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How to Get Your FAA Private Pilot Certificate
✓ Reviewed against current FAA sources on October 5, 2026
In this guide
In short
The private pilot certificate lets you carry passengers, fly cross country and fly at night, with nobody supervising you and nobody paying you. A certificate issued under 14 CFR Part 61 names the level, the category and class, and any ratings.
The private pilot certificate lets you carry passengers, fly cross country, fly at night and fly into unfamiliar airports, with nobody supervising you and nobody paying you. It is the certificate most people mean when they say they want to learn to fly. This guide covers what the FAA requires, in the order you will meet it.
What the certificate actually is
A certificate issued under 14 CFR Part 61 names three things: the level (student, sport, recreational, private, commercial, airline transport) and the category and class of aircraft you may fly. A certificate reading Private Pilot, Airplane Single-Engine Land grants private privileges, in airplanes, of the single-engine land class, and nothing else. It does not cover a seaplane, a helicopter, a glider or a twin.
The certificate does not expire. This surprises people used to driver's licenses. What expires is the currency that makes it usable: the flight review, the recent takeoffs and landings and the medical. A pilot whose flight review lapsed years ago still holds a valid certificate. That pilot simply may not act as pilot in command until the review is done.
Eligibility under 61.103
To be eligible for the certificate you must:
- be at least 17 years old (16 for a glider or balloon rating);
- be able to read, speak, write and understand English;
- hold a student, sport or recreational pilot certificate before applying;
- receive an instructor endorsement certifying you are prepared for the knowledge test;
- pass the knowledge test;
- receive flight training and an endorsement certifying you are prepared for the practical test;
- meet the aeronautical experience of 61.109;
- pass the practical test to the Airman Certification Standards.
Two points are commonly misread. The age requirement applies to certification, not training. A fifteen year old may take instruction and may solo an airplane at sixteen. And the knowledge test may be taken at fifteen, which means you can pass the written well before you are eligible for the certificate itself.
Notice what is not in 61.103: a medical certificate. The medical requirement attaches to acting as pilot in command, under 61.23, not to eligibility for the certificate. You will need one to solo and to take the practical test, because both involve acting as pilot in command, but the two requirements are separate and the knowledge test asks about them separately. See our guide to FAA medical certificates and BasicMed.
The 40 hours, and what is inside them
For an airplane single-engine land rating, 61.109(a) requires at least 40 hours of flight time: at least 20 hours of flight training with an instructor and at least 10 hours of solo.
Within the 20 hours of training:
- 3 hours of cross-country flight training;
- 3 hours of night flight training, including one cross-country flight of more than 100 nautical miles total distance and 10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop, each involving a flight in the traffic pattern;
- 3 hours of training on controlling the airplane solely by reference to instruments;
- 3 hours of training in preparation for the practical test, completed within the preceding 2 calendar months from the month of the test.
Within the 10 hours of solo:
- 5 hours of solo cross-country time;
- one solo cross-country of 150 nautical miles total distance, with full-stop landings at three points and one segment of more than 50 nautical miles straight-line distance between takeoff and landing;
- three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop at an airport with an operating control tower.
Treat 40 as an examinable number, not a plan. The regulation sets a minimum time while the practical test sets a standard of performance, and the standard is what actually governs. Most people need more.
The knowledge test
The airplane knowledge test is the PAR: 60 multiple choice questions with three options each, 2 hours and a passing score of 70. It is built from the knowledge codes in FAA-S-ACS-6C, and the figures it uses come from testing supplement FAA-CT-8080-2H. We cover the format, the scoring and what happens at the testing center in the Private Pilot knowledge test guide.
What the certificate lets you do, and what it does not
Section 61.113 (opens in a new tab) is the most heavily examined regulation in private pilot training. Paragraph (a) states the broad prohibition: a private pilot may not act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers or property for compensation or hire, and may not, for compensation or hire, act as pilot in command at all.
Those are two separate prohibitions. The first forbids the aircraft being used commercially. The second forbids the pilot being paid. A private pilot who ferries an empty airplane for a fee has violated the second even though nothing was carried.
Then come the exceptions, and they matter more than the rule:
- Flying incidental to a business. You may fly in connection with a business and be compensated, provided the flight is incidental to that business and the aircraft carries no passengers or property for compensation or hire. The FAA draws the line between being paid to fly and being paid to do a job that involves flying.
- Sharing expenses. You may not pay less than your pro rata share of the operating expenses, and only four categories may be shared: fuel, oil, airport expenditures and rental fees. With three passengers and the pilot, four people share and the pilot bears at least one quarter.
- Charitable and community flights conducted under 91.146, search and location operations under a governmental agency, aircraft sales demonstrations if you have logged at least 200 hours, glider and ultralight towing subject to 61.69, and certain light-sport production flight testing.
The pro rata rule is a floor, not a formula. The regulation says you may not pay less than your share. It does not require passengers to pay anything. A pilot who pays the whole cost is fully compliant.
Staying current afterward
Three clocks run independently once you hold the certificate:
- Flight review, 61.56. Within the preceding 24 calendar months, at least 1 hour of ground and 1 hour of flight training with an instructor, plus a logbook endorsement.
- Passenger currency, 61.57(a). Within the preceding 90 days, three takeoffs and three landings as sole manipulator of the controls, in the same category and class.
- Night passenger currency, 61.57(b). To carry passengers from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise, those three takeoffs and landings must have been made in that same period, each landing to a full stop.
Currency is not proficiency. Three landings in ninety days keeps you legal to carry passengers. It does not keep you good at landing.
Sources: 14 CFR 61.31 (opens in a new tab), 61.56 (opens in a new tab), 61.57 (opens in a new tab), 61.103 (opens in a new tab), 61.109 (opens in a new tab), 61.113 (opens in a new tab); FAA-S-ACS-6C.