FARs Condensed
Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), commonly referred to as the FARs, contains federal laws regarding Aeronautics and Space. Private pilots are expected to follow the rules laid out in these regulations. However, much of the information doesn’t apply to private pilots and it can be difficult to separate out the important information from the parts that don’t apply. As a consequence, many pilots are not as familiar with the FARs as they should be.
This document hopes to remedy that situation by displaying only the parts that do apply to private pilots—with links that display the full text if more details are desired. As an example, a private pilot needs to know that a cross country flight is any flight with a landing at a different airport than you started at, except that when cross country time is required for a rating, the landing point must be 50 nm from the starting point. The definition of cross country in Part 1 uses 615 words to define this simple concept. The definition is different for helicopter pilots, sport pilots, and military pilots and if you are interested in the details you can tap or click the link to see the details.
This document also hides information that is not relevant to any pilot, let alone private pilots. For example, does anyone care that if you have a private or commercial pilot certificate issued before July 1, 1945 it will not be renewed? And it also hides information that is relevant to only a small subset of pilots, e.g. special training for Mitsubishi MU-2B pilots and regulations specific to Alaska.
Hidden content is indicated by three dots and a letter or another dot. The letter is a mnemonic that indicates the type of content that is hidden. Except for content that applies to mechanics, the letter is related to the content. Three dots and a dot is used to hide details or entire sections when the content doesn’t fit into one of the categories below.
- A — ATP
- B — Balloon, Lighter than air
- C — Commercial
- E — Experimental
- F — Flight Instructors
- G — Glider
- H — High Performance-Jets, Turbo-prop, etc.
- I — Instrument
- L — Sport - LSA
- M — Multiengine
- . — Recreational
- R — Rotocraft including helicopters and gyroplanes
- S — Student Pilots
- U — Ultralight, Powered lift, Weight shift, etc.
- Z — Mechanics
The content is current as of May 1, 2013. Source, authority, and editorial notes have been removed but otherwise these pages contain the compete text of the FARs from the eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations website. The text has been indented to make it easier to discern sub-sections and subsub-sections. The following parts that may be of interest to private pilots can be view from the links at the top of each page.
- Part 1 — Definitions and Abbreviations
- Part 43 — Maintenance and Preventive Maintenance
- Part 45 — Registration Markings
- Part 47 — Registration
- Part 61 — Certification
- Part 71 — Airspace Classification
- Part 73 — Special Use Airspace
- Part 91 — General Operating and Flight Rules
- Part 95 — IFR Altitudes
- Part 97 — Standard Instrument Procedures
- NTSB 830 — Accident reporting requirements