Foggles And View-Limiting Devices For Simulated Instrument Time

What Foggles Are, And The Hood They Replaced

The regulations never say "foggles". The FAA's term is view-limiting device, and 14 CFR 61.45(d)(2) defines one by what it does: it stops the pilot from seeing outside the aircraft without stopping the examiner from seeing outside. Any product that does that qualifies. None is named.

For decades the standard tool was the hood, a long plastic visor worn like the brim of an oversized cap. It blocks the windshield and most of the side windows and leaves a tunnel down to the panel. It works, and it is bulky and awkward under a headset.

Foggles do the same job in the shape of a pair of glasses. The frosting sits where your eyes go when you look out, and the clear band sits where they go when you look down at the instruments. They fold into a flight bag and leave the safety pilot's view alone. That matters, because the person beside you is now the only one watching for traffic.

Flip-down visors and clip-on styles exist too. The principle does not change: you see the panel and nothing else.

Every instructor has watched the same cheat. You lift your chin a few degrees, the clear band lines up with the windshield, and the horizon comes back. It feels like help and it is the opposite, because the whole point of the exercise is learning that the panel is enough. Keep your head level and move your eyes.

Why Pilots Wear Them: Logging Simulated Instrument Time

14 CFR 61.51(g)(1) lets you log instrument time only for flight time when you operate the aircraft "solely by reference to instruments under actual or simulated instrument flight conditions." Actual conditions mean cloud. Simulated conditions mean a view-limiting device on a day with no cloud to fly into.

That logged time feeds four things. The private asks for 3 hours of instrument training, the commercial for 10, and the instrument rating for 40 hours of instrument time. After the rating, the approaches and holds that keep you current can be flown the same way. The table further down cites each one.

There is a second reason, and it has nothing to do with the logbook. Take away the outside view and your inner ear becomes the only thing telling you which way is up. It is wrong often enough that the FAA ranks illusions among the most common factors in fatal accidents, and our page on spatial disorientation and the somatogravic illusion explains why. Hood work is where you learn to ignore that voice and believe the attitude indicator.

One logbook detail catches people out. For a currency flight, 61.51(g)(3) wants the location and type of each approach and the name of the safety pilot, if one was required. Write them in on the ramp, not a week later from memory.

Foggles Vs The Simulator

Both build instrument time, and the regulations treat them differently. 14 CFR 61.65(i) caps device time toward the instrument rating at 10 hours in a basic aviation training device or 20 in an advanced one. Paragraph (j) caps all device time at 20 hours combined outside a Part 142 course. Foggles time in the airplane has no cap.

Every device hour also needs a witness. Under 61.51(g)(4), simulator time counts toward a certificate or rating only when an authorized instructor observes it and signs your logbook or training record.

The Redbird MCX Simulator

Our Redbird MCX is an FAA-approved advanced aviation training device on full motion, with single- and multi-engine profiles. It costs $200 an hour retail or $120 inside a package, and the $11,700 instrument package puts 20 of its 40 dual hours in it, the most 61.65(i) allows. Because 91.109(c) governs aircraft, there is no safety pilot to find, and the session goes ahead when the marine layer sits on the field. A 60-minute full-motion session is $189.

Foggles And A Safety Pilot In The Airplane

The airplane gives you what no device can: a real controller, real traffic, real bumps and an approach that ends over a real runway. In our IFR-equipped Piper Warriors it costs $179 an hour at the package rate or $269 retail, plus $110 an hour for the instructor. Only the airplane puts the actual accelerations of a climb or a turn through your inner ear, and that is where the illusions come from. You need a safety pilot every flight, and a pair of foggles that fits.

Where Simulated Instrument Time Counts

Four places in the regulations ask for instrument time, and all four accept time flown under a view-limiting device.

For a student pilot, the first row is the one that matters. Your instructor decides where the 3 hours fit into the course. If you have not started yet, the private begins with a two-hour first lesson for $349, and our private pilot license requirements page lists the rest of 61.109.

