Phase 3 Cumulative Review

Section 61.87 sets the requirements for each solo flight by a student pilot. Solo flight is the flight time during which a student pilot is the sole occupant of the airplane 1. A flight with an instructor in the right seat is not solo flight, whether or not the instructor touches the controls.

Before solo, the student passes a knowledge test on three subjects 2:

• applicable sections of parts 61 and 91
• the airspace and procedures at the airport of the solo flight
• the flight characteristics and operational limitations of the make and model.

The student's own authorized instructor administers that test. The same instructor reviews each incorrect answer with the student before authorizing a solo flight 2.

The student also receives and logs flight training in the maneuvers of 61.87(d) 3. An instructor judges the student proficient and safe in the make and model to be flown 3. Section 61.87(d) lists fifteen training areas for a single-engine airplane, from flight preparation to go-arounds 4. Four of them cover cases students forget:

• stall recovery at the first indication and recovery from a full stall
• emergency procedures and equipment malfunctions
• approaches to a landing area with simulated engine malfunctions
• slips to a landing.

Solo flight requires a logbook endorsement for the specific make and model. The endorsing instructor gave the student training within the preceding 90 days 5. A Warrior endorsement does not authorize an Archer. The student confirms the 90-day window before each solo flight, and no grace period exists.

Night solo adds three more requirements 6:

• night flight training at the airport of the night solo
• night navigation training near that airport
• a separate endorsement for night solo in the make and model within 90 days.

A current day endorsement never authorizes a solo at night. Night starts at the end of evening civil twilight 7.

Section 61.87(p) binds the instructor who signs. That instructor does four things 8:

• trains the student in the make and model or a similar one
• determines the student's proficiency in the 61.87 maneuvers
• determines the student's proficiency in the airplane
• endorses the logbook for the specific make and model.

An authorized instructor updates the logbook each 90 days to keep the endorsement current. The rule names an authorized instructor rather than the original endorser 8.

Section 61.89(a) lists eight things a student pilot must not do as pilot in command 9. The first four are a passenger, property for compensation or hire, flight for compensation or hire, and flight in furtherance of a business. The fifth bars international flight. One exception covers the named route from Haines, Gustavus or Juneau, Alaska, to White Horse, Yukon. The return is over the province of British Columbia.

The sixth and seventh limitations set weather limits. A student must not fly with flight or surface visibility below 3 statute miles by day or 5 at night 9. A student must not fly when the flight cannot be made with visual reference to the surface 9. The visibility rule applies in flight and not only at takeoff. The surface reference rule keeps a solo student below a solid cloud layer, however clear the air above it. These limits are stricter than basic VFR, and the stricter rule governs 10.

The eighth limitation makes an instructor's written condition a regulation. A student must not fly contrary to any limitation an authorized instructor placed in the logbook 9. A wind limit, a ceiling, a route or a return time each carries the force of 61.89. Section 61.89(b) adds that a student must not act as a required crewmember on an airplane that requires more than one pilot 11.

Solo privileges appear in the logbook and not on the certificate. On each solo cross-country the student carries the logbook, the student pilot certificate, and any other record the rule requires. Those items are the evidence of the endorsements 12. Schedule pressure changes none of these requirements. A student pilot with an expired medical flew his mother at night into instrument conditions near Brownsville, Tennessee, and both died 13.

Airworthy has two parts, and both must be true. The airplane conforms to its type design, and the airplane is in a condition for safe operation 14. An unapproved part fails the conformity part while each gauge reads normally. A cracked spar fails the condition part in an unmodified airplane. The records answer the conformity question and the walkaround answers the condition question. A fraudulent statement about airworthiness in a sales record is its own violation 15.

The owner or operator is primarily responsible for keeping the airplane airworthy, including compliance with the airworthiness directives of part 39 16. The pilot in command is responsible for deciding whether the airplane is in condition for safe flight 17. That pilot must discontinue the flight when an unairworthy condition occurs 17. Operate covers causing or authorizing use of the airplane, so a renter is an operator 18. The owner has discrepancies repaired between inspections and ensures the return-to-service entries exist 19.

After maintenance, two conditions apply before anyone operates the airplane. An authorized person approves it for return to service, and the maintenance record carries the required entry 20. The signature approves return to service only for the work performed 21.

Maintenance that can appreciably change flight characteristics needs a check flight by at least a private pilot, logged in the airplane's records 22. Ground tests that show conclusively that nothing changed remove the need for that flight 22. The first flight after maintenance starts with the return-to-service entry. The walkaround checks the work that the entry describes.

A calendar-month interval runs to the last day of the month 23. An annual signed on March 10 is therefore valid through March 31 of the next year 23. The 100-hour inspection applies to carriage for hire and to flight instruction for hire in an airplane the instructor provides 23.

An annual can substitute for a 100-hour. A 100-hour never substitutes for an annual 23. Both follow appendix D of part 43 24. Only a mechanic holding an inspection authorization can sign an annual 25. An airplane can exceed the 100-hour limit by up to 10 hours en route to the inspection. The excess counts toward the next interval 23.

An inspection that finds the airplane unairworthy ends with a signed and dated discrepancy list for the owner 26. A progressive program inspects the whole airplane within each 12 calendar months 27. The annual and 100-hour rules do not apply to four certificates, among them the special flight permit and the experimental certificate 28.

Maintenance records come in two kinds. The owner keeps work and inspection records until the work is repeated or superseded, or for one year 29. Status records stay with the airplane and transfer at sale 29. The status records carry the airworthiness directive status 30. Each directive's entry shows three things 30:

• the method of compliance
• the number and revision date of the directive
• the next due time when the directive recurs.

The owner makes the records available to the Administrator and to the NTSB 29.

