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4 Answers

Instrument Rating with Safety Pilot

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Instrument Rating

I am working on getting my instrument rating in a C172 & would like to use a safety pilot for 25 of the required 40 hours.  Is there a syllabus recommendation for the 25 hour safety pilot portion?

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4 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Apr 23, 2013

    No syllabus. Doing it this way may require more time than the minimum 15 hours with a CFII. My advice is to get 30+ hours with a CFII. It is valuable time.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Apr 23, 2013

    I like to think of flying with a safety pilot during instrument training as the instrument student’s equivalent of a student pilot soloing.

    And, like student solos, it’s best something coordinated with the instructor to practice what was taught and to avoid practicing and ingraining mistakes. The best student pilot solos are those where the CFI assigns the solo “homework.” The same is true for instrument students and safety pilots.

    Discussions of instrument training suggest Wes is correct. Most instrument students require more than the 15 minimum hours of instruction. That may or may not apply to you, but if you sit down with your CFII and work out safety pilot “homework,” you’ll find out soon enough whether it enhances your training or not.

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  3. Ray Svobodny on Apr 26, 2013

    Wes & Mark, thank you for your CFII advice, I appreciate it.

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  4. Juan Carl's Gellert on Jun 10, 2013

    I suggest you fly with your CFII as much as you can afford. It’s money well invested. Remember that your Instruments Rating is for our own safety and the ones with you on the aircraft. I did my check ride 10 days ago and I logged only one hour with safety pilot, the rest always with an instructor, I had four of them and I learned good things from all of them. Now that I know, I would not have done it different. This was my personal experience anyway.

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