Private Pilot Checkride: What to Expect on Test Day

The private pilot checkride is your FAA practical test with a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE), in two parts: a ground portion, usually called the oral exam, and a flight portion. Both are graded to the FAA's Private Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards (ACS), FAA-S-ACS-6C, effective May 31, 2024, and you must pass every area of operation to earn your certificate (14 CFR 61.43).

The examiner represents the FAA for the test (61.47). For each task, the ACS spells out what you need to know, which risks you need to manage and, for flight tasks, the tolerances you need to fly. Here's how the private pilot practical test works, from eligibility to results, and how we prepare you for it at Northeast Philadelphia Airport (KPNE).

Are you eligible for the private pilot checkride?

Before the test can start, you need all of the following (61.39(a), 61.103):

• Age 17 or older. You can start training with us at 16, but the certificate itself requires 17.
• English proficiency. You must be able to read, speak, write and understand English (61.103(c)).
• A passed knowledge test within the 24 calendar months before the month you complete the checkride, plus your test report. Our knowledge test guide covers the written.
• The experience in 61.109: at least 40 hours of flight time, including 20 hours of instruction and 10 hours of solo, with specific cross-country, night, instrument and solo requirements.
• 3 hours of checkride prep with an instructor within the 2 calendar months before the month of the test (61.109(a)(4)).
• Instructor endorsements certifying that you've trained within the 2 calendar months before the month you apply, that you're prepared, and that you've shown satisfactory knowledge of any areas you missed on the knowledge test (61.39(a)(6)).
• At least a third-class medical, unless you're flying under BasicMed (61.23(a)(3)(iii)). Our medical guide explains how to get one.
• Your student pilot certificate (61.103(j)).
• A completed, signed application (61.39(a)(7)), which you fill out in IACRA, the FAA's online application system.

Those 2-calendar-month windows keep running if your test date slips, so a long delay can mean more prep training and fresh endorsements.

Scheduling and the DPE checkride fee

Examiner availability varies, so we can't promise a test date. Start talking with your instructor about timing as you near the end of your prep, and leave room for weather: a checkride needs flyable conditions, just like a lesson.

Each examiner sets their own fee. Our Private Pilot estimate budgets $1,000–$1,500 for it, as of October 2026 (see training options and pricing), so confirm the exact amount when your test is booked. The airplane time for the checkride flight is already counted in the 55–65 flight hours our estimate assumes. Your total depends on your pace, the weather and how often you fly, so we can't guarantee an exact total cost or completion date.

What to bring on test day

The FAA's applicant checklist is in Section 7 of its ACS Companion Guide for Pilots, and your instructor gives you the full list before test day. In general:

• Your records: government-issued photo ID, your student pilot certificate, your medical certificate (or BasicMed documentation, if you fly under BasicMed), your logbook with endorsements, your knowledge test report and your IACRA application.
• The airplane's paperwork: its airworthiness and registration certificates, operating limitations, pilot's operating handbook, and maintenance records showing required inspections and airworthiness directive compliance. You furnish the airplane for the test (61.45), and the ACS has you locate the airworthiness and registration information and determine that the airplane is airworthy.
• Your flight gear: current charts, the Chart Supplement and the AIM (printed or electronic), a plotter and flight computer, your flight plan and navigation log, and a view-limiting device for the instrument tasks.

The examiner verifies your aeronautical experience before the test begins, so make sure your logbook is complete and your totals add up.

The checkride oral exam: what the ground portion covers

The ground portion comes first, and you must pass it before the flight portion begins. Questioning continues in the airplane, too. Some questions ask you to describe or explain a topic. For others, the examiner gives you a scenario, such as a planned flight where you decide whether to go and explain why, and you apply what you know to it.

You'll present and explain a cross-country flight plan the examiner assigns, including a risk analysis based on real-time weather to your first fuel stop. From there, questions range across the ACS:

• Certificates and documents: your privileges and limitations, medical rules and currency
• Airworthiness: required documents, inspections and airworthiness directives
• Weather: reports, forecasts and go/no-go decisions
• Airspace: each class of airspace, including KPNE's Class D and Philadelphia's Class B airspace nearby
• Performance: performance charts, weight and balance, and factors like atmospheric conditions
• Systems: how your airplane's engine, electrical system, avionics and instruments work, and what to do when something fails
• Human factors and decision-making: hypoxia, fatigue, stress, alcohol and medications, and how you manage risk

The examiner must also test any areas you missed on the knowledge test. Night operations and spin awareness are tested through questions; neither ACS task includes flight skills to demonstrate.

