What are the requirements for a private pilot certificate?
The rules are in 14 CFR Part 61, mostly 61.103 through 61.109. This page covers the airplane single-engine certificate: each requirement, its citation, and what it means when you are the one doing it.
What do I need to become a private pilot?
Five things, set out in 14 CFR 61.103 and the sections it points to:
- Be 17 or older and able to read, speak, write, and understand English.
- Hold a student pilot certificate, and a medical certificate to use it.
- Pass the knowledge test, after an instructor endorses you for it.
- Log the training and flight time in 61.109.
- Pass the practical test, the checkride, after an instructor endorses you for it.
The sections below take them in the order you meet them.
How old do I have to be?
16 for the student pilot certificate (61.83) and 17 years for the private pilot certificate (61.103(a)). The English requirement applies at both steps.
Do I need a student pilot certificate?
Yes. 61.103(j) requires one, or a sport or recreational pilot certificate, before you can apply for the private. Under 61.85, you can apply through a flight instructor or an examiner, among others.
Do I need a medical certificate?
Yes, at least a third-class medical certificate to use the privileges of a student or private pilot certificate (61.23(a)(3)(i)). Issued before you turn 40, it lasts until the 60th month after the month of the exam. At 40 or older, the 24th month.
There is one exception, which the FAA calls BasicMed. 61.113(i) lets a private pilot fly without a medical certificate with a valid U.S. driver's license and a list of conditions, and 61.23(c)(3) requires that you held a medical certificate at some point after July 14, 2006. Someone who has never held one cannot start there.
Get the medical early. If the exam raises a question, it is better to know before the training money is spent.
What is the knowledge test?
It is the FAA's written exam on the aeronautical knowledge areas of 61.105(b). You prepare with logged ground training from an instructor or a home-study course (61.105(a)), and you need an instructor's endorsement before you sit it (61.103(d)).
The thirteen areas include the regulations, weather, charts and navigation, radio procedures, aerodynamics and aircraft systems, weight and balance, density altitude, stall and spin awareness, and decision making.
A passing result has a shelf life. It must fall within the 24 calendar months before the month you complete the checkride (61.39(a)(1)(i)).
How many hours do I need?
At least 40 hours of flight time, with at least 20 hours of training from an instructor and 10 hours of solo flight training (61.109(a)). Within that, the training must include at least:
- 3 hours of cross-country flight training.
- 3 hours of night flight training, with one cross-country flight of over 100 nautical miles total and 10 takeoffs and 10 full-stop landings.
- 3 hours of flight training by reference to instruments alone.
- 3 hours of training with an instructor in preparation for the checkride, within the 2 calendar months before the month of the test.
- 10 hours of solo, including 5 hours of solo cross-country, one solo cross-country of 150 nautical miles total with full-stop landings at three points and one leg of more than 50 nautical miles, and three full-stop takeoffs and landings at an airport with an operating control tower.
40 hours is the legal minimum. How many hours you will fly depends on you, and the cost page works through 55, 65, and 80.
What has to happen before I fly solo?
Three things under 61.87. You pass a knowledge test that your instructor gives and grades, on parts 61 and 91, the airspace of the airport you will solo from, and the airplane's limits, and the instructor reviews every wrong answer with you. You log the pre-solo training and show the instructor you can fly it safely. You get an endorsement for that make and model from an instructor who trained you in the last 90 days.
What is on the checkride?
An oral exam and a flight with an examiner, covering the twelve areas of operation in 61.107(b)(1): preflight preparation; preflight procedures; airport and seaplane base operations; takeoffs, landings, and go-arounds; performance maneuvers; ground reference maneuvers; navigation; slow flight and stalls; basic instrument maneuvers; emergency operations; night operations; and postflight procedures.
To take it you need your knowledge test report, your medical, an instructor's endorsement that you are prepared (61.103(f)), the 3 hours of recent preparation above, and a completed application (61.39(a)).
In 2025, examiners approved 28,765 of 38,318 original private pilot airplane practical tests, 75.07 percent (FAA, U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics 2025, Table 19). The table counts tests, so it is not a first-attempt figure. If a test goes wrong, here is what happens next.
Where do I start?
With a first flight, then the medical and the student pilot certificate. I teach every lesson of private pilot training myself, from the first flight to the checkride, at $75/hr of instruction. The airplane, a Cessna 172 or Piper Archer, is paid to Countrywide Flyers at the club rate.
The rest, including how lessons are scheduled, is on theprivate pilot page.
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