30-Day Oral Pacing Checklist (PPL)

Explain what you must hold to be eligible, what recent experience means, and which documents you carry. Stay with the regulation when a number is involved.

• § 61.103 eligibility for a private pilot certificate: at least 17 for an airplane rating, English, a knowledge-test endorsement and the knowledge test on the § 61.105 areas, flight training and a practical-test endorsement on the § 61.107 areas, the § 61.109 experience, the practical test, and a U.S. student, sport, or recreational pilot certificate.
• § 61.56 flight review: minimum 1 hour of flight training and 1 hour of ground training, and you may not act as PIC unless you have completed one since the beginning of the 24th calendar month before the month of the flight, with a logbook endorsement. A student pilot who is in training and has a current solo endorsement does not need one (§ 61.56(g)). Passing a practical test counts (§ 61.56(d)(1)).
• Passenger-carrying currency is § 61.57(a) and, in the night window, § 61.57(b). The current text says same category, class, and type if a class or type rating is required. Read both paragraphs against the night page before you memorize a shorthand.
• Risk on this task: currency is not proficiency. Say what you would do if the landings are legal and the airplane, or the avionics, is unfamiliar.

Use the airplane you will take to the checkride. The oral is “show me where it is and what it means,” not a list of acronyms.

• Where the airworthiness certificate, registration, and operating limitations are, and which of them expire.
• Required inspections and the logbook entry that shows each one is current for this airplane.
• What an Airworthiness Directive requires you to do, and how that differs from a SAIB.
• What a special flight permit is for, and who has to comply with its conditions.
• Inoperative equipment found on preflight: whether this airplane has an MEL, what the KOEL says, and the placard and discrepancy record. The risk element is discovering it before flight and still launching.

Pull a real briefing for a route you might fly and explain every product you would actually use: METAR, TAF, graphical forecast, AIRMETs and SIGMETs, winds and temperatures aloft, and the pieces of a briefing you will not skip.

• Say which product answers “can I go,” which answers “what will it do while I am en route,” and which one you do not understand yet.
• For a flight that is not in the vicinity of an airport, § 91.103(a) requires weather reports and forecasts before departure. Tie the go/no-go decision to a limit you set in advance, not to a forecast that is merely legal VFR.

Plan one VFR cross-country you can defend for the rest of the month. The same plan comes back on days 10, 11, 23, and 26.

• Route, checkpoints, altitude, and the VFR cruising altitudes in § 91.159 — open the section and apply it rather than reciting a mnemonic.
• Fuel to the first point of intended landing, plus the reserve in § 91.151, at normal cruising speed, after wind and the forecast. Walk through the fuel page if “30 minutes” is all you can say.
• Weight and balance and takeoff and landing distance for this trip, from the POH, including a hot day. That calculation is day 6’s topic if it does not fit today.
• NOTAMs, TFRs, and the Chart Supplement for every airport you intend to use. § 91.103 is the preflight-action rule behind the plan.

Rebuild Classes A through G from § 91.155 and the equipment and entry rules, not from a chart you colored once. Include special use airspace and what a TFR changes.

• Class C is the usual stumble: two-way radio before entry, what “standby” does and does not do, Mode C, and ADS-B Out. Use the Class C page and then say it without looking.
• The risk is busting airspace or accepting a clearance you did not understand. Say what you would do if you are unsure whether communications are established.

PA.I.F is performance and limitations. Compute takeoff and landing for the airplane you will fly, at the elevation and temperature of a worse-than-standard day, and explain how density altitude moved the numbers. The density altitude page is the PHAK method; the POH is the number you bring to the oral.

• § 91.103(b) requires runway lengths and takeoff and landing distance data before any flight. Know which chart you used and which inputs you changed.
• PA.I.G is operation of systems for this airplane: fuel, electrical, pitot-static, flight controls, and the powerplant. For each one, say what fails and the first thing you do. Oxygen rules, if the examiner asks, are § 91.211.

