What your examiner checks
A practical test starts with a document check, and it is the part most applicants prepare for last. Here is what gets looked at, and what makes each item acceptable on the day.
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The document check
Exact requirements vary with the certificate, the aircraft and the examiner — confirm yours with your instructor and your examiner before the day.
The 8710-1 application in IACRA
You complete it under your own IACRA login. Your instructor signs as Recommending Instructor and the examiner signs as Certifying Officer under theirs. Fill it in before the day, not in the examiner's lobby.
Your Airman Knowledge Test Report
The original printed report from the test center. It has to still be inside the 24-calendar-month window in 14 CFR 61.39(a)(1), and the examiner will use the subject-area codes on it to steer the oral.
Endorsements from your instructor
The practical-test endorsements required by 14 CFR 61.39, including — when your test report shows missed areas — the 61.39(a)(6)(iii) endorsement that you have demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of those subjects.
Medical certificate or BasicMed paperwork
Valid for the certificate you are applying for, and in date on the day of the test.
Government photo ID
Name, photo, signature, and date of birth. The same name that is on your IACRA record and your test report.
Logbook with the required experience signed off
The aeronautical experience for the certificate, tabbed or summarised so the examiner can find it. A disorganised logbook is the slowest part of many document checks.
Aircraft paperwork
Airworthiness and registration, current inspections, and the maintenance records the examiner asks to see. The aircraft has to be legal for the test, and demonstrating that is part of it.
The one item you can still change
Everything else on the list is a document. This one is knowledge.
The subject areas your knowledge test flagged are the part of the document check that is not simply administrative — the examiner will revisit them, and your instructor has to be comfortable endorsing that you have covered them since.
AviaSkill turns the codes on your test report into practice on exactly those subjects, and shows your instructor how far each one has moved. Start with your FAA written test day if the written is still ahead of you, or IACRA and your FTN if you have not registered yet.
Common questions
Turn a test report into an endorsement
Practice the subjects your examiner will revisit, and give your instructor something to point at.
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