Perhaps you were like me or are like me and you went through a lot of your training knowing what the ACS was, maybe you even said you understood the standards you were being held to during your check ride, but in reality your grasp on the Airman Certification Standards was feeble at best. This section is here to orient Private Pilots to their ACS and help them get the most out of it both for their own study and performance.
Lets Talk About It
What is the ACS?
The ACS is the FAA documentation which establishes the criteria needed to meet the standard or qualifications needed for the rating you are testing for. It is your check ride. Furthermore, it helps translate regulatory requirements found in the FARs into practical subject areas of which we can focus our studies and testing. It also incorporates an area of aeronautical decision making by giving us areas of Skills Demonstration and Risk evaluation and mitigation.
Where do I find the ACS?
You can find the ACS on the FAA website or in paperback form from ASA
What are the parts of the ACS?
In the ACS we can find the following Sections
Foreword
Revision History
Major Enhancements (for Current Version of ACS)
Table of Contents
Introductions
Area of Operations
Appendices
We are normally interested in the:
Table of Contents ( to Guide us through the location of items in the Area of Operations)
Area of Operations
Appendices (Specific Portions)
Area of Operations
The Table of Contents are relatively easy to understand so we wont talk about that much. The only thing to note to look at the layout of the Table of contents to see how the ACS and the Area of Operations (AOs) are laid out.
The Area of Operations are the meat and butter of the ACS. They contain the standards themselves. You will notice the general sequence of subject areas in the AOs are presented in the following order. Area covered in the Check ride Oral (Limitations, Regulations, Airspace, Weather, Systems, etc.) and then Area covering the Flight Portion of the check ride(Take Off, Landings, Stalls, Maneuvers, Emergencies, etc.). There are also some areas in some check rides where the flight will build off of the Oral, such as with navigation. On the PPL Check ride you will present a Navigation Log for a cross country flight and discuss several aspects of it with the DPE. Then once in the plane and airborne, the DPE will at some point have you execute your Flight to about the first or third waypoint and then use some sort of transition to progress to the other aspects of the Check Ride, such as a diversion or emergency.
The Area of Operations are broken Down by the Number of the Area i.e. Area of Operation 1, Area of Operation 2, etc. Each Area of Operation is broken down by task i.e. Task A, Task B, Task C, etc. The tasks are further broken down by into the following.
References
Points to the literature and FAA documents that contain the information required by the Task
Objective
Communicates the goal of the section and what it is meant to evaluate.
Notes
Presents any information needed for the DPE and applicant to utilize the section properly. It may point to appendices or other tasks or even give directions.
Knowledge
The specific subject areas and pieces of information, ideas, and concepts that the applicant should know
Skills
What the applicant should be able to to do as a result of the combination of possessing the information in the knowledge section and having developed aeronautical experience.
Risk
This section integrates the concept of Aeronautical Decision Making(The definition of which you should become acquainted with). You may be prompted to demonstrate your ability to identify, understand, and mitigate any risk associated with parts of that task.
