Types of Pilot Licenses: What Each FAA Certificate Actually Lets You Do
There are six pilot certificates in the United States plus a separate one for instructors, and the FAA does not call any of them a licence — it issues certificates. On top of the certificate sit ratings, which go on the plastic, and endorsements, which go in your logbook. Here is the whole structure in one page.
Certificate, rating, endorsement — three different things people use interchangeably
Getting these three words straight explains most of the confusion around what a pilot can and cannot fly.
A certificate is the level of pilot you are. Student, sport, recreational, private, commercial, airline transport. It sets what you may be paid for, who you may carry and under what conditions you may fly. You hold exactly one pilot certificate at a time, and each new one supersedes the last.
A rating is what you are certificated to fly, or how. Category and class ratings — airplane single-engine land, airplane multi-engine land, rotorcraft helicopter — appear printed on the certificate itself. So does the instrument rating, and so does a type rating for a specific large or turbojet aircraft. Ratings are earned by training and a practical test, exactly like a certificate.
An endorsement is a signature in your logbook from an authorized instructor saying you have been trained in something specific. Complex aircraft, high-performance aircraft, tailwheel, high-altitude, and every solo flight you make as a student. Endorsements never appear on the certificate and they do not expire in most cases, but a checkride examiner will absolutely ask to see them.
The six FAA pilot certificates, defined
In order of privilege. Each one is a superset of the last, and each is issued under a different subpart of 14 CFR Part 61.
Student Pilot Certificate
The permission slip that lets you fly an aircraft alone while training. It is not a licence to do anything with anyone else on board — a student pilot may never carry a passenger. Issued free through IACRA and, since 2016, it does not expire.
- Minimum age 16 for airplanes, 14 for gliders and balloons (FAR 61.83)
- Requires at least a third-class medical certificate before solo
- Every solo flight requires a current instructor endorsement
- No passengers, no compensation, no flight in furtherance of a business
Sport Pilot Certificate
The lowest-paperwork way to become a pilot in command. A valid US driver's licence stands in for an FAA medical certificate, which is why it exists and why it matters to people whose medical situation is complicated. The FAA's 2025 MOSAIC rulemaking significantly expanded the set of aircraft a sport pilot may fly.
- 20 hours minimum flight training (FAR 61.313)
- Minimum age 17 for the certificate, 16 to solo
- US driver's licence accepted in place of an FAA medical
- One passenger maximum, day VFR only, no compensation
- Generally limited to 10,000 ft MSL or 2,000 ft AGL, whichever is higher
- Class B, C and D airspace requires the FAR 61.325 endorsement
- Program price at LA Flight School: $8,400
Recreational Pilot Certificate
A middle tier the FAA created in 1989 that history has largely bypassed. It needs a third-class medical, which removes the main reason anyone would choose it over sport pilot, while carrying restrictions a private certificate does not have. Very few are issued.
- 30 hours minimum flight training (FAR 61.99)
- Third-class medical certificate required
- Within 50 nautical miles of the departure airport unless endorsed
- One passenger, day VFR, aircraft of 180 horsepower or less with four seats or fewer
Private Pilot Certificate
The certificate most people mean when they say pilot's licence, and by a wide margin the most commonly held. Carry passengers, fly at night, fly across the country, add an instrument rating and fly in cloud. You cannot be paid, but under FAR 61.113(c) you may share the pro rata cost of fuel, oil, airport expenses and rental with your passengers.
- 40 hours minimum, including 20 dual and 10 solo (FAR 61.109)
- Minimum age 17, 16 to solo (FAR 61.103)
- Third-class medical or, later in a flying life, BasicMed
- National average to completion: 60 to 75 hours
- Program price at LA Flight School: $10,900
Commercial Pilot Certificate
The certificate that allows you to be compensated for flying. Flight instruction, aerial survey, banner towing, pipeline patrol, skydive operations, charter and sightseeing all sit here. Without an instrument rating it carries a limitation under FAR 61.133(b)(1) that makes it close to unusable commercially, so the two are done together in practice.
- 250 hours total flight time under Part 61, or 190 under an approved Part 141 course (FAR 61.129)
- Minimum age 18 (FAR 61.123)
- Second-class medical certificate required to exercise the privileges
- Must already hold at least a private pilot certificate
- Zero-to-airline program at LA Flight School: $89,000
Airline Transport Pilot Certificate
The highest certificate the FAA issues, and the one required to captain an aircraft in scheduled airline service. Since 2013 it has also been required for first officers at Part 121 airlines, which is what people mean by the 1,500-hour rule.
- 1,500 hours total time (FAR 61.159), including 500 cross-country, 100 night and 75 instrument
- Minimum age 23, or 21 for a restricted ATP
- First-class medical certificate to exercise the privileges
- Restricted ATP available at 1,000 to 1,250 hours with a qualifying aviation degree (FAR 61.160)
- ATP-CTP course required before the knowledge test
Flight Instructor Certificate
A separate certificate rather than a rung on the same ladder, issued under Subpart H of Part 61. It is how most civilian pilots build the hours between a commercial certificate and an airline job, and it is the fastest way to genuinely understand the material you were taught.
- Requires a commercial or airline transport certificate, plus an instrument rating for an airplane CFI
- Minimum age 18
- Two knowledge tests: Fundamentals of Instruction and the CFI subject test
- Add-on ratings available: CFII for instrument, MEI for multi-engine
Every certificate is trained in a different aeroplane
Sport and private in the simple singles, complex and commercial work in the Arrow, multi-engine in the Seminole.
What gets added to the certificate
Category and class ratings
Category is airplane, rotorcraft, glider, lighter-than-air, powered-lift, weight-shift-control or powered parachute. Class narrows it: single-engine land, single-engine sea, multi-engine land, multi-engine sea. Your first certificate comes with one category and class, and adding another is a training course and a checkride. Our multi-engine add-on is $5,100 in a Piper Seminole.
