Checkride: A standards facelift

The FAA made clear that the primary factor driving the creation of ACS was to align knowledge test questions with real-world piloting scenarios and standardize subject matter coding, bridging the knowledge test questions to the practical test. This worthy goal has yet to be achieved and will require some extra time. As the questions on the knowledge test become more realistic, positive learning can take place, even at this basic level, and will be a good start to a solid, scenario-based flight training syllabus. However, multiple-choice knowledge test questions answered while sitting before a computer in a closed room will never be the driving force behind how safe a pilot ultimately becomes. That will always be determined primarily by the quality of the flight training and the students’ motivation levels.

DPEs provided scenario-based practical tests long before the ACS was adopted. The ACS makes it clear that knowledge, risk management, and skills become elements of every task on the practical test. How each individual DPE accomplishes that becomes the real question.

The ACS clearly describes what must be evaluated on every test, but it does not dictate how to accomplish it. Without specific guidance from the FAA as to what an ACS practical test should look or sound like, and with hundreds of DPEs building that new product, expect to see some wide variations on the ACS theme. Realistically, however, CFIs and students should not expect many sudden or drastic changes in the practical tests. It’s likely that changes will be gradual as the DPEs become more acquainted with the ACS procedures.

Also reassuring is the fact that the FAA insists the practical test should not take longer to accomplish. While this is not a directive, it does provide an important expectation to DPEs as they develop their tests. But bear in mind that DPEs who are truly doing a good job of following the ACS guidance cannot be expected to deliver short tests, especially while the ACS procedures are still fairly new to them. The requirement to tie a new coding system to each task accomplished during the test, for the purpose of recording deficient areas, could add some time to the process. You also can expect questions specific to the areas of knowledge that were reported as deficient on the knowledge test. Testing on these areas is required and might be accomplished during the oral or the flight, or both, but it shouldn’t add appreciably to the testing time.

While most of the required tasks that are tested in flight have not changed, one that has is slow flight. The now-superseded practical test standards directed that slow flight would be accomplished at just slightly above the stall speed, and any further reduction in speed or power or increase in load factor would result in an immediate stall. This resulted in slow flight typically being performed with a continuous stall warning activation, which now under the ACS would be viewed as a flagrant disregard for an active and valid warning system. The new order directs that slow flight be accomplished at a speed just above stall warning activation, and any stall warning should prompt the applicant to immediately recover from the impending stall. This shift in rationale will be addressed in greater detail in the October 2016 revision of the Airplane Flying Handbook.

The ACS is not a perfect document; it is a work in progress that, hopefully, will eventually help achieve the goal of improving aviation safety.