PA.I.H is human factors: aeromedical issues, decision-making, and how you decide you are unfit. The risk elements are the point. A checklist of hazardous attitudes is not an answer until you can apply one to a flight you almost made.

• Area II for single-engine land: preflight assessment (Task A), flight deck management (B), engine starting (C), taxiing (D), and the before-takeoff check (F). Task E is seaplane.
• Walk your checklist and say what each item is looking for. Taxi is where runway-incursion risk lives; you will come back to it on day 9.

Area III, Task A. Make the radio calls for the airports on your day-4 cross-country: who you call, what you say, and what you read back.

• Memorize the ATC light-gun signals for aircraft on the ground and in flight from the current AIM until you can say them without the table. Confirm the table in the AIM rather than a flash card that might be stale.
• Runway and taxiway lighting, including pilot-controlled lighting for an airport you will actually use. The Chart Supplement is the source for that airport’s clicks and frequency.
• Class C entry communications are the standby rule. If you are still unsure whether “standby” lets you in, redo day 5 before you move on.

PA.III.B is traffic patterns: entry, legs, altitudes, and how you sequence yourself at a non-towered field and at a towered field. Then runway incursion avoidance, which the ACS treats as risk on taxi (PA.II.D) and again at night.

• Hold-short lines, hotspot diagrams, and what you do if a clearance does not match the sign in front of you.
• Right-of-way from the regulation you open today (§ 91.113), applied to a pattern conflict, not recited as a list you hope is complete.

Draw the day-4 route on a sectional. Pick checkpoints you could actually see, compute time, distance, and fuel between them, and explain variation and deviation. This is PA.VI.A.

• Say what you do when a checkpoint is late. That sentence is the bridge to diversion and lost procedures tomorrow.
• The risk is pressing on with a plan that no longer matches the fuel or the weather.

PA.VI.B is navigation systems and radar services. PA.VI.C is diversion. PA.VI.D is lost procedures. Use the same cross-country: the destination goes below your minimums at the halfway point.

• Pick an alternate, estimate heading, time, and fuel, and say who you call. Then say what you do if the alternate does not work either.
• Lost: when you admit it, which navaid or ATC service you use, and how fuel and daylight limit the decision. Do not wait for a script with a clever name.

The ACS area is XI, Night Operations, Task A. (An airplane single-engine oral does not include Area X, which is multiengine.) Explain the knowledge elements and the risk elements, including night currency versus proficiency.

• The three clocks are the whole oral. Read the night page and then teach them to someone else: civil twilight for logging and for § 61.109, sunset to sunrise for position lights in § 91.209, and one hour after sunset for § 61.57(b).
• Vision, illusions, airport lighting, and the equipment this airplane needs for night VFR. Open § 91.205(c) and check it against the airplane rather than a memorized acronym.

For single-engine land, the tasks are emergency descent (A), emergency approach and landing, simulated (B), systems and equipment malfunctions (C), and emergency equipment and survival gear (D). Tasks E through G are multiengine.

• For each task, explain the knowledge element and the risk: why you would descend, where you would land, which checklist you run, and what you will not delay in order to finish a checklist.
• Name the survival equipment actually in this airplane. “I would hope someone finds me” is not the task.

Area XII, Task A is after landing, parking, and securing (single-engine land). Shutdown, securing, documenting a discrepancy, and getting passengers off the ramp without walking them into a propeller or a taxi lane. Task B is seaplane.

• Then 30 minutes closed-book on days 8–13. Anything you cannot explain in a few sentences is tomorrow’s problem only if you write it down. After you have an account, mark that element Shaky on the task page. Shaky is a confidence rating, described on day 22. It is not a person.

Explain speeds and configuration from the POH, crosswind control, and the performance numbers from day 6. The risk is a takeoff or landing you should have declined: density altitude, wind, runway length, or an unstable approach you continue.

Why the technique exists. What changes in attitude, flap, and airspeed on takeoff and on landing, and which risk you accept if you rotate early or touch down long. Use this airplane’s short-field numbers, not a generic trainer’s.

