How long does it take to become a pilot? It depends on which kind of pilot you mean. A private pilot certificate can take about three months if you fly several times a week. Going from zero hours to a commercial certificate and then a flight instructor certificate usually takes a year or more of steady flying. Reaching an airline job takes longer, because the airlines hire on total flight time, and most pilots build that time after training ends.
This guide answers “how long does it take to become a pilot?” one step at a time: each certificate and rating, the FAA minimum hours, the hours students typically fly at Choice Aviation, and what makes the calendar longer or shorter.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot? The Short Answer
- Private pilot: FAA minimum of 40 hours under Part 61 or 35 under Part 141. Choice students typically fly about 55. Part 141 students at Choice work to a 12-week completion target.
- Instrument rating: about 50 hours of instruction at Choice, with simulator time included.
- Commercial pilot (single and multi-engine): about 121 more hours at Choice, for roughly 227 hours from zero.
- Flight instructor (CFI): a two-week ground school at Choice, plus about 6 hours of flight training.
- Instrument instructor (CFII): about 5 more hours. Roughly 238 hours from zero through CFII.
- Airline pilot: 1,500 hours for an airline transport pilot certificate, with reduced minimums for some military pilots and graduates of FAA-authorized degree programs.
So how long does it take to become a pilot in your case? The biggest factor in every step is how often you fly.
Table of Contents
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot for Each Certificate?
Pilot training is a series of certificates and ratings, each built on the one before it. Here is how the path looks at Choice, with the FAA minimum next to the hours Choice’s career program estimates.
| Step | FAA minimum | Typical at Choice | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private pilot | 40 hours (Part 61), 35 hours (Part 141) | ~55 hours | Fly yourself and passengers, not for hire |
| Instrument rating | 40 hours instrument time, 50 hours cross-country PIC | ~50 hours | Fly in clouds and low visibility under IFR |
| Commercial, single and multi | 250 hours total (Part 61) | ~121 hours | Be paid to fly |
| CFI | Commercial certificate, instrument rating, two knowledge tests | ~6 hours | Teach students to fly |
| CFII | CFI plus instrument instructor checkride | ~5 hours | Teach instrument students |
The Choice numbers are estimates from its career program. Your hours will vary with currency, weather, and how often you fly.
Private Pilot Certificate
The private certificate is where everyone starts. Under 14 CFR 61.109, you need at least 40 hours of flight time, including 20 hours with an instructor and 10 hours solo, plus cross-country, night, and instrument training. You must be 17 to take the checkride, and you can solo at 16.
Very few people finish at the legal minimum. At Choice, private students typically fly about 55 hours in the Cessna 172. You also have to pass the FAA knowledge test and the checkride, which is an oral exam followed by a flight with an examiner.
At Choice, Part 141 private students work to a 12-week completion target. That pace assumes regular flying, usually several lessons a week.
Instrument Rating
The instrument rating teaches you to fly by reference to instruments alone, in clouds and low visibility, inside the air traffic control system. 14 CFR 61.65 requires 50 hours of cross-country time as pilot in command and 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time, 15 of them with an instrument instructor.
The cross-country requirement often controls the timeline. Many students finish private with only a few hours of solo cross-country, so they need to build pilot-in-command time before or during instrument training. Choice estimates about 50 hours of instruction for this step, in a glass-panel 172 and a simulator. The simulator saves money and calendar time, because you can practice approaches without waiting for the right weather.
Commercial Pilot Certificate
The commercial certificate is the one you must hold to be paid to fly. Under Part 61, 14 CFR 61.129 requires at least 250 hours of total flight time, including 100 hours as pilot in command. You must be 18.
Choice’s commercial program covers both single-engine and multi-engine, with the multi-engine and complex training done in a Cessna 310. Choice estimates about 121 hours for this step and roughly 227 hours from zero to a commercial certificate with both ratings. Part 141 approved courses can qualify students with fewer total hours than Part 61 requires, so your school should tell you which rules your plan uses.
The multi-engine part can be compressed. Choice runs its multi-engine rating as a one-week intensive for pilots who already hold a certificate.
Flight Instructor Certificates (CFI, CFII, MEI)
Most professional pilots become flight instructors next. Instructing pays you to fly while you build the hours that employers look for. Under 14 CFR 61.183, a CFI applicant must be 18, hold a commercial or ATP certificate with an instrument rating, pass two knowledge tests, and have a spin training endorsement.
