Your own hard numbers for ceiling, visibility, wind, runway, and fuel — chosen on a calm day so they can protect you on a tempting one.
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Personal minimums are your own hard numbers for ceiling, visibility, wind, runway, and fuel — set on the ground, above the legal minimums and below anything you've barely handled. Their job is to turn a judgment call at the airport into a simple comparison: the forecast either clears your written number or it doesn't. Ready to set yours? Fill out the printable worksheet as you read.
Because legal minimums answer a different question. The regulations define the least the FAA will permit — not what a given pilot can safely fly. Basic VFR in Class G airspace below 1,200 feet AGL by day is 1 statute mile visibility and clear of clouds (14 CFR 91.155). That is legal. It is also, for most pilots, a recipe for hitting something: at 100 knots you cover a mile in about 36 seconds, which is roughly the time you'd have between seeing a tower and not.
Even the friendlier 3 SM / 1,000-foot-ceiling numbers most pilots memorize describe marginal VFR — conditions in which VFR-into-IMC accidents actually happen. The accident record is blunt on this point: pilots flying legally, in weather the regulations allowed, who ran out of visibility, ideas, and altitude in that order.
Personal minimums close the gap between lawful and safe-for-you. They are personal precisely because your gap is different from anyone else's: it depends on your hours, your recency, your airplane, and your terrain.
Start from evidence, not aspiration: what have you comfortably — and recently — handled? Not the gustiest landing you ever survived; the conditions you've flown in the last few months where you felt ahead of the airplane. That's your demonstrated envelope. Then add margin, because the day you need the minimums is by definition a day things aren't going to plan.
Work one variable at a time: ceiling, visibility, wind, runway, fuel. Here's what that might look like for a private pilot with around 150 hours flying a typical trainer — presented as an example of the shape, not a prescription. Your numbers must come from your own logbook:
| Category | Example baseline (~150-hr PPL) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling — day VFR | 3,000 ft | Room to maneuver, navigate, and still clear obstacles if it drops |
| Visibility — day VFR | 5 SM | Time to see and decide, not just see and react |
| Ceiling / vis — night | 5,000 ft / 8 SM | Night hides the deterioration until you're in it |
| Crosswind component | 8 kt | Roughly half a typical demonstrated value; raise only with recent practice |
| Gusts | ≤ 20 kt total | The gust is what arrives in the flare |
| Runway | ≥ 1.5 × POH distance | Book numbers assume a test pilot and a new airplane |
| Fuel at landing | ≥ 1 hour | Twice the day-VFR legal reserve; diversions cost fuel |
Compute the crosswind honestly — at the gust speed, not the steady wind. The crosswind calculator does the trigonometry; your minimums sheet supplies the verdict.
A single set of numbers can't cover every flight. The baseline assumes a familiar airport, a familiar airplane, daytime, flat terrain, and reasonable recency. When a flight departs from those assumptions, subtract margin from yourself — tighten the numbers before you look at the forecast:
Because commitment beats willpower at the moment of pressure. A minimum that exists only in your head is renegotiable the instant a forecast comes in at 2,800 feet against your mental 3,000 — and you will renegotiate it, because you'll be the lawyer, the judge, and the defendant. A number written on paper, dated and signed, is a decision your calmer self already made.
Telling someone multiplies the effect. Share your sheet with your CFI, a flying partner, or the person who usually waits for you at the destination. "My minimums say no" is a sentence that ends conversations — with passengers, and with yourself. Some pilots go further and brief passengers in advance: "If the ceiling is below 3,000 when we get up tomorrow, we're driving." Now the external pressure is working for the conservative call.
Use the printable personal minimums worksheet — it walks each category, gives you the write-in blanks, and prints clean so you can keep a copy in your flight bag and give one to your instructor.
On a schedule, and after events:
Reviewed and written down, your minimums become the input the whole go/no-go framework runs on: PAVE asks the questions, your sheet answers them, and the flight becomes a comparison instead of a debate.
Common QuestionsThere's no universal set — that's the point — but a common starting shape for day VFR is: ceiling around 3,000 feet, visibility 5 statute miles, crosswind near half the demonstrated value (often 7–8 knots), gusts no more than about 20 knots, runway at least 1.5× the POH distance, and landing with at least one hour of fuel. Derive your own numbers from what you've recently and comfortably handled, then add margin.
No. They're not a regulatory requirement for Part 91 pilots — the regulations set legal minimums, and the FAA strongly encourages personal minimums above them as a risk-management practice (Risk Management Handbook FAA-H-8083-2A, FAA Safety Briefing). They're a self-imposed standard: numbers you choose, write down, and hold yourself to.
Lower them (tighten toward conservative) quickly and without ceremony: after a layoff, after a scare, in an unfamiliar aircraft or airport, at night, over terrain, or with passengers aboard. Raising them is the move that should be slow — one variable at a time, deliberately, ideally after dual practice in those exact conditions.
Legal minimums are the regulatory floor — the least the FAA permits, such as the basic VFR weather minimums in 14 CFR 91.155. Personal minimums are your own higher numbers, set from your actual recent experience plus margin. Legal defines what's lawful; personal defines what's safe for you, today, in your airplane. In some Class G airspace the legal floor (1 SM and clear of clouds by day) permits conditions few pilots can safely handle.
The printable companion to this guide — write-in blanks for every category, ready for your flight bag.
How your minimums plug into a repeatable preflight decision — PAVE, binary calls, and divert triggers.
Compute the component at the gust speed, then compare it to the crosswind line on your sheet.
FlightDecide stores your personal minimums and compares them against the actual forecast ceilings, visibility, and winds for your departure window — so a busted minimum shows up as a clear flag, not a hopeful re-read of the TAF.
Get FlightDecide on the App StoreEducational content for flight-planning practice. It is advisory only and not a substitute for an official weather briefing, your POH, or your own judgment as pilot in command (14 CFR 91.3). Example figures are illustrations, not recommendations — set your own numbers with your instructor. Sources: FAA Risk Management Handbook (FAA-H-8083-2A); FAA Safety Briefing, "Getting the Maximum from Personal Minimums." Last reviewed: July 17, 2026.