Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

An ATP Requires Instrument, Night, and Cross Country. Can these be performed in a helicopter?

Asked by: 1026 views FAA Regulations

An ATP Requires Instrument, Night, and Cross Country. Can these be performed in a helicopter?

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Dauntless Aviation's GroundSchool series of apps are the smart pilot's choice for fast and effective FAA knowledge test prep.
Actual, up-to-date FAA questions Polished user experience
Best explanations in the business Free lifetime updates!
Private Pilot IFR Commercial Pilot CFI ATP Sport Pilot Sport Pilot Instructor Parachute Rigger Aviation Mechanic (A&P)
You can get the app now and be studying right away. Available for PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android.

1 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Nov 27, 2022

    I’ll assume that you are interested in the airplane ATP. 61.159 is the pertinent regulation.

    When the FAA requires time in a specific aircraft, they state it, as in 61.159(5), which requires that the following times be done in an airplane. They also specify in this reg, that the time be done as PIC.

    250 hours of flight time
    100 hours of cross-country flight time
    25 hours of night flight time.

    The rest of the cross country and night do not need to be done in an airplane.

    61.159(a)(4) requires 75 hours of instrument flight time. No mention of a specific category or class.

    61.159(a)(3) requires 50 hours of flight time in the class of airplane (ASEL, ASES, AMEL. AMES).

    I’m guessing that you are pursuing a multi-engine ATP.

    You should also take a look at 61.156. Prior to taking the knowledge test for a M/E ATP, you must meet the requirements of 61.156(a) & (b).

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.