A maintenance entry carries three things 21:

• a description of the work
• the date of completion
• the signature, certificate number and kind of certificate of the person approving it.

Major repairs and major alterations go on FAA Form 337 31. The records determine whether the airplane is legal today, and the cockpit documents do not.

Three inspections carry their own intervals. The ELT battery needs replacement after 1 cumulative hour of transmitter use, or at 50 percent of useful life. A rechargeable battery can be recharged instead 32. The transponder check each 24 calendar months applies to a VFR airplane that uses a transponder 33. The altimeter and static system check each 24 calendar months applies to flight under IFR in controlled airspace 34.

An airworthiness directive is a regulation, and anyone who operates a product that does not meet an applicable directive violates section 39.7 35. Each directive sets its own compliance time, and an inspection date does not change it 36. The 10-hour inspection overflight never extends a directive. Directives are one-time or recurring, and a directive that names no serial numbers applies to each serial number 37.

Each annual and 100-hour inspector determines compliance with the applicable directives 38. A manufacturer's service bulletin binds only through a directive that adopts it or through an airworthiness limitations section 39. A Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin is information and never a requirement 40.

A special flight permit lets an airplane that does not meet airworthiness requirements, but is capable of safe flight, fly to a repair base 41. The application is FAA Form 8130-6 and the permit is Form 8130-7, itself a special airworthiness certificate 42. The permit never authorizes a deviation from part 91 42. Where a directive requires compliance before further flight and allows no permit, the FAA issues none 42.

A pilot certificate holder can perform preventive maintenance on an airplane the pilot owns or operates, outside parts 121, 129 and 135 43. The privilege needs at least a private or sport pilot certificate 44. The appendix A list is exclusive, and a task absent from that list is not preventive maintenance 45. Complex assembly operations take a listed task out of the category 46. The pilot logs the work under 43.9, approves for return to service only the pilot's own work, and section 91.407(a) still applies 44.

Section 91.213 governs inoperative equipment, and it allows three methods 47:

• an approved minimum equipment list with a letter of authorization
• the provisions of paragraph (d)
• a special flight permit.

Paragraph (d) needs no application or approval 48. The first question is whether an approved list exists, because such a list then governs 49. Three classes of item can never go on such a list, and a turbine-powered airplane cannot use paragraph (d) 50.

Paragraph (d)(2) has four screens, and an item passes all four or none 50. The item must not be any of these:

• part of the VFR-day type certification equipment
• required by the equipment list or the kinds of operations equipment list
• required by 91.205 or another rule for the flight
• required operational by an airworthiness directive.

Screen one is research in the type certificate data sheet, and the Warrior's certification basis is Civil Air Regulations part 3 of 1956 51. Where the equipment list marks nothing required and no kinds of operations equipment list exists, North Aero counts each factory-installed item as required.

An item that passes the four screens is removed or deactivated, placarded, and recorded 50. Deactivation is maintenance rather than preventive maintenance, and a switch is not deactivation 52. A certificated pilot or a mechanic then determines that the item is not a hazard, and the airplane counts as properly altered 50. The owner has the item repaired, replaced, removed or inspected at the next required inspection 19. Legal and safe are two separate questions, and section 91.7(b) governs the second one 17.

The airworthiness certificate is displayed at the cabin or cockpit entrance where passengers or crew can read it 53. The blank expiration date makes the certificate conditional. A standard airworthiness certificate is effective only while maintenance follows parts 43 and 91 54. A registration certificate expires seven years after the last day of the month of issue 55. An experimental certificate carries operating limitations, and section 91.319 restricts the operations 56.

An owner flew a Mooney with maintenance unfinished, despite the mechanic's written note that the airplane was unairworthy 57. The owner died when the engine lost oil after takeoff 57.

Air pressure is the force of molecules striking a surface, and more molecules in a space produce more pressure 58. Warm air is less dense than cool air, because the warmer parcel occupies a larger volume 59. Pressure, temperature and humidity set density. Humid air is less dense than dry air, because a water molecule weighs less than the molecule it displaces 59. Humidity is the weakest of the three. Any one of high, hot or humid raises density altitude, and the three need not occur together.

The atmosphere is about 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen 60. Almost all weather occurs in the troposphere 61. Temperature normally falls about 2 degrees Celsius per 1,000 feet in the standard atmosphere 62. That figure is an average, not a measurement of today's air. The environmental lapse rate is the measured profile of the actual air, and a sounding shows it 62.

Rising air cools by expansion with no heat exchange, and sinking air warms by compression and widens its temperature-dewpoint spread 63. An unsaturated parcel cools about 3 degrees per 1,000 feet. A saturated parcel cools between about 1.2 and 3 degrees, because condensation releases latent heat 64.

Dewpoint is the temperature air must cool to for saturation, and it measures the water vapor present 65. The temperature-dewpoint spread predicts fog, cloud bases and structural ice before they appear. In a rising convective parcel the spread closes about 2.5 degrees per 1,000 feet 63. The cumulus base is near the spread divided by 2.5, times 1,000 feet. The estimator works for convective cumulus and fails for stratus and frontal decks. Relative humidity changes with temperature while the moisture stays the same, so the pilot plans with dewpoint 66.

Cloud droplets form when vapor condenses onto nuclei, and condensation releases the latent heat that powers thunderstorms 67. Freezing rain at the airplane's altitude normally means a layer warmer than freezing lies above 68. The exit is up into that warmer layer, or back along the route already flown. Frost forms by deposition on clear cold nights 69. A roughness no greater than coarse sandpaper reduces lift by 30 percent and increases drag by up to 40 percent 70. The pilot removes each trace of frost, snow and ice before flight.

