FAA Private Pilot ‒ Airplane Airman Certification Standards FAA-S-ACS-6A
Student pilots getting ready for their private pilot checkride should know the new FAA Private Pilot ‒ Airplane Airman Certification Standards FAA-S-ACS-6A (Change 1) inside and out. The Private Pilot ACS completely lays out how a private pilot’s checkride should be conducted by the FAA examiner.
In addition to laying out how the practical test will be conducted, it is a great guide for what subjects to study. Many questions during the private pilot checkride will relate to the flight the pilot planned specifically for the checkride. But the examiner does have the option to ask other questions that may not relate to the specific flight but fall under the subjects for that task.
For example, Task D: Cross-Country Flight Planning, the FAA Examiner must ask a certain minimum number of questions. They are as indicated in the Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards:
Private Pilot Getting Ready for Checkride Tips
The required minimum elements to include in the plan of action from each applicable Task are as follows:
- At least one knowledge element;
- At least one risk management element;
- All skill elements unless otherwise noted; and
- Any Task elements in which the applicant was shown to be deficient on the knowledge test.
There is no way around it though, you need to study every subject in each task and there really isn’t any shortcuts.
The references in each task are great resource. Any questions the examiner asks from a certain task must be contained in one of those references. So one study method would be to look at each element in a particular task and then go to each of the references listed in that task and find the information in those documents. If you follow that process you should be fully prepared for any questions. But there are no shortcuts to be fully prepared.
The additional benefit to following the above advice is in case the examiner asks a question that does not necessarily pertain to the element in that task or is not referenced in the references, you will be aware of that and realize that it’s not a valid question. The same thing goes for the flight portion of the practical test.
If you would like a quality reprint of the Private Pilot Airplane Airman Certification Standards FAA-S-ACS-6A, Elite Aviation Solutions is providing a copy through Amazon.