Preflight

Orville never had to sweat one

Orville and his brother, Wilbur, became the first powered-aircraft pilots in the United States when their Wright Flyer successfully flew December 17, 1903, from Kill Devil Hill on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Orville didn't have to worry about taking a knowledge test-or a presolo written test or a flight physical, either.

Heck, Orville didn't receive a pilot certificate until August 19, 1940, more than 36 years after his historic flight. That was only two years after the Civil Aviation Act established authority for a written test in 1938; the test was in place by 1941. "Applicant shall be familiar with and accomplish satisfactorily a written examination covering [the regulations] as pertinent to his certificate," as well as analyzing weather maps and sequence reports, air navigation problems, pilotage, dead reckoning, and the use of maps, noted the January 1941 Digest of Civil Air Regulations for Pilots.

Your instructor, some of your pilot friends, and old hands around the airport may still call it the written test, because the test actually was administered on paper-bring plenty of sharp Number 2 pencils!-for more than 50 years. In 1966, according to the FAA, written exams were being administered at "most of the FAA's 300 flight service stations across the country." Today there are only about one-sixth that many flight service facilities, and they haven't administered tests for years. In the early 1990s, computerized knowledge testing as we know it today was introduced; a few years later the FAA made that the only way to take the tests, a move that put the remaining written test examiners out of business.

If you'll soon be taking a knowledge test, you need to be aware of some changes that the FAA recently made to the venerable exams. One of the main changes is that test responses will now be changed (see "No Easy Answers," p. 48). The answers will stay the same-say the correct answer to a flight-planning problem is 110 kt, which always used to be choice "A." Now, thanks to the flexibility of the computerized testing format, the answer of 110 kt may be your choice "B," while a student taking the test in Buffalo could see 110 kt as his or her choice "C."

Why would this matter, you ask? Well, if you've mastered the material, it won't. But some people memorize the answers to the questions instead of the aeronautical information, and anybody who prepares for the knowledge test in that manner will be in for a rude awakening. It's unlikely they will earn the grade of 70 percent or better that's required to pass the test.

The test isn't something to be feared. Today there are many ways to prepare. A wide variety of study aids, from books and workbooks to videotapes, CD-ROMs, and DVDs, are available to help you learn the material. A ground school might be offered through a nearby high school, community college, FBO, or your flight school. Your flight instructor might offer to teach you the material in ground sessions before your flight lessons or on days when weather keeps you on the ground. There are even accelerated weekend ground schools that can prepare you for the test in two days.

Preparation philosophies differ, too. Some students choose to complete the knowledge test before they begin flight training, while others find themselves within days of their checkrides, scrambling to find a testing center (there's a list of CATS testing centers on AOPA Online-and a coupon that will save you $10 on the testing fee. When I'm asked, I suggest that beginning students study their choice of ground-school material concurrently with their flight lessons. Certain things, such as VOR and NDB navigation, can be much easier to comprehend when flight training can complement the bookwork. I think that an ideal time for most students to take the knowledge test is just before beginning their solo cross-countries; by then their flight training should have exposed them to all the knowledge-test subject areas.

You don't have to like the test. It's given student pilots angst for decades. A January 1961 article in AOPA Pilot presented some alternate questions lightheartedly suggested by two apparently frustrated pilots: You are planning a flight from A to C, at 8,000 feet. Over Point C, winds will be what? Headwinds, of course. Are there any other kind? What is the difference between altitude and attitude? Spelling.

One thing to remember about the FAA knowledge test is that, no matter what you thought of it, your flight instructor has probably taken five or more of them during his or her career. Just one more reason why CFIs deserve our respect.