Instrument Rating (IFR)

The Ottawa Flying Club offers training for Single Engine (Group 3) instrument ratings. Instrument training at Ottawa International airport offers a busy IFR environment to learn the necessary skills to operate in real instrument conditions in any airspace. With precision and non-precision approaches available, you don’t have to go far to find what you need.

We conduct training in actual instrument conditions when available. Training is conducted in our full motion Red Bird simulator and our Cessna 172 aircraft.

PRIVILEGESIMG_2202

The Instrument Rating allows pilots to fly in lower visibility conditions and through cloud, when operated in accordance with an IFR flight plan.

Group 1 (Multi Engine)

Allows a pilot to fly single and multi-engine aircraft in Instrument Meteorological Conditions.

Group 3 (Single Engine)

Allows a pilot to fly single engine aircraft in Instrument Meteorological Conditions.

PREREQUISITES

Canadian Private Pilot Licence, (Commercial License an asset)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Flight Training

The following are the minimum flight requirements to hold an Instrument Rating.

  • 40 hours of instrument flight time (may include instrument time from previous training)
    • 20 hours may  be completed in an approved flight simulator.
    • Including a 100 nautical mile cross-country under actual or simulated instrument conditions
  • 50 hours of PIC cross-country flight time

Ground School

The Ottawa Flying Club offers a 80 hour Instrument Rating ground school.

Examinations

Instructors

Our instructors for the IFR training program have a mix of experience ranging from years of instructing all the way to seasoned airline and charter pilots who still love to teach. Handpicked, our instructor pool for this training is kept small for a reason: to ensure consistent, professional training.

Getting Recurrent – The IPC

The Ottawa Flying Club offers a comprehensive IPC refresher course for those pilots with Group 1 or 3 IFR ratings that have lapsed, or are just looking to stay current and improve their skills. This course is taught wholly in our IFR Centre using our RedBird simulator. When you are flight test ready, we book your IPC renewal flight test on your behalf on our RedBird with one of four examiners we frequently use. We are a one-stop-shop for IFR renewals!

The IPC Preparation Course has been put together to teach our students not only what is required of them for the test, but also how to think like a professional pilot with Aviation Decision-Making built-in to our lessons. With multiple scenarios to work through, you will leave this program with a solid understanding of IFR flying, and as a better, safer pilot. The greatest benefit to this training is that it is taught by airline and charter pilots who have thousands of hours of IFR flying, adding both realism and professionalism to the course.