The Checkride Guide
The practical test, area by area.
The Private Pilot series is written: three volumes, 1,161 pages and a 948-question exam engine. It opens after a final review against the latest FAA changes. Get notified at launch, with launch pricing for the full set.
After the written comes the checkride. This volume walks through every area of operation in the Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-6C, for a single-engine land airplane: what the examiner will ask, what the examiner watches for and the tolerances you must fly to.
Opening chapters cover eligibility, endorsements, IACRA and how the oral actually runs. Each task chapter answers, in plain language, the questions examiners ask, works the risk-management elements the ACS tests, and points to the chapters in Volume One where the subject is taught. The appendices collect every tolerance in one place, the endorsement and document checklist and 139 questions for a mock oral.
- Before the test
- 1 What the Practical Test Actually Is
- 2 Eligibility, Documents, and IACRA
- 3 The Scenario, and How the Oral Runs
- Area I, Preflight Preparation
- 4 Task A: Pilot Qualifications
- 5 Task B: Airworthiness Requirements
- 6 Task C: Weather Information
- 7 Task D: Cross-Country Flight Planning
- 8 Task E: National Airspace System
- 9 Task F: Performance and Limitations
- 10 Task G: Operation of Systems
- 11 Task H: Human Factors
- Areas II to XII, The flight
- 12 Area II: Preflight Procedures
- 13 Area III: Airport Operations
- 14 Area IV: Takeoffs, Landings, and Go-Arounds
- 15 Area V: Performance and Ground Reference Maneuvers
- 16 Area VI: Navigation
- 17 Area VII: Slow Flight and Stalls
- 18 Area VIII: Basic Instrument Maneuvers
- 19 Area IX: Emergency Operations
- 20 Area XI: Night Operations
- 21 Area XII: Postflight Procedures
- After the test
- 22 After the Test
- Appendices
- A The Tolerances, in One Place
- B The Endorsement and Document Checklist
- C The Questions, Collected
- Series
- Private Pilot Airplane
- Set length
- 1,161 pages across the three volumes
- Exam engine
- 948 questions
- Trim size
- 8.5 × 11 in.
- Printing
- Black and white
- Binding
- Perfect bound, paperback
- Edition
- 2027-2028 Edition
- Price
- Announced at launch
How this book is built
Every claim in it has a citation you can go and check.
We write against the FAA’s own published text rather than against somebody’s summary of it, and the sources are re-read on a weekly review. When the FAA changes a rule or changes the test, the book changes with it.
- Nothing is charged before it ships. Titles still in production are marked as such on this page rather than sold as though they were ready.
- Updated when the FAA changes something, not on a publishing schedule.
- Not an FAA product. Independent study material, not affiliated with or approved by the FAA.