do you need an alternate? Which one? How much fuel?" Practice chaining the regs end-to-end (91.169 → 91.167 → charts), not just reciting them one at a time. The cross-country planning task (I.C) is the examiner's favorite frame for the whole oral.