PA.IV.M is a forward slip to a landing. Say when you would use one and check the POH for a limitation with flaps extended. Do not claim every airplane allows it.

PA.IV.N is the go-around / rejected landing. Explain the decision, the configuration sequence, and the risk of continuing. Seaplane takeoff and landing tasks in Area IV are not the single-engine land oral.

Area V is Performance Maneuvers and Ground Reference Maneuvers. For steep turns, explain load factor, why stall speed rises, overbanking tendency, and the visual reference you use. The risk is an accelerated stall in the turn. Bank and altitude tolerances are the skill standard; they come after you can explain this.

Rectangular course, S-turns, and turns around a point: wind correction, ground track, division of attention, and collision avoidance. The evaluator selects the maneuver. Explain all three well enough that any one of them can be the oral.

The risk is dropping the scan — traffic, the field you would use if the engine quit, and the wind you stopped correcting for.

Maneuvering during slow flight, power-off stalls, power-on stalls, and spin awareness. Explain the configuration, the cue you recover on, and the stall margin you are protecting. Spin awareness (PA.VII.D) is a knowledge and risk task in this ACS; read the task before you assume a spin must be demonstrated on the private pilot test.

Straight-and-level, constant-airspeed climbs and descents, turns to headings, unusual-attitude recovery, and radio, navigation, and radar services. This day is the oral on the instruments: what each one is telling you, which failure would fool you, and when you ask for help. Hood work is the skill. It does not replace the explanation.

Closed book, 45 to 60 minutes, Area I only. Scenarios, not definitions: a document is missing, the weather is legal and unwise, the weight and balance is at a limit.

• After you sign in, the app’s Oral Exam Quiz is at Syllabus → Private Pilot → Oral exam quiz. It is a flash-card drill of the oral questions and DPE Q&A in areas the account can open. You grade each answer known or missed, and you can drill the misses. Selected areas are free. Questions in locked areas stay locked until the Private Pilot unlock. It is not an automated examiner.
• Shaky is a confidence rating on an ACS element (the low end of the scale on the task page). Mark an element Shaky when you could not explain it. It is not a mock examiner and it is not a separate oral mode. On a free area, that rating also shows the one-time unlock prompt.

You are taxiing out for the trip you planned on day 4. Cover preflight procedures, airport operations, and navigation, including a diversion when the destination goes down. Use the quiz for the questions it can show you, and mark every miss Shaky on the task.

For each maneuver the questioner picks, answer in that order: the knowledge, the risk, then the skill standard. If you jump to “plus or minus 100 feet,” stop and answer the first two.

Add one airworthiness scenario from day 2: something is inoperative on the preflight and you have to decide if the airplane goes. Keep the three night clocks straight without notes.

A full scenario from documents through the cross-country, a diversion, one emergency, and a handful of maneuvers. No notes. Afterward, redo every element you marked Shaky and every quiz card you graded as a miss. If you do this alone, write the questions down first so you cannot steer them.

Match each endorsement to the paragraph it satisfies. Your CFI signs these. You are checking that the logbook actually contains them, in the current recommended form, and that the training behind the sentence happened.

• Knowledge test, AC 61-65K paragraph A.36, for §§ 61.35(a)(1), 61.103(d), and 61.105: “I certify that [First name, MI, Last name] has received the required training in accordance with 14 CFR § 61.105. I have determined they are prepared for the [name of] knowledge test.”
• Practical test, paragraph A.37, for §§ 61.103(f), 61.107(b), and 61.109. The AC says this endorsement is required in addition to the § 61.39 endorsements in A.1 and A.2: “I certify that [First name, MI, Last name] has received the required training in accordance with 14 CFR §§ 61.107 and 61.109. I have determined they are prepared for the [name of] practical test.”
• A.1, prerequisites, § 61.39(a)(6)(i) and (ii): “I certify that [First name, MI, Last name] has received and logged training time within 2 calendar months preceding the month of application in preparation for the practical test and they are prepared for the required practical test for the issuance of [applicable] certificate.”
• A.2, knowledge-test deficiencies, § 61.39(a)(6)(iii): “I certify that [First name, MI, Last name] has demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject areas in which they were deficient on the [applicable] airman knowledge test.”
• § 61.107(b)(1) is the single-engine list of areas of operation the training has to cover, from preflight preparation through postflight procedures, including night operations except as provided in § 61.110.