Stability is the atmosphere's resistance to vertical motion 71. A lifted parcel that stays warmer than its surroundings keeps rising, and one that turns colder sinks back 71. The numeric test compares the environmental lapse rate to the adiabatic rates:

• a rate greater than the dry adiabatic rate is absolutely unstable
• a rate below the moist rate is absolutely stable
• a rate between the two is conditionally unstable 72.

An inversion is a layer in which temperature rises with altitude, and it is strongly stable 73. Stable air brings smooth air, stratiform clouds, steady precipitation and poor visibility. Unstable air brings turbulence, cumuliform clouds, showery precipitation and good visibility 74.

Moisture destabilizes, because a saturated parcel cools more slowly and stays warmer than its surroundings for longer 64. Conditionally unstable air is stable while dry and unstable once lifted to saturation 72. The level of free convection is the height above which a lifted saturated parcel rises on its own. That level explains elevated and embedded storms 75. A stagnant high can mean poor VFR conditions, because sinking air builds an inversion that traps haze and smoke until the air moves 76.

Uneven heating of the Earth's surface causes the weather 77. Land heats and cools faster than water. A sea breeze flows from the water by day, and a land breeze flows from the land at night 78. A clear, calm night produces a surface inversion and radiation fog from the same cooling 79.

Wind is air moving from high pressure toward low pressure, and Coriolis force deflects it to the right in the Northern Hemisphere 80. Above the friction layer the wind blows roughly parallel to the isobars. At the surface, friction slows the wind and turns it across the isobars toward low pressure. That turn is about 10 degrees over water and up to 45 degrees over rugged terrain 81. The wind therefore veers and strengthens on the climb out of the friction layer.

Surface wind spirals clockwise and outward from a high, and counterclockwise and inward into a low 81. Air therefore sinks and dries in a high, and rises and forms cloud in a low. Closely spaced isobars mean strong wind 82.

Mountain waves form when strong wind crosses a ridge into stable air. The rotor zone below the wave crest is the most dangerous part 83. Lenticular and rotor clouds mark a wave, and a dry wave has no cloud.

Non-convective low-level wind shear has three criteria:

• 10 knots or more per 100 feet
• a layer more than 200 feet thick
• within 2,000 feet of the surface 84.

Wind shear occurs at any altitude and comes from fronts, thunderstorms, inversions and terrain. A shear that removes the headwind on final reduces the airspeed. The airplane is then slow, low and configured for drag.

An air mass takes the temperature and moisture of its source region 74. A front is a boundary zone with depth 85. Its passage shows in three changes:

• a wind shift
• a temperature change
• a pressure fall followed by a rise.

A cold front is steep and fast, gives a narrow band of showers and thunderstorms, and leaves clearing skies with gusty winds behind it 86. A squall line can form along or ahead of it 86. A warm front is shallow and slow, and it brings widespread layered cloud and steady precipitation ahead of the surface position 87.

Ahead of a warm front the clouds lower and thicken in sequence, from cirriform through the middle layers to low stratus and rain 87. A winter warm front produces freezing rain, because the warm air overruns the cold air and makes the inversion the process needs 68. A stationary front influences the local weather for days 88. An occluded front forms when a faster cold front overtakes a warm front. A warm front occlusion can carry embedded thunderstorms inside the stratiform deck 88.

The height of the cloud base classifies a cloud. The Aviation Weather Handbook uses three levels and the Pilot's Handbook keeps a fourth family for vertical development 89. Nimbus in a name means the cloud produces precipitation 90. Cumulus forms show instability and stratus forms show stability, and towering cumulus shows strong convective turbulence 89.

Turbulence comes from three causes:

• convective currents
• obstructions in the wind flow
• wind shear 91.

A pilot hears frontal turbulence named as a fourth kind. The four intensities are defined terms. A pilot reports severe turbulence only after the airplane was momentarily out of control 92. Clear air turbulence occurs near the jet stream above about 15,000 feet, with no cloud to mark it 93.

A thunderstorm needs moisture, instability and a lifting mechanism 94. Its life cycle has three stages:

• towering cumulus
• mature
• dissipating.

The cycle takes about 30 minutes. The mature stage begins when precipitation reaches the surface. It carries updrafts and downdrafts together, and the peak hazards occur at its end 94. The downdraft spreading ahead of the cell is the gust front.

A pilot avoids a severe storm or an intense radar echo by at least 20 miles 95. A pilot flies between two echoes only when at least 40 miles separate them. No flight goes under a thunderstorm or under its anvil 95.

Hail falls in clear air several miles from a storm and beneath the anvil of a large cumulonimbus 96. A storm with tops at or above 35,000 feet counts as extremely hazardous 95. The pilot flies around an area more than half covered by thunderstorms. A cloud mass with embedded storms needs airborne radar. The Warrior does not carry radar.

A microburst is the most severe type of wind shear. It lasts 5 to 15 minutes, produces downdrafts to 6,000 feet per minute, and removes 30 to 90 knots of headwind 97. Virga at the cloud base and a ring of blowing dust are sometimes the only visible clues 97.

Structural icing needs visible moisture and an airframe surface at or below freezing 98. Clear ice comes from the slow freezing of large supercooled drops and is hard to see. Rime ice comes from small drops freezing on impact and grows forward into the airstream 99. Freezing rain and freezing drizzle are the most dangerous, because the large drops flow aft before they freeze 99.

Almost all icing occurs between 0 and minus 20 degrees Celsius, and about half of the reports fall between minus 8 and minus 12 100. Severe icing requires immediate exit 101. An iced tailplane can stall after the flaps come down, so the pilot knows the airplane's flap guidance before extending flaps in ice 102.

Carburetor ice is a warm-day hazard. It is most likely below 21 degrees Celsius with relative humidity above 80 percent. It can form at 38 degrees with humidity as low as 50 percent 103.

