what is the legal age for me to be a privet pilot?

Question

what is the legal age for me to be a privet pilot?

Answer 1

Rick gave a good answer, but i'll elaborate more on the minimums if you go to a Part 141 school, as they are slightly different. At a part 141 school, the Private is reduced to 35 hours, but as said, it usually takes more like 55-60.



The instrument rating is another 40 hours of dual instruction under Part 141, and your total time doesn't matter. Part 61 has cross country requirements to meet for the instrument as well, but Part 141 does not. If you go to a 141 school that offers an accelerated commercial program, you can get your commercial with 75 hours on top of the private and instrument.



All told, if you do your private, instrument, and commercial in the minimum time (highly unlikely), you would have a commercial at 150 hours under part 141 instead of the minimum 250 under part 61. Some schools may also offer an ATP with less than 1500 hours total time, but I am not familiar with those.

Answer 2

Private Pilot License:

To solo without a Certified Flight Instructor: 16 years of age

To obtain the PPL: 17 years of age



Requires total time of 40 flight hours.

There are some specific requirements such as night flying, instrument flying etc for each type but I'll just list the total for now.





Instrument Rating (Very helpful and recommended but not necessary)

Requires PPL

Total time of 40 hours of flight lessons including 50 hours of cross country time (which is any flight +50 miles from departure airport)



Commercial (requires IFR to fly cross country or at night)

Total time 250 hours

To obtain you need to be at least 18 years of age.



ATP or Airline Transport Pilot

To obtain you need to be at least 23 years of age.

Total time 1500 hours

Answer 3

I am not sure about it but at least you must be 17years old.

Answer 4

For a private certificate, you must be at least 17; however you may solo at 16. This is for powered aircraft. I'm pretty certain the in a glider, both ages drop by 1 year. Since I know nothing about gliders and logging of time in same, I'll not comment further on them. You will need either 35 or 40 hours depending on whether you attend a 61 school or 141 school. Not to worry, the national average is closer to 55-70 hours, and the cost will be somewhere between $7,000 and $12,000.



An instrument rating requires, I believe 125 hours of total time, and 40 hours of instrument time. This is realistic, so figure another $9,000 for this rating. On the other hand, if applied properly, all of the time will count towards your Commercial Pilot Certificate. Minimum age 18, total time required is 250 hours. This adds another $15,000.



ATP requires 1500 hours, but most of them will have been paid for by people paying you to fly once you have a Commercial. So the cost of the final training and checkride is probably less than $2000.



If your are really serious, check out ATP (a nationwide flight school), check out the various colleges that provide aviation ratings, and you can attend a local flight school. I prefer ATP, but all have advantages and disadvantages depending on your unique circumstances.



For all the information that you need about requirements, see faa.gov, and read FAR Part 61.