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"

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:_jx1c.37230$PR3.737688@attbi_s03...
> > 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"
>
>

Lack of NavAids?

Jay Beckman

Actually the percentage of pilots who hold instrument ratings is much higher
(Close to half), these numbers are private pilots only. The issue in AK is
that there is a lot of IMC that is not flyable without known icing and often
the MEA is in the flight levels, Then there is the issue of having an
approach to your favorite fishing spot! Pilots in AK get around this by
flying VFR whatever the weather and the accident statistics bear this out.

Mike
MU-2

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:7uv1c.470542$na.1113633@attbi_s04...
> > 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"
>
>

No ILS approaches to gravel bars.

Mike
MU-2


"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:_jx1c.37230$PR3.737688@attbi_s03...
> > 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"
>
>

In article >, C J Campbell wrote:
>
>There is no such thing as a "private" or "commercial" instrument rating.
>
That's what I thought, but the database has separate identifiers for
private, commercial, flight instructor, and various foreign ratings.
I counted only the ones marked private.

The listing was based on the pilot's home address. Not the location the
license was issued.

--
-------------------------------
Travis
"C J Campbell" > wrote in message
...
>
> "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.
>
>

IA in Alaska has limited usefulness. Few instrument approaches. Few Navaids.
Lots of bush planes that would be limited by ice in clouds for a good
portion of the year.

Florida, on the other hand, lots of flyable IMC. Never been to Florida yet
without excercising my IA.

--
-------------------------------
Travis
"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:7uv1c.470542$na.1113633@attbi_s04...
> > 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"
>
>

Well jeez, there are private parts, unless you are certain female
entertainers where upon they become commercial parts...
Why not the same for instrument ratings?

denny

"C J Campbell" > There is no such thing as a "private" or "commercial"
instrument rating.
>
>

Dennis O'Connor wrote:
>
> Well jeez, there are private parts, unless you are certain female
> entertainers where upon they become commercial parts...
> Why not the same for instrument ratings?

But if you have a private instrument rating, it wouldn't be in a public database,
would it? :-)

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.

"Jay Honeck" > wrote
> > Read up on it. An instrument rating is pretty useless for most of Alaskan
> flying.
>
> Why's that?

Primarily because most IMC in Alaska happens in subfreezing
temperatures. Basically, if you don't have at least turbos, boots,
and hot props you might as well just stay VFR. The same is true North
of the Mason-Dixon line for half the year.

Michael

California and Florida both have lots of shoreline, and therefore lots
of fog and low clouds. Plenty of IMC and not as much ice in the lower
altitudes as colder just-as-wet areas, like Michigan.

I live on the coast in northern California. I plan to get an instrument
rating simply for proficiency, but it will come in handy on those days
when the ceiling is 400 feet but you can see sunshine looking straight
up, because the layer is only 100 feet thick. It is particularly
pernicious in the summertime.


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

Hmm.. Arizona has plenty of flight schools, yet their number is only
19%. I'm guessing that even those who attend flight schools in sunny
areas still maintain their home addresses on their FAA paperwork, I know
I probably would.

> 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.
>
>