The flight portion: maneuvers and standards

The flight portion covers the areas of operation in 61.107(b)(1). The examiner combines tasks into realistic scenarios and introduces problems and simulated emergencies along the way. Expect:

• Preflight and airport operations: preflight inspection, engine start, taxi, before-takeoff checks, radio communications and traffic patterns
• Takeoffs, landings and go-arounds: normal, short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings, a forward slip to a landing, and a go-around
• Performance and ground reference maneuvers: steep turns and a ground reference maneuver
• Navigation: pilotage and dead reckoning along your planned route, navigation systems, a diversion and lost procedures
• Slow flight and stalls: slow flight, and power-off and power-on stalls
• Basic instrument maneuvers: straight-and-level flight, climbs, descents, turns and unusual-attitude recovery, wearing a view-limiting device
• Emergency operations: an emergency descent, a simulated emergency approach to a landing area you select, and systems malfunctions
• Postflight procedures: parking, securing and a postflight inspection

Each task has written standards. In steep turns, for example, you roll into about a 45° bank and hold altitude within ±100 feet, airspeed within ±10 knots and bank within ±5°, then roll out within ±10° of your entry heading. Beyond the numbers, you must show mastery of the airplane and sound judgment (61.43(a)). The ACS lists typical reasons for failing, including:

• needing the examiner to step in to keep the flight safe
• not clearing the area before and during maneuvers
• consistently exceeding tolerances, or not correcting promptly
• not managing risk

If a task is incomplete or the outcome is uncertain, the examiner must have you repeat it. That isn't a do-over, though: instruction, practice and repeating an unsatisfactory task aren't allowed during the test.

What happens if you fail a checkride?

A practical test ends one of three ways (ACS, Appendix 1):

• Pass. You get a temporary airman certificate, valid for up to 120 days while the FAA issues your permanent one (61.17).
• Fail. Failing any area of operation fails the test (61.43(c)). The examiner issues a Notice of Disapproval listing the areas you didn't pass and any that weren't tested. You or the examiner can end the test there; it can continue only with your consent.
• Discontinued. Either of you can stop the test for weather, an airworthiness problem or another safety-of-flight concern (61.43(e)). You get a Letter of Discontinuance listing the areas you completed.

After a failure or a discontinuance, you keep credit for the areas you passed if you pass the rest within 60 days of the date the test was discontinued. You must bring the original notice or letter and a properly completed, signed application, plus any additional training and endorsements required (61.43(f)).

To retest after a failure, you need more training from an authorized instructor who has determined you're ready to pass, and an endorsement from the instructor who gave that training (61.49). It's a setback, not the end of your training: your notice shows exactly which areas need work. Budget for the extra training and flying, and ask the examiner what they charge for a retest.

How we prepare you for test day

Checkride prep is built into our private pilot timeline. In Phase 4, alongside the knowledge test, you polish your maneuvers to ACS standards and complete a mock oral and a mock practical, a rehearsal of both parts of the test with one of our instructors. The phase ends with your sign-off for the practical test. At a steady pace, the timeline places Phase 4 around weeks 16 to 24, but every student progresses differently, so we can't guarantee when you'll be ready.

Training at KPNE, a towered airport near Philadelphia's Class B airspace, also means tower communication and airspace decisions are part of everyday lessons, not something new on test day.

Your instructor endorses you for the checkride only when they believe you're prepared. That's a professional judgment, not a guarantee. The examiner decides the result, and no school can promise the outcome.

Next steps

• New to flying? Book a discovery flight, an introductory Part 61 flight lesson at KPNE with one of our FAA-certificated instructors. You must be 16 or older.
• Want to talk through your training plan and checkride timing? Book a free phone consultation.
• See every phase on our private pilot timeline, or read our knowledge test guide.