If you’ve ever tried to log simulated instrument time, you’ve run into the same question I did: who can sit in the right seat and keep you alive while you’re staring at a panel through a view-limiting device? The answer is a safety pilot, and the rules around the role are simple on paper but easy to get wrong in practice. Here is how I think about safety pilot requirements for simulated instrument flight before I ever put on the hood.
Why You Need a Safety Pilot in the First Place
When you wear foggles or a hood, you can’t see outside, and you can’t scan for traffic. Under 14 CFR 91.109(c), no one may operate a civil aircraft in simulated instrument flight unless the other control seat is occupied by a safety pilot. That person is a required crewmember, not a passenger, and their job is to be your eyes outside the cockpit while you work on the gauges.
Who Qualifies as a Safety Pilot
The safety pilot must hold at least a private pilot certificate with category and class ratings appropriate to the aircraft being flown. A student pilot can’t do it, no matter how many hours they have. The safety pilot does not need an instrument rating, which surprises many people. What matters is that they are properly rated in the airplane and capable of taking over if something goes wrong.
Because a safety pilot is a required pilot flight crewmember, they also need to meet the usual medical and flight review requirements. If you’re unsure how that works, I covered the basics in our guide to aviation medical certificates, and the recurrent training side in flight review ground portion topics.
Dual Controls and Field of View
Two more requirements trip people up. First, the aircraft must have fully functioning dual controls. A rental that has a pulled yoke or missing rudder pedals on the right side won’t work for this. Second, the safety pilot must have adequate vision forward and to each side of the aircraft. If they don’t, a competent observer has to be on board to cover what they can’t see. In a typical four-seat trainer with a normal pilot in the right seat, this is rarely an issue, but it’s worth a quick check before you taxi.
How I Brief a Safety Pilot
I treat the safety pilot like any other crew member and brief before engine start. Here is what I cover:
- Who is pilot in command, and who is flying which leg.
- When the hood goes on and when it comes off, ideally with a callout like “hood off” at any time either of us wants it.
- How we’ll handle traffic calls, and what words mean “take the controls.”
- Minimum altitudes for the practice, and what we do if the weather deteriorates.
A safety pilot who knows the plan can speak up early. One who has just been handed the airplane and a pair of foggles is a lot less useful when a Cessna crosses your nose at the same altitude.
Logging Time and Currency
Simulated instrument time in an airplane can count toward instrument currency under 14 CFR 61.57(c) when you have a safety pilot. The currency items are six instrument approaches, holding procedures, and intercepting and tracking courses, within the preceding six calendar months. Always check the current regulation text yourself, because the details of what counts and how to log it matter, especially for checkride requirements.
On the safety pilot’s side, they can log pilot in command time only when they are rated for the aircraft and actually acting as PIC for the flight. If both of you are rated, agree on who is PIC before you start so the logbook entries are honest. Mistakes here are common, and I’ve seen them cost people time later, as I touched on in pilot logbook mistakes.
Setting Personal Limits
Legal and safe are not the same thing. Even with a perfectly qualified safety pilot, I don’t practice hooded approaches in marginal weather, at night over unfamiliar terrain, or when either of us is tired. Writing down your own limits helps, and our piece on personal minimums for VFR pilots is a good place to start before you add instrument practice to the mix.
Bottom Line
A safety pilot is a required crewmember who holds at least a private certificate with the right category and class, sits in a seat with working dual controls, and can see well enough to watch for traffic. Brief the flight, decide who is PIC, and log it accurately. Do that, and hood time turns into some of the most valuable practice you can get. Always confirm the current rules in the FARs or with your instructor, since regulations can change and your situation may differ.
