In this study. differences in attention allocation patterns between expert and novIce pilots were investigated by a verbal protocol when pilots were engaged in a task during the instrument flight. Ten pilots including experts and novices were participated to conduct a pre-determined task(a fix-to-fix) on F-5E Cockpit Procedure Trainer Simulator. Experts show better performance as expected with more stable variations in speed. altitude. and attitude. In attention allocation patterns. novices allocated about 83% of attentional resources on the primary instruments (airspeed indicator. altitude indicator. and attitude) relating to the task of the basic flight while experts spent 57%. This difference in the availability of attentional resources allowed expert pilots to accomplish the task better than novices. In other words. training a pilot should consider a program for building up wider instrument scanning patterns to become an expert in a shorter time.