Instrument rating
Added to a private or commercial certificate, it allows flight in instrument meteorological conditions under IFR. FAR 61.65 requires 50 hours of cross-country pilot-in-command time and 40 hours of instrument time. It is the rating that turns a light aircraft from a fair-weather toy into transport, and ours is $11,700.
Type rating
Required under FAR 61.31(a) for any aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight over 12,500 pounds, and for any turbojet-powered aircraft. Airline pilots hold a type rating for each aircraft they fly. It is not something a private pilot encounters unless they move into large or jet equipment.
Endorsements, which are not ratings
Logbook signatures for specific equipment and privileges: complex aircraft with retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller under FAR 61.31(e), high-performance above 200 horsepower under 61.31(f), tailwheel under 61.31(i), pressurised and high-altitude aircraft under 61.31(g), and the solo endorsements every student carries. They live in the logbook, not on the certificate.
Which one you should actually start with
For most people the answer is the private pilot certificate, and it is not close. It carries passengers, it flies at night, it goes anywhere in the country, and it accepts an instrument rating. It costs $10,900 with us against $8,400 for sport pilot, and that $2,500 buys a certificate you will not outgrow in a year.
Sport pilot is the right answer in two specific situations. First, if the FAA medical is a genuine problem — a driver's licence is all sport pilot requires, and that is a real door for people who would otherwise be grounded. Second, if you know with confidence that you want day VFR local flying with one friend on board and nothing more. If you are choosing sport pilot to save money and you already suspect you will want more later, you are buying the same certificate twice.
If you are aiming at a career, the sequence is private, then instrument, then commercial, then flight instructor, then hours toward an ATP. There is no shortcut through it and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. What there is, is a large difference between doing it in the right order at a sensible price and doing it in the wrong order in an expensive aeroplane.
The first hour is the same whichever certificate you choose
Sport, private or professional, everyone begins with an instructor in the right seat and a set of controls in front of them. A discovery flight is that lesson, logged as dual instruction, and credited in full against any program if you enrol within 24 hours.
Redbird Simulator Session
Full-motion and FAA-approved. Never cancelled for weather, and the cheapest hour in aviation.
Book a sessionDiscovery Flight For One
You fly it over Los Angeles. Loggable dual instruction toward any certificate. 90 min $299, 120 min $399.
Book nowMulti-Engine Seminole Flight
Fly the twin. Worth doing if the airline path is what you are actually interested in.
Book the twinProgram prices at Van Nuys: sport pilot $8,400, private pilot $10,900, instrument rating $11,700, multi-engine add-on $5,100, solo certificate $5,500, teen aviation course for ages 10 to 15 $4,200, and zero-to-airline $89,000.
Pick the certificate after the first flight, not before it
An hour in the aircraft tells you more about which certificate suits you than any comparison table will. You fly, we log it as dual instruction, and it counts toward whichever course you choose. Call (818) 290-8249, 9am to 9pm, seven days.
Pilot licence and certificate questions
Definitional answers, each self-contained and each with the regulation attached.
The FAA issues six pilot certificates: student, sport, recreational, private, commercial and airline transport, plus a separate flight instructor certificate. Each is defined in 14 CFR Part 61 and sets what you may fly, who you may carry and whether you may be paid. The FAA calls them certificates rather than licences, though the terms are used interchangeably in everyday speech.
A certificate is the level of pilot you are — private, commercial, airline transport. A rating is what you are certificated to fly or how, such as airplane single-engine land, airplane multi-engine land or the instrument rating, and it is printed on the certificate. Endorsements are a third thing: logbook signatures from an instructor covering specific equipment like tailwheel, complex or high-performance aircraft.
The private pilot certificate for most people. It requires 40 hours minimum under FAR 61.109, allows you to carry passengers, fly at night and fly nationwide, and accepts an instrument rating on top. Sport pilot at 20 hours is the better answer if an FAA medical certificate is a genuine obstacle, since a valid US driver's licence stands in for one, or if you only ever want day VFR local flying.
An airman certificate. The FAA issues pilot certificates rather than licences, under 14 CFR Part 61, and the plastic card is formally an Airman Certificate. In casual use pilot licence, flight licence and aviation licence all mean the same document. The equivalent term abroad is usually a licence — a PPL, CPL or ATPL under ICAO conventions.
Not an official FAA term. People searching for it almost always mean the private pilot certificate, which is the certificate that allows you to fly for your own personal purposes and carry passengers without being paid. Under FAR 61.113(c) a private pilot may share the pro rata cost of fuel, oil, airport expenses and rental with passengers, but may not be compensated for flying.
20 hours for a sport pilot certificate under FAR 61.313, 30 hours for a recreational certificate under FAR 61.99, 40 hours for a private pilot certificate under FAR 61.109, 250 hours for a commercial certificate under FAR 61.129, and 1,500 hours for an unrestricted airline transport certificate under FAR 61.159. In practice most private pilots log 60 to 75 hours rather than 40.
No. Sport pilots may use a valid US driver's licence in place of an FAA medical. Student, recreational and private pilots need at least a third-class medical, though established private pilots can later switch to BasicMed. Commercial pilots need a second-class medical and airline transport pilots need a first-class medical to exercise those privileges, under FAR 61.23.
The airline transport pilot certificate. It requires 1,500 hours of total flight time under FAR 61.159, including 500 hours cross-country, 100 hours night and 75 hours instrument, a minimum age of 23, and a first-class medical certificate. A restricted ATP is available from age 21 at 1,000 to 1,250 hours for graduates of qualifying aviation degree programmes, or 750 hours for eligible military pilots.