Pilot certification in the United States
Pilot certification in the United States is typically required for an individual to act as a pilot-in-command of an aircraft. It is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). A pilot is certified under the authority of Parts 61 or (if training was conducted by an FAA-approved school) 141 of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, also known as the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs).
An FAA-issued pilot certificate is evidence that an individual is duly authorized to exercise piloting privileges. The pilot certificate is one of several kinds of airman certificates issued by the FAA.
A pilot is certified to fly aircraft at one or more named privilege levels and, at each privilege level, rated to fly aircraft of specific categories. Privilege levels of pilot certificates are, in order of increasing privilege:
Pilots can be rated in these aircraft categories:
Most aircraft categories are further broken down into classes. If a category is so divided, a pilot must hold a class rating to operate an aircraft in that class:
A student pilot certificate does not list category or class ratings but is instead endorsed by a flight instructor to confer privileges in specific makes and models of aircraft.
A type rating is required in a specific make and model of aircraft if the aircraft weighs more than 12,500 lb (5,700 kg) at takeoff or is powered by one or more turbojet engines. The Boeing 747, Beechcraft Super King Air 350, and the Hawker Hunter are examples of aircraft that require type ratings.
To legally operate under instrument flight rules (IFR), a pilot can separately add an instrument rating to a private or commercial certificate. An airline transport pilot implicitly holds an instrument rating, so the instrument rating does not appear on an ATP certificate. The FAA issues instrument ratings separately for airplane and powered lift categories and the helicopter class (INSTA and INSTH). Glider and airship pilots may also operate under Instrument Flight Rules under certain circumstances. An individual may hold only one pilot certificate at one time; that certificate may authorize multiple privilege levels distinguished by aircraft category, class or type. For example, an Airline Transport Pilot certificate holder may be permitted to exercise ATP privileges when flying multi-engine land airplanes, but only Commercial Pilot privileges when flying single-engine land airplanes and gliders. Similarly a Commercial Pilot holder with a glider rating may have only Private Pilot privileges for single-engine land airplanes.
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