Pilot examiners' perspective of regulations knowledge
Any person who has spent significant time around flight schools knows that the dropout rate is far higher than most people expect. There is a reason, and that reason is connected to an area that pilot examiners are expected to test: regulations. Occasionally applicants respond to their examiner's friendly question about why they learned to fly with something like "I want the freedom of flight...to be able to do what I want when I want." You can see where this is leading.
Regulations, of course, prevent most pilots from doing "what I want when I want." This is one of many reasons for aviation's high dropout rate. Few aviation neophytes expect the degree of federal scrutiny that truly exists. Yet, all this scrutiny exists for a very good reason. Regulators include the U.S. Congress, the FAA, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), future employers, and--most important--the nonflying public. Each of these has a primary goal of safety. So, therefore, should pilot applicants.
As you prepare for your checkride, naturally, you seek some revelation of just which regulations you should know. Perusing your Practical Test Standards with your flight instructor, you do not see a single simple list of regulations toward which to funnel your studies. The day that you take your checkride, you feel viscerally that your preparation may have been incomplete. You are perceptive, because it has been. Flight instructors in general seem to understand that the scanty discussion of regulations they have had in foreshortened ground courses is insufficient. Still, they also recognize that to learn what pilots truly need would be exhausting. Consider this list, and see if you agree that understanding these elements of regulation are of importance to pilots.
Pilots must have:
- A basic knowledge of the roles and core publications of U.S. and international regulating bodies that affect flight operations.
- A basic knowledge of how these agencies certify pilots, aircraft, facilities, and components, and the conditions required for a pilot or an aircraft to fly legally.
- An operational knowledge of the procedures and rules for operating at airports, including the markings and lighting to be encountered at those fields.
- The ability to apply knowledge of the above to a wide variety of scenarios without displaying any lack of knowledge that would lead to either an unsafe or an illegal act on the part of that pilot.
The importance to pilots of national and international regulating bodies is not always immediately obvious, but when once considers the impact of the ICAO on flight in its member nations, its importance becomes clear. It is not likely, however, that your DPE will ask about ICAO during your checkride. You more likely will have a scenario-type question that tests your knowledge of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its ability to improve aviation safety through the Aviation Safety Reporting System.
When you meet your examiner, the opening chitchat might wander to your aviation goals. A strong percentage of pilot applicants currently have goals that will include international flying. Certainly, a pilot intending international flight should know that the Federal Communication Commission requires such pilots to hold a restricted radiotelephone operator's permit.
How about the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)? One pilot applicant, when the ground portion of his practical test turned to the NTSB, responded that he was never going to be involved in an accident and therefore did not need to know the requirements of NTSB Part 830. Incidentally, from an examiner's perspective, where most applicants have trouble remembering NTSB time limitations, the error lies in not understanding the difference between "notification" of an accident and filing a "report."
Private pilots operate in the same airspace, at the same airfields, and sometimes in the same aircraft as commercial pilots. Life makes no allowances for the grade of one's pilot certificate. Wisely, your PTS begins each task of each area of operation with element one, which will call upon you to demonstrate knowledge of "elements pertaining to" whatever is under discussion. For nearly every item within the PTS, there will be some connection to regulations at one point or another. This format eliminates the need for a restrictive list that might be ill advised.
Many decisions in your flying life will demand that you have a solidly useable knowledge of regulations. When you fly, for example, at sunrise or sunset, your passengers will use the term night in the social sense. Pilots must keep the term attuned to its aviation meanings. Are you using the term in relation to operation of the aircraft's position lights, or carrying passengers, or logging the time? Context makes all the difference.
Another problem area can be FAR Part 61, which outlines the requirements for pilot and flight instructor certificates, ratings, and authorizations. Flight students tend to simply trust their flight instructors in assuring that they have met all of the requirements for a particular certificate or rating. When this team completes the FAA Form 8710 (application form) occasionally one or more of the experience blocks at the form's bottom will not show enough experience to qualify. To a pilot examiner, this very event could indicate the possibility of a lack of required knowledge.
There are so many aspects of regulations that touch a private pilot applicant that this simple article could not possibly be exhaustive. Be confident when you take your checkride, but only if you have grounded that confidence in study and discussion.
Dave Wilkerson is a designated pilot examiner, writer/photographer, and historian. He has been a certificated flight instructor since 1981 with approximately 2,000 hours of dual instruction, and is a single- and multiengine commercial-rated pilot.
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