Fog is a cloud based at the surface that reduces visibility below five-eighths of a statute mile 104. Fog seldom forms when the spread exceeds 2 degrees Celsius. Radiation fog needs a clear night, light wind and moist air, and it usually clears after sunrise 79. Advection fog forms when moist air moves over a colder surface, needs wind, and lifts into low stratus above about 15 knots 105.

Upslope fog forms as moist stable air cools adiabatically up sloping terrain. Steam fog forms when very cold air crosses warm water and carries convective turbulence. Frontal fog forms when precipitation saturates the cold air beneath a front 106.

Mist is the same droplets with visibility of five-eighths of a statute mile or more. The code for mist is BR 76. In haze the downward view is clear and the slant-range view is poor. Smoke and haze need moving air to disperse 76. Volcanic ash is silica, and it damages engines and frosts a windshield, so the pilot avoids it by wide margins 107.

A sounding plots temperature and dewpoint against height. The lines converge where the air is saturated and cloud is present. The slope of the temperature line against the adiabatic lines shows the stability 72. The temperature line crossing 0 degrees Celsius marks the freezing level, and a layer where the line warms with height is an inversion 73. The handbook warns against estimating the freezing level from the standard lapse rate 62.

Two pilots took off toward an isolated thunderstorm at Santa Teresa, New Mexico. A Convective SIGMET covered the airport before the flight, and neither pilot obtained a briefing. Radar measured a 60-knot shear over the accident site. Both died 108.

The Aviation Weather Center makes the products and Flight Service gives the briefings 109. A documented self-briefing from those sources meets the regulatory requirement, and AC 91-92 gives a checklist for it 110. Flight Watch and HIWAS no longer exist. Three inflight sources remain:

• Flight Service on 122.2
• FIS-B on the tablet
• the center's hazardous weather alerts 111.

The center announces that an advisory exists, and the pilot asks for the details. The current book is the Aviation Weather Handbook, FAA-H-8083-28B, which replaced five cancelled advisory circulars 112.

A PIREP is the only direct observation of conditions aloft. UA marks a routine report and UUA marks an urgent one 113. The slash codes carry the elements, among them:

• /OV for location
• /FL for altitude
• /TP for airplane type
• /TB for turbulence
• /IC for icing.

Icing and turbulence reports always include the airplane type, because both are relative to the airplane 113. Pilots volunteer reports, and a forecast condition that did not occur is worth reporting too 114.

ATC solicits PIREPs when conditions reach the AIM's criteria. Those criteria start at:

• ceilings of 5,000 feet
• visibility of 5 miles
• light icing
• moderate turbulence 114.

An empty PIREP list is not an absence of hazard.

AIRMETs advise of widespread conditions hazardous to VFR pilots:

• Sierra covers IFR conditions and mountain obscuration
• Tango covers moderate turbulence, surface winds of 30 knots or more, and non-convective low-level wind shear
• Zulu covers moderate icing and the freezing levels 115.

G-AIRMETs depict the hazard at three-hour steps out to twelve hours, and the pilot assumes the hazard exists between those times 116. A SIGMET warns of severe non-convective conditions for all airplanes and lasts up to four hours 117.

A Convective SIGMET covers any of these:

• a line of storms at least 60 miles long, with thunderstorms affecting at least 40 percent of its length
• an area of storms covering at least 40 percent of the area concerned
• embedded or severe storms expected for more than 30 minutes 118.

The Aviation Weather Center issues them hourly at 55 minutes past, valid two hours. Each one implies severe or greater turbulence, severe icing and low-level wind shear 118.

A Center Weather Advisory is a nowcast valid up to two hours, for airplanes already en route 119. The Storm Prediction Center's Convective Outlook grades the risk of severe weather within 25 miles of a point 120. The grades run from general thunderstorms through marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate and high.

The Graphical Forecasts for Aviation replaced the text Area Forecast over the continental United States 121. Text Area Forecasts remain for Alaska and for the Gulf and Caribbean. A user who turns an overlay off can hide a hazard on the route 122. The Surface Analysis Chart shows observed pressure systems and fronts, eight times daily 123. The ceiling and visibility analysis describes conditions now. A prog chart forecasts the same map at a future valid time 124.

The winds and temperatures aloft forecast gives direction in tens of degrees true, speed in knots and temperature in Celsius 125. No wind forecast appears within 1,500 feet of a location's elevation, and no temperature within 2,500 feet. The code 9900 means light and variable. Direction digits from 51 to 86 mean 100 knots or more, so the pilot subtracts 50 from the direction and adds 100 to the speed. Above 24,000 feet the temperature prints without a sign 125.

A METAR is a point observation of one sensor's spot at one moment 126. Coded winds in the METAR, TAF and winds aloft forecast reference true north. Voice winds from ATIS, the tower and the AWOS reference magnetic north, and so does the runway number 127.

Scheduled TAFs come four times a day at six-hour intervals, and an amended TAF supersedes and cancels the previous one at once 128. Military TAFs give visibility in meters and add the lowest altimeter setting, and their 5 and 6 groups carry turbulence and icing 129. The Area Forecast Discussion names the forecaster's biggest concern and states confidence as a percentage 130.

Weather radar shows precipitation and satellite imagery shows cloud, so an empty radar picture is not proof of visual conditions 131. Datalink radar is always at least 7 to 8 minutes older than its time stamp 132. A mosaic can be 15 to 20 minutes older than the age displayed. Datalink weather is for broad strategic avoidance and never for tactical maneuvering between cells. The NTSB issued Safety Alert SA-017 after two fatal accidents where pilots used mosaic imagery near fast-moving convection 133.

FIS-B is free over the 978 MHz link to an ADS-B In receiver 134. It does not replace a preflight briefing, because it carries neither each weather product nor each NOTAM 135. NEXRAD coverage has gaps below 5,000 feet above the ground and across the western states 136. A blank area can be a gap rather than clear air.

