How to rent a plane as a private pilot: checkout, currency and insurance
October 21, 2026 · Chris van Eijk
Can you rent a plane as a private pilot? Yes — flight schools, FBOs and flying clubs rent their aircraft to licensed pilots; that is what their rental rates are for. What stands between a licence and the first solo rental is a short list: the rules every pilot in command must meet, a checkout flight with the operator, insurance, and the operator's own recent-flying rule to keep renting. This guide walks through them in order, with what operators actually ask on their own websites (read 21 October 2026).
Short answer: to rent a plane you need a pilot certificate with the ratings the aircraft needs, the medical eligibility your certificate requires, and — under the FAA rules — a flight review since the beginning of the 24th calendar month before the flight, plus, to carry passengers, three takeoffs and three landings in the last 90 days as sole manipulator of the controls (to a full stop in a tailwheel aircraft, and at night for passengers at night; 14 CFR 61.57). The operator then asks for a checkout flight with its instructor in the type you want to rent, often your own renter's insurance, and recent flying in the type to keep renting: Regal Air and Elizabethtown Flying Service ask 60 days, Ostseeflug in Germany 90. A Cessna 172 rents for a median $184 an hour at the US operators we read.
From licence to first rental, in five steps
Licence, medical and flight review
A pilot certificate with the ratings the aircraft needs, the medical eligibility your certificate requires, and a flight review since the beginning of the 24th calendar month before
Pick an operator and an aircraft
A flight school, FBO or club near you; compare the rate, what it includes and the minimums
Checkout flight
A flight with the operator's instructor in that type, plus its paperwork (6 of the operators we read describe one)
Insurance
Your own renter’s policy where the operator asks for one; otherwise ask what the operator’s insurance leaves to you, such as an excess
Book, fly, pay
Book, fly, pay the hours on the meter the rate names — and stay current to keep renting
1. Licence, medical and flight review
The operator rents to a pilot who may legally fly the aircraft as pilot in command. Regal Air in Washington asks for a sport or private pilot certificate "with the ratings and endorsements required by the FAA to act as PIC of that airplane". Two FAA rules apply to every day VFR rental. A flight review: no one may act as pilot in command unless, "since the beginning of the 24th calendar month before the month in which that pilot acts as pilot in command", they have accomplished a flight review with an instructor's logbook endorsement (14 CFR 61.56). And for passengers: at least "three takeoffs and three landings within the preceding 90 days" as sole manipulator of the controls, in an aircraft of the same category, class and type (if a class or type rating is required); and to carry passengers between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise, three takeoffs and three full-stop landings in that period (14 CFR 61.57).
2. Pick an operator and an aircraft
Flight schools, FBOs and rental operators rent to qualified pilots who pass their checkout; a flying club rents to its members: the six US clubs in our rates table that state a wet rate charge $94.39 to $175 an hour, against a $184 median at the operators, plus dues. Compare more than the hourly rate: whether it is wet or dry, which meter it is charged on, and the minimum hours on a trip away. How much it costs to rent a plane lists those for 20 operators, and what a flying club costs shows when a club is the cheaper choice. Some operators also set a minimum experience per type: Regal Air asks 10 hours total time and 3 hours in the make and model for its Cessna 172.
3. The checkout flight
All six operators we quote on their rental process ask for a checkout first (Regal Air adds "Some exceptions apply"). Regal Air: "Pilots must get an instructor checkout to proficiency in each make\model airplane." Elizabethtown Flying Service in Kentucky wants pilots "checked out in the type aircraft they wish to rent by an instructor approved by Elizabethtown Flying Service". AeroDynamic Aviation in San Jose: "The aircraft rental process involves a checkout flight with one of our instructors". Fenland Flying School in England hires its Cessnas "subject to a check flight", and Ostseeflug in Germany asks for a valid briefing on the type ("Es besteht eine gültige Einweisung auf dem Flugzeugmuster"). You pay for it as a flight with an instructor — Ostseeflug, for one, charges its training prices for briefing flights. Regal Air, Elizabethtown Flying Service and Ostseeflug tie the checkout to the type, so a checkout in one model does not cover another.
4. Insurance
Nine of the US operators we read require a renter's policy of your own; of the five that name an amount for damage to the aircraft, three ask $50,000. AeroDynamic Aviation, for example, requires renters "to have their own insurance policy for at least $20,000 liability, physical and property damage coverage". The UK and Dutch operators we read insure the aircraft themselves and you carry an excess; where an operator includes "limited insurance" in the rate, as Regal Air does, ask what it leaves to you. What operators require and what the cover costs is in renter's insurance for pilots.
5. Book, fly, pay — and stay current
After the checkout you book like any other renter and pay the hours on the meter the rate names — Hobbs, tach, block or flight time. To keep renting, the operators that say so ask for recent flying in the type — stricter than the FAA's own 90-day rule, which applies only when you carry passengers. Elizabethtown Flying Service: "In order to retain rental privileges, pilots are required to maintain 60-day currency, in type." Regal Air asks that you have flown one of its aircraft "of the same or a more advanced type within the preceding sixty (60) days", plus "an annual proficiency check with a Regal Air Flight Instructor". Ostseeflug asks for a check flight when the type has not been flown for 90 days. Flying clubs set the same kind of rule: flying club booking rules shows the currency rules of the 16 of 22 clubs that set one, most often 90 days.
If you are the one renting out the aircraft
The operator's side of these steps is bookkeeping: who is checked out, who booked, how many hours each renter flew, and what they owe. Pilot-Next handles the booking and the billing — renters book within the rules you set, every booking is settled on the Hobbs or the Tacho and becomes an invoice on the renter's account balance — but it does not track checkouts, medicals or insurance; see the aircraft rental software guide for what it does and does not do.