Choice’s CFI program puts about 50 hours of ground instruction into two weeks. You must pass the Fundamentals of Instructing (FOI) and Flight Instructor Airplane (FIA) written exams before day one. Flight training for the CFI checkride is usually short, about 6 hours at Choice, plus spin training if you don’t already have the endorsement.
The instrument instructor (CFII) adds about 5 hours. The multi-engine instructor (MEI) rating requires at least 15 hours of multi-engine pilot-in-command time, which Choice can help you build in the 310.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot Under Part 61 vs. Part 141?
Part 61 and Part 141 are two sets of FAA rules for flight training. Both lead to the same certificates.
Part 141 schools follow an FAA-approved syllabus with stage checks, and the regulations allow lower minimum hours for some certificates. The private pilot minimum is 35 hours under Part 141 versus 40 under Part 61. Part 141 approval is also what allows veterans to use VA benefits for flight training.
Part 61 is more flexible. Lessons follow your schedule and background, which suits pilots who work full time, are returning after a break, or are transferring schools.
So how long does it take to become a pilot under each? Neither path is automatically faster. Most students fly more than the minimum either way, and the calendar is set mostly by how often you fly. Choice offers both, so you can pick the structure that fits.
What Makes Pilot Training Take Longer or Shorter
Two students in the same program can give very different answers to “how long does it take to become a pilot?” These are the usual reasons.
How Often You Fly
Consistency matters more than anything else. When lessons are a week or more apart, part of every lesson goes to relearning the last one. Choice’s advice to career students is direct: fly three times a week if you can. Students who fly consistently finish faster and spend less overall.
Here is the arithmetic. If you fly three lessons a week and log about 1.5 hours per lesson, that is roughly 4.5 hours a week. At that pace, 55 hours of private training takes about 12 weeks of flying. Fly once a week instead, and the same 55 hours can take most of a year once you add the repeated material. That is why frequency is the biggest answer to how long does it take to become a pilot.
Weather and Season
Weather cancels lessons everywhere. In the Rockies, wind and winter weather are part of the job. Choice trains year-round in Cody, Wyoming, and Hamilton, Montana, and uses the simulator on days the airplane can’t go.
Knowledge Tests and Checkride Scheduling
Each certificate needs a written test and a checkride. Study for the written early so it doesn’t hold up the flying. Choice has an FAA-approved testing center on site, which removes a trip for the knowledge tests. Examiner availability is outside any school’s control and can add days or weeks at the end of a stage.
Medical Certificate
You need an FAA medical certificate before you solo. A private pilot needs at least a third-class medical under 14 CFR 61.23, and commercial privileges require a second-class. If you plan to fly for a living, Choice recommends getting at least a second-class medical before you start, because a medical problem is the one thing that can stop the whole plan.
Money
Running out of money mid-training is a common reason students stall. Gaps cost more than steady progress, because skills fade. Plan your funding before you start so you can fly consistently from the first lesson to the checkride. How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot If You Work Full Time?
You can learn to fly around a full-time job. For working students, how long does it take to become a pilot depends more on your schedule than on the program. It takes longer on the calendar, but the flying is the same.
Choice’s career program runs either at an accelerated pace or around a job. Some students clear their calendar and push hard. Others fly around full-time work for a couple of years. Both approaches work. The pilots who struggle are the ones who fly in bursts with long gaps between.
If you work, aim for two or three lessons a week at fixed times, use evenings for ground study, and book lessons weeks ahead.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot for the Airlines?
Airline flying is where the timeline stretches the most. For most people asking how long does it take to become a pilot for an airline, the answer is several years, because the hours requirement is much higher than any training program.
An airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate requires 1,500 hours of total time under 14 CFR 61.159, including 500 hours of cross-country and 100 hours at night. A restricted ATP is available with fewer hours under 14 CFR 61.160: 750 hours for qualifying military pilots, 1,000 hours with an aviation bachelor’s degree, and 1,250 hours with an aviation associate’s degree. The degree reductions apply only to programs that hold an FAA letter of authorization.
Most pilots finish training at roughly 230 to 250 hours, so the rest comes from flying jobs. Flight instructing is the most common way to build it. Other entry-level work includes charter, cargo, and aerial work, once you meet each operator’s minimums.
How fast you build hours as an instructor depends on how many students you have and how much they fly. Choice considers its own graduates first for openings on its instructor team.
Graduates of Choice’s program have gone on to fly for SkyWest and United and to fly air ambulance in a Pilatus PC-12.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot Through a Degree Program?