An outlook briefing is for planning when departure is 6 hours or more away 137. An abbreviated briefing refreshes a standard briefing that is an hour old. "VFR flight not recommended" is advisory, and the decision rests solely with the pilot 138.

A good METAR does not override a worsening TAF. The pilot reads the trend from four places:

• the METAR sequence
• the TAF's BECMG and TEMPO groups
• the front's movement
• the closing spread.

The pilot names the divert point and its condition before launch. Each product carries an issue time and a valid time, and the pilot reads the time before the weather 139.

An instructor held a briefing with a Convective SIGMET on it. The instructor flew a student toward the storms at night, using radar about ten minutes old. The Warrior broke apart in flight near Whitesville, Kentucky 140.

Class A runs from 18,000 feet MSL up to and including FL600 141. Each operation there is under IFR, with a clearance before entry, a transponder with Mode C, and ADS-B Out 142.

Class B surrounds the busiest airports from the surface to about 10,000 feet MSL, and each one has its own shape 143. Entry requires an ATC clearance regardless of the weather 144. Two-way radio contact, a squawk code and flight following are not a clearance. The pilot waits for the words "cleared into the Class Bravo airspace."

Class B requires four things of the airplane and the pilot 145:

• a two-way radio
• a transponder with Mode C
• ADS-B Out
• a pilot in command who holds at least a private pilot certificate, or a student endorsed under 61.94 or 61.95.

A student pilot cannot fly solo at twelve Class B primary airports, and San Francisco is one of them 146. A VFR airplane inside Class B receives separation from ATC, which is why the cloud clearance there is clear of clouds 147.

The Mode C veil is a 30-mile circle around each Class B primary airport, from the surface to 10,000 feet MSL. Inside the veil an airplane needs Mode C and ADS-B Out 148. An airplane never certificated with an engine-driven electrical system can fly inside the veil 149. That airplane stays outside Class A, Class B and Class C. It also stays below the ceiling of the Class B or Class C area, or below 10,000 feet MSL, whichever is lower.

Flight beneath a Class B shelf needs no clearance, and the veil's equipment rules still apply there. The speed limit under the shelf is 200 knots 150.

Class C surrounds airports with a tower and a radar approach control. The usual shape is a 5-mile core from the surface and a 10-mile shelf from 1,200 feet 151. Both reach 4,000 feet above the airport elevation. Class C and Class D altitudes use a height above the airport elevation, and the chart prints them in MSL.

The callsign in the controller's reply is the condition for entry. A controller who answers with the airplane's callsign establishes communications, and a reply without the callsign establishes nothing 152. Class C takes a two-way radio, Mode C and ADS-B Out 153. No certificate rule applies to Class C or Class D. The outer area is an uncharted 20-mile ring with the same services and voluntary participation 154. Above the ceiling of a Class B or Class C area, Mode C and ADS-B Out apply up to 10,000 feet MSL 148 155.

Class D surrounds airports with an operating control tower and reaches about 2,500 feet above the airport elevation 156. It requires a two-way radio and nothing else from the class itself 157. A part-time Class D becomes Class E or Class G when the tower closes. Where it becomes Class G, the Class G reaches up to the overlying controlled airspace, and the Chart Supplement names the class 156. Departing a satellite airport without a tower inside Class C or Class D, the pilot establishes communications as soon as practicable after takeoff 158.

Class E is the controlled airspace that is not A, B, C or D 159. Where no lower floor exists, Class E starts at 14,500 feet MSL and ends below 18,000 feet. A magenta vignette marks a 700-foot floor and a blue vignette a 1,200-foot floor, and both transition areas stay in effect continuously 160. A dashed magenta line marks a Class E surface area 161. VFR flight in Class E has no entry or communication requirement and receives no separation 162. A Victor airway is Class E from 1,200 feet AGL to below 18,000 feet, 4 nautical miles each side of the centerline 163.

Class G is uncontrolled, and 91.155 and the right-of-way rules of 91.113 separate the traffic there 164. Above 1,200 feet AGL and below 10,000 feet MSL, the day minimum visibility is 1 statute mile. The cloud clearance is 500 feet below, 1,000 feet above and 2,000 feet horizontally. At night the visibility becomes 3 statute miles.

At or above 10,000 feet MSL the visibility becomes 5 statute miles. The cloud clearance becomes 1,000 feet below, 1,000 feet above and 1 statute mile horizontally 165. The 10,000-foot row applies only more than 1,200 feet above the surface. A pilot 1,000 feet above a 9,500-foot ridge uses the row for 1,200 feet or less above the surface, whatever the MSL altitude. The 5-mile rows begin where the 250-knot limit ends 150.

An airplane in the pattern at night in Class G can operate with 1 mile of visibility and clear of clouds 166. This exception applies within half a mile of the runway. The night rows begin at the end of evening civil twilight rather than at sunset 7. Inside a surface area, no VFR flight goes beneath a ceiling below 1,000 feet. Takeoff, landing and pattern work there take 3 statute miles of ground visibility 167. An airplane at the base altitude of a Class E area is in the airspace directly below that area 168.

Special VFR applies inside a surface area below 10,000 feet MSL and nowhere else 169. The pilot requests the clearance, because ATC never offers it 170. The minimums are 1 statute mile of flight visibility and clear of clouds, and takeoff or landing takes 1 statute mile on the ground 171. Between sunset and sunrise the pilot holds an instrument rating and the airplane meets 91.205(d) 169. Some Class B and Class C surface areas prohibit Special VFR for fixed-wing airplanes, and the chart prints NO SVFR 172. A Special VFR clearance does not change a student pilot's 3-mile and 5-mile limits 9.

