Who has an instrument rating?

Since IR's for private pilots seems to be a hot topic lately, I thought
I'd toss out this bit of trivia for all of you to gnaw on. I took a
copy of the FAA database and ran some (admittedly naive) queries. Below
you may peruse the results of a list of the number of US Private ASEL,
Private IR, and the percent of IR holders, broken out by state.

I make no claims of accuracy of this data. It comes from an old copy
of the database. It counts only private tickets. There are commercial
ticket holders who have private IR's for whatever reason, so they may
skew the data a bit. Some may have other airplane ratings without an ASEL,
which would also cloud the situation. If you see a two-letter state
abbreviation that you don't recognize, think "territories," e.g., Virgin
Islands or Guam. This information is provided for entertainment purposes
only.

One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and California each
have a higher percentage of instrument flyers than "rainy" Oregon and
Washington.


STATE PP IR % IR
----- -- -- ----
AA 15 0 0
AE 125 19 15
AK 3479 319 9
AL 3292 825 25
AP 124 12 9
AR 2170 510 23
AS 2 0 0
AZ 6299 1231 19
CA 29386 7651 26
CO 6281 1490 23
CT 2546 688 27
DC 200 57 28
DE 578 135 23
FL 16475 4197 25
FM 2 1 50
GA 6643 1681 25
GU 27 6 22
HI 835 115 13
IA 3106 812 26
ID 2121 354 16
IL 8477 2308 27
IN 5394 1290 23
KS 3882 970 24
KY 2361 556 23
LA 2154 537 24
MA 4161 1161 27
MD 3441 850 24
ME 1432 219 15
MI 8043 2047 25
MN 6689 1368 20
MO 4773 1052 22
MP 2 0 0
MS 1699 362 21
MT 1704 232 13
NC 5954 1625 27
ND 1081 128 11
NE 1905 396 20
NH 1499 345 23
NJ 4548 1129 24
NM 1772 358 20
NV 2249 444 19
NY 7622 2012 26
OH 8362 2236 26
OK 3747 786 20
OR 4918 1030 20
PA 7456 1937 25
PR 422 76 18
RI 504 123 24
SC 2736 707 25
SD 1083 241 22
TN 4504 1162 25
TX 17073 4172 24
UT 2937 549 18
VA 5189 1322 25
VI 67 13 19
VT 642 161 25
WA 7794 1617 20
WI 5399 1210 22
WV 905 194 21
WY 868 131 15

One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and California each
have a higher percentage of instrument flyers than "rainy" Oregon and
Washington.

It's really interesting that Alaska, with arguably the worst weather, has
one of the lowest percentages of instrument ratings.

Of course, I've also heard that they have a lot of "pilots" flying around
who don't appear on any FAA database!
;-)

Overall, this chart seems to match what I've read, which is that around 21%
of pilots have their Instrument Rating -- and a far lower percentage is
actually instrument current.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 4 Mar 2004 00:32:33 GMT, (No Such User) wrote:

One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and California each
have a higher percentage of instrument flyers than "rainy" Oregon and
Washington.

I don't find that particularly remarkable. A lot of people who get the
IR get it for (at least perceived) increased proficiency.

I'd bet that the numbers of people who =use= their rating and maintain
real proficiency in the rainy climates are much higher than the sunny
ones.

In a previous article, "Jay Honeck" said:
It's really interesting that Alaska, with arguably the worst weather, has
one of the lowest percentages of instrument ratings.

Of course, I've also heard that they have a lot of "pilots" flying around
who don't appear on any FAA database!

And I've heard lots of Alaska pilots fly air charter flights in order to
save up enough money to get a pilots license.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Go go Gadget kernel compile!" - Chris "Saundo" Saunderson

"No Such User" wrote:
One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and
California each have a higher percentage of instrument
flyers than "rainy" Oregon and Washington.

Every time I've flown in Florida, I've encountered IMC at some point in
the trip.

Also, note the lower percentages in the mountain west states, MT, ID,
etc. Evidently the limited utility of the rating out there is a factor,
as we have been told by Newps and others who live there.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

Jay Honeck wrote:

It's really interesting that Alaska, with arguably the worst weather, has
one of the lowest percentages of instrument ratings.

Read up on it. An instrument rating is pretty useless for most of Alaskan flying.

George Patterson
A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
you look forward to the trip.

No Such User wrote:

One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and California each
have a higher percentage of instrument flyers than "rainy" Oregon and
Washington.

Dunno about California, but Florida has a lot of retirees. Bet many of those
guys'n gals with instrument tickets got the rating before moving there. In
fact, I know a few who got the rating to allow them to come back to New Jersey
for the summer whenever they want.

George Patterson
A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
you look forward to the trip.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


No Such User wrote:

One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and California each
have a higher percentage of instrument flyers than "rainy" Oregon and
Washington.

Dunno about California, but Florida has a lot of retirees. Bet many of
those
guys'n gals with instrument tickets got the rating before moving there. In
fact, I know a few who got the rating to allow them to come back to New
Jersey
for the summer whenever they want.

Actually it is because of the number of flight schools located in Florida
and California. People from all over the world go there to become airline
pilots. They all get instrument ratings.

"No Such User" wrote in message
...
Since IR's for private pilots seems to be a hot topic lately, I thought
I'd toss out this bit of trivia for all of you to gnaw on. I took a
copy of the FAA database and ran some (admittedly naive) queries. Below
you may peruse the results of a list of the number of US Private ASEL,
Private IR, and the percent of IR holders, broken out by state.

I make no claims of accuracy of this data. It comes from an old copy
of the database. It counts only private tickets. There are commercial
ticket holders who have private IR's for whatever reason, so they may
skew the data a bit.

There is no such thing as a "private" or "commercial" instrument rating.

Read up on it. An instrument rating is pretty useless for most of Alaskan
flying.

Why's that?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"