Some students want a college degree along with their certificates. Choice partners with Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, on an Associate of Applied Science in Aeronautics. Students take academic courses at the college and fly at Choice in Cody, and they graduate with the degree and a commercial pilot certificate.
On this route, how long does it take to become a pilot? Plan on two to three years, depending on your starting experience and how the academic schedule lines up with flight training. The degree route takes longer than a straight training track, but it opens financial aid and scholarships that a flight-only program can’t. See Choice’s degree program for the steps to apply.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot in the Mountains?
Training in Cody or Hamilton adds things a flat-country school doesn’t teach as routine: density altitude on summer afternoons, mountain passes, and wind that behaves differently on each side of a ridge. Students sometimes ask how long does it take to become a pilot here compared with a flat-country school.
In practice it changes what you learn more than how long it takes. You plan around performance from your first cross-country, and you learn to make conservative go and no-go decisions early. Pilots who train here carry those habits into every airplane they fly later. The FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook covers the performance side if you want to read ahead.
How to Finish Pilot Training Faster
These steps shorten almost anyone’s timeline:
- Get your medical first. Before you spend money on training, confirm you can hold the medical certificate your goals need.
- Take a discovery flight. Choice’s discovery flight is a half hour in the airplane, with you on the controls. It tells you quickly whether flying is for you.
- Start the written early. Study for the knowledge test alongside your first lessons so it never holds up a checkride.
- Fly three times a week. Consistent flying is the cheapest way to save time.
- Chair-fly at home. Walk through checklists, radio calls, and maneuvers at your desk. It makes the time in the airplane count.
- Stay at one school. Changing schools mid-training usually means repeating material and re-learning a new syllabus. Choice’s career program runs from your first lesson through CFI in one track.
For students who can commit concentrated time, Choice’s approach to accelerated pilot training explains how parallel ground and flight training keep the pace up.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Pilot? FAQ
How long does it take to become a pilot with no experience?
From zero hours, a private pilot certificate takes about three months at Choice for a Part 141 student flying regularly, based on a 12-week completion target. Reaching commercial and CFI from zero usually takes a year or more of steady flying.
How many flight hours do you need to become a pilot?
The FAA minimum for a private pilot certificate is 40 hours under Part 61 or 35 under Part 141. Most students need more. Choice estimates about 55 hours for private and about 227 hours from zero to a commercial certificate with single and multi-engine ratings.
How long does it take to become a commercial pilot?
Under Part 61, a commercial certificate requires 250 hours of total flight time. At Choice, the path from zero hours through commercial single and multi-engine is roughly 227 hours of flying. On the calendar, that is usually around a year for a student who flies several times a week.
How long does it take to become a flight instructor?
After the commercial certificate and instrument rating, Choice’s CFI ground school takes two weeks, followed by about 6 hours of flight training and the checkride. You must pass the FOI and FIA written exams before the course starts.
How hard is it to become a pilot?
Learning to fly is demanding but achievable for most people who can pass the medical and keep a steady schedule. The hardest parts are usually the instrument rating and keeping momentum through long training. Training proficiency-based, at a school that issues checkride endorsements only when you are ready, helps.
How long does it take to become a pilot while working full time?
Longer on the calendar, with the same standards. Many students fly two or three times a week around a job. The certificates and standards are the same as full-time training; only the calendar is longer.
How long does it take to become a pilot for an airline?
Airline captains need an ATP certificate, which requires 1,500 hours of total time, with reduced minimums for some military pilots and aviation degree graduates. Most pilots finish training at around 250 hours and build the rest flight instructing or in other flying jobs.
Do I need a college degree to become a pilot?
No. The FAA does not require a degree for any pilot certificate. A degree from an FAA-authorized program can lower the hours needed for a restricted ATP, and it opens financial aid. Choice offers both a career program with no degree required and a degree pathway through Northwest College.
Start Your Pilot Timeline at Choice
The fastest way to answer how long does it take to become a pilot for you is to tell someone your starting point and your goal. Choice’s career program takes students from zero hours through CFI, CFII, and MEI in one continuous track, at an accelerated pace or around a job. Training runs year-round in Cody, Wyoming, and Hamilton, Montana.
Send us where you’re starting from, whether that’s zero hours, a lapsed private certificate, or partway through somewhere else. We’ll map what’s left, how long it takes, and what it costs. Call 307-587-9262, contact us, or start with a look at all of Choice’s flight training programs.