Prohibited areas ban flight for security and carry P-numbers 173. Restricted areas hold unusual and often invisible hazards, and entry while the area is active takes the controlling agency's authorization 174. An inactive area released to the FAA is open, and the pilot asks the agency or Flight Service for the status. Warning areas start 3 nautical miles offshore and carry the same kinds of hazard over international waters 175. A military operations area separates military training from IFR traffic, and VFR flight enters with extreme caution 176.

An alert area marks a high volume of training or unusual activity and needs no clearance 177. Each pilot in an alert area is equally responsible for collision avoidance. Controlled firing areas do not appear on the chart, because the firing stops when a spotter sees an approaching airplane 178. In a national security area the FAA requests voluntary avoidance, and a NOTAM under 99.7 can make avoidance mandatory 179. The chart margin prints the hours, altitudes and controlling agency. Live status comes from that agency, from Flight Service, or from the FAA's special use airspace website 180.

A temporary flight restriction is a NOTAM and never appears on a printed chart 181. Section 91.137 has three purposes 181:

• to protect persons and property from a surface hazard
• to protect disaster relief flights
• to prevent congestion over an event of public interest.

A hazard restriction allows only aircraft participating in the relief effort under the official in charge 182. The figures for a stadium event are in the current FDC NOTAM issued under 99.7, not in a regulation 183. Presidential and other VIP restrictions move with the person 184. The check has two parts, the briefing output and tfr.faa.gov, and a tablet overlay can be out of date 185.

An Air Defense Identification Zone requires a filed, activated and closed flight plan, designated DVFR for a VFR flight 186. The airplane carries a functioning two-way radio, and the pilot keeps a continuous listening watch 187. The airplane also carries a transponder with automatic pressure altitude reporting 188. The departure occurs within 5 minutes of the estimate in the flight plan 187. Flight under VFR within 60 nautical miles of the DCA VOR requires the FAA's Special Awareness Training and a certificate of completion 189. Each special flight rules area carries its own rules in part 93 190.

A terminal radar service area offers voluntary radar service and is not an airspace class 191. Traffic on a military training route flies above 250 knots below 10,000 feet, and a four-digit number means no segment above 1,500 feet AGL 192.

The transponder rule covers four kinds of airspace 148:

• Class A, Class B and Class C
• the 30-mile veil
• the airspace above a Class B or Class C ceiling to 10,000 feet
• all airspace of the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia at and above 10,000 feet MSL, except within 2,500 feet of the surface.

ADS-B Out adds Class E at and above 10,000 feet MSL 155. It also adds Class E at and above 3,000 feet MSL over the Gulf of Mexico within 12 nautical miles of the coast. Class D and low Class E outside a veil require neither. ATC can authorize an airplane with an inoperative transponder at any time, and an airplane with no transponder needs an hour's notice 193.

The airspace boundary is where the airplane is. The pilot fixes the position against a landmark before the line, and holds the altitude until the landmark is behind the airplane. The preflight covers the whole route's airspace, including the airspace a diversion would enter 185. That review names each class boundary, each special use area, each restriction, and each alternate.

A careful pilot with the terminal area chart open in the cockpit climbed into the Los Angeles Terminal Control Area without a clearance. The airplane collided with a DC-9 over Cerritos, and 82 people died 194.

Section 61.93 applies to two kinds of solo flight. Any solo flight more than 25 nautical miles from the airport of origin is a 61.93 flight, with or without a landing. So is any solo landing at a location other than the airport of origin, at any distance 195. A different rule defines cross-country time for the certificate. That time needs a point of landing at least a straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure 196. A 45-mile solo flight with a landing needs each 61.93 endorsement and adds no time toward 61.109(a)(5).

Four conditions in 61.93(a)(2) precede solo cross-country privileges 197:

• flight training on the section's maneuvers in the make and model
• a demonstration of cross-country proficiency to an instructor
• the 61.87 pre-solo maneuvers accomplished in that make and model or a similar one
• compliance with each limitation in the endorsement.

The student also receives ground training on the same subjects 198.

The first exception covers a nearby practice airport. A student can fly solo to an airport within 25 nautical miles of the training airport under five conditions 199:

• an instructor gave training at that airport, in both directions over the route, with pattern entry and exit and takeoffs and landings there
• the instructor who gave that training endorsed the logbook for the flight
• the student holds a current 61.87 solo endorsement
• the instructor determined the student proficient to make the flight
• the purpose of the flight is to practice takeoffs and landings at that airport.

A flight there for another purpose falls outside the exception 200.

The second exception covers a repeated route to an airport within 50 nautical miles 201. That exception takes four things:

• training in both directions over the route
• a proficiency endorsement from the instructor who gave that training
• a current 61.87 solo endorsement
• the paragraph (c) endorsements.

The second exception waives only the per-flight endorsement 202. The two exceptions differ in distance, in purpose, and in which endorsements they require.

Outside the exceptions, a solo cross-country takes three endorsements 203. The first names the category of aircraft and the second names the make and model, and an instructor gives each once 200. The third comes after the instructor reviews the planning for that flight. That endorsement states three things 203:

• the make and model
• that the planning and preparation are correct, and that the student is prepared to make the flight safely under the known conditions
• that the instructor's limitations are met.

The FAA's sample names the route, the airports and the date, so a different route or a different day needs its own endorsement 202. The student carries the logbook and the student pilot certificate in the airplane on each solo cross-country 12.

An instructor's limitation is a condition of the privilege, and a flight outside it violates 61.93 and 61.89(a)(8) 9. A ceiling, a wind speed, a return time or a named route each binds once it is written. The known conditions are the weather the instructor reviewed, and a material change means the review no longer describes the flight 204. A student who finds the conditions changed before takeoff asks for a new review. A student who finds them changed in flight lands or turns back.

