Competency-Based Instrument Rating (CB-IR)

The CB-IR is not a lesser rating than the "full" or traditional Instrument Rating. On successful completion the pilot holds an ordinary Part-FCL IR(A), with the same privileges under FCL.605 and the same ICAO Annex 1 compliance, passes the same skill test defined in Appendix 7 to Part-FCL, and appears identically on the licence. The word "competency-based" describes the training route, not the resulting privilege: the course is structured so that instrument flying a pilot has already done — under instruction or as pilot-in-command — can be credited toward the required hours, rather than requiring every hour to be flown afresh inside a single approved course.

The flight-training minimum for the single-engine CB-IR(A) is 40 hours of instrument time under instruction, against 50 hours for the traditional integrated/modular IR. For the multi-engine CB-IR(A) the minimum is 45 hours, of which at least 15 hours must be dual instruction in a multi-engine aeroplane. Simulation credits apply: up to 25 hours may be completed in an FFS or FNPT II (up to 10 hours in an FNPT I) for the single-engine course, and up to 30 hours for the multi-engine course. Crucially, a minimum of 10 hours must be flown in an aeroplane at an Authorised Training Organisation (ATO) approved to run the CB-IR course; the balance can be instrument instruction accumulated more flexibly, including with an appropriately qualified instructor outside a formal residential block. To start the course a pilot must already hold at least a PPL(A) or CPL(A) and have logged at least 50 hours of cross-country flight time as PIC on aeroplanes, TMGs, helicopters or airships, of which at least 10 hours must be on aeroplanes.

On the theoretical-knowledge side the CB-IR covers the same seven IR subjects — air law, aircraft general knowledge, flight planning and monitoring, human performance, meteorology, radio navigation and IFR communications — with a recommended course of around 80 hours that can be delivered largely by assisted distance learning rather than the classroom-intensive ground school associated with the older IR route. The skill test itself is unchanged from the traditional IR, so the standard a CB-IR candidate must reach on check day is identical.

The CB-IR suits two distinct populations. The first is the general-aviation PPL holder who wants a genuine, ICAO-compliant instrument rating without committing to a full integrated course — the crediting of prior instrument experience and the lower classroom burden make this realistic for a working private pilot. The second is the CPL-track pilot who is building toward a commercial career and needs the IR as part of the licence package; many modular ATPL students obtain the IR through the CB-IR route. It should not be confused with the Basic Instrument Rating (BIR), which is a separate, simpler, fully competency-based rating valid only within EASA member states and not ICAO-compliant. BIR training can, however, be credited toward a subsequent CB-IR, making the BIR a stepping stone rather than a dead end. The relevant references are Part-FCL FCL.605 (privileges), FCL.615 (theoretical knowledge and flight instruction) and Appendix 6 to Part-FCL, which sets out the modular CB-IR course.

For an ATO the CB-IR is a commercially important product because it opens instrument training to the private-pilot market that the traditional IR effectively priced out. The crediting rules mean a school has to track, for each student, exactly which prior instrument hours count, how many of the mandatory 10 aeroplane-at-ATO hours have been flown, and how simulator time is being consumed against the applicable caps. Getting this accounting wrong is not a paperwork nuisance — it can invalidate a skill-test recommendation and force a student back into the course, so the school's records must show the composition of every logged hour, not just the total.

The route also reshapes how a school sells and schedules instrument training. Because much of the 80-hour theory can be delivered by distance learning and because instrument instruction can be accumulated more flexibly, ATOs increasingly run the CB-IR as a rolling, part-time programme rather than a fixed cohort. That is friendlier to the working PPL holder but harder to plan: instructor and aircraft demand becomes a stream of individual bookings against each student's progression rather than a block, and the school still has to guarantee that the mandatory ATO flight hours and the skill-test standard are met before recommending a candidate.

Aviatize's Training Management module tracks each CB-IR student against the FCL.615 syllabus and the Appendix 6 hour requirements, distinguishing instrument time flown in an aeroplane at the ATO from credited prior experience and from simulator time — and flagging when a student is approaching the simulation caps or has not yet met the mandatory 10 aeroplane-at-ATO hours. The Ground Training & Checking module structures the seven-subject theoretical course and records progress through the distance-learning and in-person elements so a school can evidence completion before entering a student for exams.

Smart Planning & Booking manages the rolling, part-time scheduling that the CB-IR encourages, matching FNPT/FFS sessions, instrument-qualified instructors and IR-capable aircraft to each student's next syllabus item, while Digital Data & Records retains the training file and skill-test recommendation as the auditable evidence the competent authority expects to see.