Pilot Path
Plan your pilot training.
Answer five questions to get a suggested training path.
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New to aviation? Plain-language meanings of the words on this page
- Certificate
- The main FAA pilot credential — think of it as licence-style, in plain terms. It defines what kind of flying you may do, within its own privileges and limitations.
- Rating
- An add-on to a certificate, such as the instrument rating. It adds specific privileges — and specific requirements — rather than replacing what the certificate already covers.
- Knowledge test (the “written”)
- A multiple-choice exam taken at an authorized testing center. It is one milestone in training, not the training itself.
- Checkride
- The FAA practical test with an examiner: a spoken part on the ground and a flight. Passing it is how a certificate or rating is issued.
- CFI
- Certificated Flight Instructor — a pilot certificated by the FAA to give flight instruction within the ratings on their own certificate.
- Ground school
- The classroom or self-study side of training: weather, regulations, systems, and planning, learned outside the airplane.
- ACS
- Airman Certification Standards — the FAA document describing the knowledge, risk-management, and skill areas an applicant must demonstrate on a practical test.
- AME
- Aviation Medical Examiner — an FAA-designated doctor. Only an AME or the FAA can tell you whether you personally qualify medically.
- Part 61 / Part 141
- Two FAA training frameworks. Part 141 schools follow an FAA-approved syllabus; Part 61 allows more flexible training. Each has its own eligibility and experience requirements.
Question 1 of 5
Where are you today?
Pick the closest description. If none of it is familiar, the first option is the right one. Nothing here is stored or shared.
Other ways in
- Decision planPilot First StepsTurn the decision you are actually stuck on into an ordered plan you can act on this month.Generate a decision plan →
- Agenda plannerAviation Orientation SessionChoose the topics that matter to you and get a structured agenda to bring to an instructor conversation.Plan an agenda →
Resources for your next step.
Courses, guides and tools for your training plan.
All destinations
- First Steps GuideRead this before spending money, so the first decisions are informed ones.
- Private Pilot CourseThe ground knowledge behind the certificate almost every path starts with.
- Instrument Rating CourseThe next rating when weather and cross-country flying start limiting you.
- Commercial Pilot CourseWhere a path turns from personal flying toward flying for compensation.
- Multi-Engine CourseAsymmetric thrust and systems reasoning before the airplane is unfamiliar.
- Written PrepFor the knowledge test sitting between you and the rest of your training.