Section 61.93(d) gives the instructor five determinations before permitting the flight 204. The instructor does each of these:

• determines the planning is correct
• reviews the current and forecast weather, and determines the flight can be completed under VFR
• determines the student proficient to conduct this flight safely
• confirms the make-and-model cross-country endorsement
• confirms the 61.87 solo endorsement is current.

A student with an expired solo endorsement cannot make the flight, and the instructor confirms that endorsement before the planning review 5.

Section 61.93(e) lists twelve training subjects 205. The first names charts, pilotage, dead reckoning and the magnetic compass, so a student who navigates only by tablet does not meet that subject. The third covers the procurement and analysis of weather reports on the ground and the recognition of critical weather and estimation of visibility in flight. The seventh covers the hazardous terrain of the area where the student will fly. The tenth and eleventh cover short-field, soft-field and crosswind takeoffs and landings, and climbs at best angle and best rate. The twelfth covers control and maneuvering solely by reference to the flight instruments, which exists for a return to visual conditions and nothing more.

The certificate requires 10 hours of solo flight, of which 5 hours are solo cross-country time 206. The certificate also requires three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop at an airport with an operating control tower. Each landing involves a flight in the traffic pattern.

The long solo cross-country carries three measurements 206:

• 150 nautical miles of total distance
• full-stop landings at three points
• one segment of more than 50 nautical miles in a straight line between its takeoff and landing points.

Three legs of exactly 50 miles total 150 miles and fail the segment test.

On a solo cross-country nobody aboard catches an error, so the instructor's review is the only check on the plan 204. The student brings a finished plan to that review.

The pilot writes the turn-back and divert triggers as numbers before takeoff, and compares the observed conditions to the number in flight 207. Section 91.151 requires fuel to the first point of intended landing plus 30 minutes by day 208. That quantity is a legal minimum rather than a plan. North Aero's personal reserve is one hour. External pressure is strongest on the return leg 209.

A student with 22.4 hours flew a route lengthened by a weather diversion, on fuel planned for the shorter route. The student ditched an Archer in Tampa Bay 9 miles from home, with fuel in the other tank 210.

The private pilot airplane knowledge test carries the test code PAR. The FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix gives four figures for the test 211:

• 60 questions
• a minimum age of 15
• an allotted time of 2.0 hours
• a passing score of 70.

Seventy percent of 60 is 42 correct answers. Each question is multiple choice with a single correct response, and no question's answer depends on another's 212. Appendix 1 of ACS-6C still prints 2.5 hours 213. That figure is out of date, and the test center works from the Matrix 214.

The certificate requires age 17, so a pass at 15 does not lower the age for the certificate 215. The applicant's identification must carry a date of birth. That date must show the applicant meets, or will meet, the certificate's age requirement before the test report expires 216. North Aero students sit the test at the Phase 3 and Phase 4 boundary, because 61.39 requires a passed knowledge test before the checkride 217.

Authorization to test is an instructor endorsement certifying that the applicant completed the ground training or home study and is prepared 218. A graduation certificate from an FAA certificated pilot school is the alternative 219. An FAA Tracking Number from IACRA comes before the booking 220. Identification carries a photograph, a signature, a date of birth and a physical residential address 221. PSI operates the test centers and provides sample tests 222.

Part 61 incorporates FAA-S-ACS-6C by reference 223. The knowledge test primarily evaluates the knowledge and risk management elements 224. An element code such as PA.I.A.K1 names the ACS, the Area of Operation, the Task and the element. An applicant builds the study plan from those codes.

Certification measures the applicant three times:

• on the knowledge test
• on the ground portion of the checkride
• on the flight portion.

Validation questions appear among the scored questions and count neither for nor against the score. They are outside the 60, and they use time inside the 2.0 hours 225.

The test center prints an Airman Knowledge Test Report before the applicant leaves, with a code for each question answered incorrectly 226. The evaluator reviews the report and tests the deficient elements 224. The pre-checkride endorsement certifies that the applicant demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject areas in which the applicant was deficient 227.

The applicant passes the knowledge test within the 24 calendar months preceding the month of the checkride 217. The applicant presents the report at the time of application. A retest after a failure takes three things 228:

• additional training
• an endorsement from the instructor who gave that training
• the failed report.

The last sentence of a stem carries the question, so the applicant reads that sentence first and then reads the data above it. The words minimum and maximum separate the correct choice from its opposite. Each figure comes from FAA-CT-8080-2H, so the applicant practices with the real supplement and asks the proctor for a printed copy to draw on 229. The applicant computes the answer before reading the choices, because a wrong choice is often the answer a common mistake produces 230. Performance questions ask for an approximate value, so the applicant chooses the choice closest to the computation. An unanswered question scores as wrong, so the applicant answers each one, in accordance with the current regulations 230.

Two hours across 60 scored questions is under two minutes a question. The applicant can mark a hard question and return to it 230. The knowledge test measures precise recall of numbers and the oral measures understanding of mechanisms, and both examine the same ACS element. The FAA asks applicants to master the fundamental knowledge rather than memorize questions, and it does not publish its live questions 231.

A pilot 15 days past his checkride flew with three of his sons aboard. He added power during a landing roll and climbed at a high angle of attack with full flaps. He retracted the flaps at about 60 feet, and rolled inverted into a building at French Valley 232.

A maneuver brief has five parts:

• the purpose
• the setup and configuration
• the target speeds
• the ACS standard
• the common errors the Airplane Flying Handbook lists.

The numbers come from the airplane's own manual, because the manufacturer's recommendations take precedence over the handbook's technique 233. The pilot sets and checks the normal takeoff configuration before the airplane moves onto the runway 234. The Warrior takes off with flaps up, and uses 25 degrees for a short field and for a soft surface 235.

