* Depends upon individual student ability and study habits

The Instrument Rating
For good reason, the Instrument Rating is often referred to as the Master’s Degree of flying. The Instrument Rating opens a whole new level of the aviation system to pilots beyond just flying in IMC. Remember your regulations? An instrument rating is required for a Commercial pilot to carry passengers for hire beyond 50 nm and to operate under Special VFR at night. The rating brings a whole new level of understanding of operational procedures and airspace. With the Instrument Rating you come to understand how and why the airspace system operates as a whole and you’re able to take full advantage of it.
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If you’ve operated in Southern California as a VFR only pilot then you’ve likely been trapped on the ground under an overcast layer that’s only 2,000’ thick. Or maybe your destination is in a low laying area with an 800’ ceiling and 6 miles of visibility. In either case, an instrument rating would have allowed you to complete the flight relatively easily.
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Private pilots receive and log at least 3.0 hours of simulated instrument training which can be applied towards the 40.0 hour instrument rating requirement. However, instrument flying skills are extremely perishable and unless the pilot has worked to maintain them, those skills have likely faded. The real pacing item is simply the ability to master the necessary skills at a level of proficiency to not only pass the instrument flight exam, but also be a safe and efficient instrument pilot.
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The Blue Raven instrument training course is broken into five basic units.
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Basic instrument flying
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Instrument navigation
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Holding patterns and enroute flight
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Approaches and departures
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Cross country actual instrument and test preparation
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In total, this takes the average student about 50 hours to complete. We encourage our students to ground fly procedures in the airplane as much as their schedule allows to maximize the value of their flight time and this costs you nothing. Our teaching emphasis is on sound fundamental skills and procedures along with building a strong understanding of the National Airspace System and basic airmanship.
We offer instrument training in the Warrior at $120/hr with the instructor at $60/hr and typically about 20 hours of dedicated ground time at $50/hr. The good news is that your material costs are a little less than your private license since you normally already have most of the materials and only need to buy instrument rating specific materials and charts. You will certainly want a headset. A typical instrument rating budge looks like: