Part 61: Pilot Certification

Eligibility, training hours, testing, and medical certificates for the private pilot certificate.

13 min read · Regulations: FAR and AIM

After this lesson you can

  • State the eligibility requirements of 14 CFR 61.103 for the private pilot certificate.
  • Break the 40-hour requirement of 61.109 down into its required blocks.
  • Determine a third-class medical certificate's validity for a given age.
  • List what recency a pilot needs before carrying passengers, including at night.

Part 61 of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations governs who is allowed to act as pilot in command of what, and under what conditions. It is the part of the FARs about the pilot as a person, as opposed to Part 91, which governs how the flight itself is conducted.

Its requirements are numeric and checkable: an age, a number of hours, a recurring deadline. That is exactly what the FAA written test asks about, and exactly what a designated pilot examiner (DPE) checks in a logbook before signing off a checkride.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.The certificate ladder
  2. 2.Eligibility requirements: 61.103
  3. 3.The aeronautical experience of 61.109
  4. 4.The medical certificate
  5. 5.Staying current
  6. 6.BasicMed, and what its limitations are
  7. 7.Proficiency versus currency, and the airplane you have not flown

These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the PPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.