The short-field takeoff starts at the very beginning of the usable runway 236. Runway used to line up is not available for the takeoff roll. The ACS grades three actions 237:

• the pilot applies the brakes while setting power
• the pilot confirms takeoff power before brake release
• the pilot verifies the engine and flight instrument indications before rotation.

The Warrior rotates at 66 MPH calibrated and holds that speed until the airplane clears the obstacle 238. The pilot then accelerates to 87 MPH and retracts the flaps slowly. The ACS requires the obstacle-clearance speed until the airplane clears the obstacle 237. When the evaluator simulates an obstacle, the pilot holds that speed until 50 feet above the surface. The pilot retracts nothing until the airplane passes the obstacles and holds the climb speed 239.

The soft-field takeoff uses the manufacturer's flap setting and enough back pressure to reduce the weight on the nosewheel 240. The purpose is to transfer the airplane's weight from the wheels to the wings as early as possible 241. The airplane does not stop on the soft surface. The airplane lifts off below climb speed and stays in ground effect until at least the best angle of climb speed 240. In ground effect an airplane can fly at a speed below its climb speed 242. An airplane pitched up out of ground effect below climb speed settles back at full power.

The soft-field landing has four elements 243:

• the wings support the weight as long as practical
• the pilot holds the nosewheel off after the mains touch
• the pilot uses power to keep the airplane moving
• the pilot avoids the brakes.

The short-field approach is an accuracy approach to an aiming point at the manual's speed 244. Where the manufacturer publishes no speed, the approach speed is not more than 1.3 times the stalling speed in the landing configuration. The Warrior's manual publishes 80 MPH with flaps up, reduced 3 MPH for each notch of flaps, and that published speed governs 245. Float during the flare is the evidence that the approach speed was too high, and the float itself uses runway 244.

A forward slip loses altitude without gaining airspeed 246. The mechanism is a marked increase in drag and a reduced vertical component of lift, and a steeper bank gives a steeper descent 247. The pilot sets idle power and holds the airspeed with the elevator.

In a crosswind the pilot lowers the upwind wing, which keeps the airplane on the flightpath and maintains the crosswind correction 248. The pilot removes the slip at the round out, and the airplane touches down with its longitudinal axis aligned with the runway 249. As little as 10 degrees of cornering angle creates a side load equal to half the supported weight 250. That load can roll a tricycle-gear airplane onto a wingtip.

The Warrior's manual bars prolonged slips or skids that lose more than 2,000 feet 251. Fuel flow interruption can occur when the tank in use is not full. The ACS names three risks of the maneuver 252:

• fuel flowage
• tail stalls with flaps
• airspeed control.

The Warrior's 1974 manual carries no limitation on slips with the flaps extended, and other types do. The airspeed indicator can read wrong in a slip 253. The pilot recognizes the slip by attitude, sound and control feel, and treats the indication as a cross-check.

The go-around runs in three steps 254:

• power
• attitude
• configuration.

The pilot applies full power first and holds it until flying speed and controllability return. The airplane still carries approach trim, so the pilot anticipates considerable forward elevator pressure to hold a safe climb attitude 255. The pilot raises the flaps in small increments after the descent stops 256. A sudden full retraction reduces the lift and settles the airplane toward the ground.

A steep turn starts with a cleared area and a distant reference, at the manufacturer's entry speed 257. The pilot rolls into 45 degrees of bank for a full 360 degrees. The pilot adds back pressure and power before 30 degrees of bank.

The rollout lead is half the bank angle, which is about 22 degrees at 45 degrees of bank 258. The ACS tolerance on the finishing heading is plus or minus 10 degrees. A pilot recovers from altitude loss by reducing the bank first and then raising the pitch 259. Elevator alone steepens the bank and loads the airframe.

Ground reference maneuvers teach a pilot to hold a chosen track over the ground in wind 260. The rectangular course is the traffic pattern around a field. The bank angle varies with the groundspeed, so the steepest bank comes in the turn off the downwind leg 261. The pilot holds the straight segments by angling into the wind, by eye rather than by calculation 262. The pilot enters downwind 263.

Division of attention is a risk element and a graded skill in both Area V Tasks. Fixation on one reference is the named error 264.

An instructor and a student preparing for the student's checkride took off from a 1,720-foot grass strip with 10 degrees of flap. Neither pilot made a performance calculation. The airplane's own chart called for 1,792 feet over a 50-foot obstacle. The airplane did not climb, and both people aboard suffered serious injuries 265.

The order in any abnormal situation is aviate, navigate, communicate. Situational awareness is an accurate understanding of what happens now and what happens next. Distraction and fixation are its two main threats.

The eight accidents

The eight Anchor Accidents of Phase 3 are:

• N4303G, a Piper Arrow flown by a student pilot with an expired medical, his mother aboard, into night instrument conditions 13
• N13LV, a Mooney taken out of an unfinished maintenance job over the mechanic's written unairworthy note 57
• N4257C, a Maule that took off toward an isolated thunderstorm at Santa Teresa 108
• N3079M, a Warrior flown into a Convective SIGMET area at night on radar ten minutes old 140
• N4891F, an Archer that climbed into the Los Angeles Terminal Control Area without a clearance 194
• N8575F, an Archer ditched in Tampa Bay after a diversion nobody refueled for 210
• N5243E, a Cessna 172 flown by a pilot 15 days past his checkride, with three of his sons aboard 232
• N22307, a Cessna 150 that took off from a 1,720-foot grass strip on a 31 degree C evening with no performance calculation 265.

In each of the eight, the decision that mattered came before the emergency.

The Phase 3 gate before Lesson 30 asks the Points of all eight Modules and the two Points from Module 1-1. It weights the Points marked load-bearing in each Module's touch schedule. It asks them with multiple choice in the Leg checks, and written answers and scenarios in the final quiz.