The second row is the big one. The instrument rating requirements set the 40 hours, and our instrument rating course is built around them at $11,700. That buys 20 hours in the airplane, 20 in the Redbird MCX, 40 hours of dual and 10 of ground, with $2,500 down and four payments of $2,300.

Commercial students meet the third row later; the commercial pilot license requirements page has the full list. For device credit certificate by certificate, see simulator hours that count.

The fourth row never goes away. Once you hold the rating, 61.57(c) asks for six approaches, holding procedures and course tracking every six calendar months. Paragraph (c)(1) says in plain words that you may fly them using a view-limiting device.

Choosing A Pair

You will need your own pair sooner or later. Under 14 CFR 61.45(d)(2), the applicant for a practical test that involves flying solely by reference to instruments has to furnish the device. The private checkride includes basic instrument maneuvers, so the rule reaches further than the instrument checkride. You do not have to buy a pair to start hood work, because You Fly LA provides foggles free to use on lessons.

Start with fit. If you fly in prescription glasses, try foggles on over them before you buy, because some styles push your frames into the bridge of your nose. Then check the view in a cockpit, not a shop mirror. With your head level, the frosting should cut off the windshield and the clear band should show the whole panel, bottom row included.

Comfort matters more than it seems at the counter. The arms sit under your headset's ear cups for long stretches, and thin flat arms press less and spoil the seal less. If you are still choosing a headset, our pilot headsets guide covers that side.

We do not rank brands. Any pair that fits, with the frosting and the clear band in the right places, does the job. Try them with your headset before the lesson, not in the run-up area with the engine running.

Questions About Foggles

Can I Wear Foggles And Log The Time When Flying Alone?

No. 14 CFR 91.109(c) applies to every civil aircraft in simulated instrument flight, not only to training flights, so an instrument-rated pilot practicing alone is bound by it too. Without a qualified safety pilot in the other control seat, the flight itself breaks the rule.

Who Can Be My Safety Pilot?

Any pilot with at least a private pilot certificate carrying the category and class ratings for the airplane, and with adequate vision forward and to each side. The rule in 91.109(c)(1) does not ask the safety pilot to hold an instrument rating or an instructor certificate.

How Much Hood Time Does A Private Pilot Need?

Three hours, under 14 CFR 61.109(a)(3), flown as flight training with an authorized instructor. The checkride tests the same skills in Area VIII of the Private Pilot ACS, Basic Instrument Maneuvers, from straight-and-level flight to recovery from unusual flight attitudes.

Does Simulator Time Count Instead Of Foggles Time?

Toward the instrument rating, up to a limit: 20 hours in an advanced aviation training device such as the Redbird MCX, or 10 in a basic one. For currency the rule is simpler. Under 61.51(g)(5), device time meets the recency requirement as long as a logbook or training record names the device, the time and the content.

Do I Need To Buy Foggles For My Lessons?

No. You Fly LA provides foggles free to use on lessons, so you can fly with a pair in the airplane before you buy your own for the checkride.

Do I Need My Own Foggles For The Checkride?

Yes, under 61.45(d)(2). Appendix 3 of the Instrument Rating ACS (FAA-S-ACS-8C) adds that the device must not restrict the evaluator's ability to see and avoid other traffic. It does not apply to elements of a task that need visual references, and you and the evaluator should agree on when it goes on and comes off.

Does Foggles Time Keep Me Instrument Current?

Yes, with a safety pilot aboard. Let it lapse, though, and the clock matters: if you go more than six calendar months without meeting the 61.57(c) requirements, 61.57(d) says the only way back is an instrument proficiency check.

Keep Reading

• Instrument Flying Skills: The Scan, Approach Charts And Holds
• Spatial Disorientation And The Somatogravic Illusion
• IFR Currency Requirements: 61.57(c) Explained
• Simulator Hours That Count Toward Your Certificate
• Holding Patterns: Entries, Timing, Speeds And Wind Correction
• Full-Motion Flight Simulator In Los Angeles