For an airplane single-engine rating, § 61.109(a) requires at least 40 hours of flight time, including at least 20 hours of flight training from an authorized instructor and 10 hours of solo flight training in the § 61.107(b)(1) areas, and that training must include at least:

• 3 hours of cross-country flight training in a single-engine airplane.
• Except as provided in § 61.110, 3 hours of night flight training in a single-engine airplane, including one cross-country of over 100 nautical miles total distance and 10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop (each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport. Log that night against civil twilight (§ 1.1), not against the passenger-currency window.
• 3 hours of instrument training in a single-engine airplane, on the maneuvers § 61.109(a)(3) lists.
• 3 hours of flight training with an authorized instructor in a single-engine airplane in preparation for the practical test, within the preceding 2 calendar months from the month of the test. That is the training-time window. The A.1 endorsement is the related § 61.39 certification. Both have to be true.
• 10 hours of solo flight time in a single-engine airplane, including at least 5 hours of solo cross-country, one solo cross-country of 150 nautical miles total distance with full-stop landings at three points and one straight-line segment of more than 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations, and three solo takeoffs and three landings to a full stop (each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower.

Open § 61.51 and confirm every entry you are counting contains what that section requires before you add the column. The in-app readiness page, after you sign in, is Syllabus → Private Pilot → What do I still need?.

IACRA is one way to complete FAA Form 8710-1. FAA-G-ACS-2 Section 7 also lists a paper 8710-1. The instructor still signs the recommendation. Neither form replaces the logbook endorsements from day 27.

• § 61.39(a)(1)(i): the knowledge test is passed within the 24-calendar-month period preceding the month you complete the practical test.
• § 61.39(a)(2): present the knowledge test report at application.
• § 61.39(a)(6): the endorsements from day 27, including deficiencies from the airman knowledge test report.
• § 61.39(a)(7): a completed and signed application.
• FAA-G-ACS-2 Section 2: the FAA compares the name on the Airman Knowledge Test Report with the name on the application. IACRA cannot be processed if the last name or suffix on the report does not match the application. The guide then says to use a paper application, and the evaluator attaches an explanation and a copy of the photo identification. A first-name variation, a different middle name, or a middle-initial or spelling difference is handled the same way at the practical test. A name correction for the testing vendor is made in IACRA, because that system does not let the applicant edit the name. The knowledge test is registered with the FTN from IACRA.

FAA-G-ACS-2, the ACS Companion Guide for Pilots, Section 7, is the applicant’s practical-test checklist. Pack these, and check them against that section rather than against a blog:

• Government-issued photo identification with a photograph and your signature.
• Pilot certificate, and a current medical certificate or BasicMed qualification when that applies.
• Logbook with the appropriate instructor endorsements, including the ones from day 27.
• Airman Knowledge Test Report.
• Completed FAA Form 8710-1, on paper or in IACRA, with the instructor’s signature when the form calls for it.
• Aircraft documents: airworthiness certificate, registration, operating limitations, and the POH/AFM.
• Maintenance records showing airworthiness inspections and AD compliance.
• For the flight: current aeronautical charts, Chart Supplement, airport diagrams, a flight plan form and flight logs, a computer and plotter, and a current AIM. A view-limiting device.
• Notice of Disapproval (FAA Form 8060-5) or Letter of Discontinuance if this is a retest or a continuance, and an approved school graduation certificate if one applies.

The examiner’s fee is not on the FAA checklist. Confirm the amount and how that examiner wants to be paid before the day. The app’s printable worksheet, after you sign in, is the checkride / DPE packet. It is a sheet of the items you have tracked. It does not replace Section 7 of the companion guide.