Instrument Flight Rules - Qualifications

Qualifications

To fly under IFR, a pilot must have an instrument rating, and must meet currency of experience requirements. In the United States, these currency of experience requirements include six instrument approaches, NAVAID intercepting and tracking, and holding procedures in the past six calendar months. The aircraft must also be equipped and type-certified for instrument flight, and the related navigational equipment must have been inspected within a specific period of time prior to the instrument flight.

As a partial alternative to the instrument rating, the UK has an "IMC rating", the privileges of which include flight under IFR in airspace classes B to G in instrument meteorological conditions. With this rating, non-instrument-rated pilots can also elect to fly under IFR in visual meteorological conditions outside controlled airspace. Compared to the rest of the world, the UK's flight crew licensing regime is somewhat unusual in its licensing for meteorological conditions and airspace, rather than flight rules.

In the United States, instruments required for IFR flight are those that are required for VFR flight in addition to: heading indicator, sensitive altimeter adjustable for barometric pressure, clock with a sweep-second pointer or digital equivalent, attitude indicator, radios and suitable avionics for the route to be flown, alternator or generator, gyroscopic rate-of-turn indicator that is either a turn coordinator or the turn and bank indicator.