Pass Your Private Pilot Oral Exam - ACS Breakdown Part 1 - Pilot Qualifications

[Music] Welcome to the OnCenterline Podcast, a show where we discuss the trials and tribulations of learning to fly from both the student and flight instructor perspectives. We feature real aviators in all different chapters of their careers, talking about the things we all deal with, but rarely discuss. So join us as we take on the challenges, hardships and celebrations that pave the runway to being a professional aviator as we strive to stay on centerline. [Music] Hey everybody, welcome back. It's been a little while, but it's been quite a busy fall actually. Summer is kind of hung on and lasted a little longer than usual, which I'm not opposed to. But as a result, it means that I've been quite busy lately still and still flying quite a bit. So, haven't had as much time to get around to videos and podcasts as I'd like, but hopefully that'll be changing soon. And this is a series I've been wanting to get started today. We're going to be going through the ACS, starting with the private pilot and depending on how that goes, might go into the instrument and commercial ACS as well. But we're going to be going through page by page, section by section, so that if you're preparing for a check ride, essentially we're going to go line item by line item. And if you can basically just speak to everything we talk about, you should be just fine for your check ride. And this is something I do with all my students. I started doing these videos on YouTube and this podcast, not just for, to put out, hopefully educational content, but it was a way for me to essentially create lessons that I could just direct my own students to so that we wouldn't have to go over it together. And I say that half tongue and cheek. It's not that we don't go through things together. I'm always doing stuff in person with my students, but it's at least a way to introduce the topics to my students ahead of time. So they know what to expect when we get together in person. And it makes the whole process much more efficient. And it's also something they can revisit after we talk about it in person to help reinforce some of the concepts and ideas. So in preparation for any check ride, I spend time with each of my students going through the ACS just like we're going to be doing here. And making sure that they have at least an adequate understanding of every knowledge item and every skill item that they're going to be expected to demonstrate during the check ride. Now as we go through these sections, you're going to hear me refer back to our Pave acronym quite a bit. And the reason why is because for me, I love the Pave acronym. The Pave acronym is the acronym to rule all other acronyms. And essentially, you can get through about 85 to 90% of your full oral portion of your check ride with the Pave acronym. We're talking about the pilot, the aircraft, the environment, and any external pressures that might be associated with a certain flight. Most people only use the Pave acronym in regards to risk management in flight planning, but it really expands and encompasses so much more than that. So today, of course, we're going to be starting with task A in pre-flight preparation. Basically, the first page of the ACS. We're going to be talking about pilot qualifications. So of course, everything we're talking about today is falling under the P and Pave pilot. All right. And just to give you a quick summary, when we're talking about the pilot, again, I said that this is the acronym to rule all other acronyms. When we're talking about the pilot, our subcategories under the pilot would essentially be, I am safe, required documents, currency and proficiency, and personal minimums. Most of those things are going to be discussed in this section under pilot qualifications. And some of them might bleed over into other sections. But essentially, when we're talking about the pilot, those are the things we're talking about. So let's go ahead and dive in here to our task A, pilot qualifications in the private pilot ACS. First of all, it's important to note that every portion of the ACS has references at the top of the official documentation you can reference to see the information being discussed in this section. Next, we have the objective. And the objective here is to determine that the applicant exhibits satisfactory knowledge, risk management, and skills associated with airmen and medical certificates, including privileges, limitations, currency, and operating as pilot and command as a private pilot. Now that might seem very broad and a little daunting when you first read that, but essentially that's why they break it down for you in the knowledge and skills area. And that's what we're going to discuss today. So if you can walk away after listening to this podcast with a at least basic understanding of everything we are discussing, you're going to be just fine when it comes to this portion of the checkride. All right, let's jump into the knowledge section. And for those of you who don't know, if you've taken your written exam and assuming you are a mere mortal like myself and did not get a perfect score on that written exam, you know that the FAA is going to give you a bunch of weird codes down below to reference the questions you missed on the exam. And they're very vague and they're very cryptic and they don't really help you at all, unfortunately. But the most top you're going to get is if you look in the ACS here, those codes are actually pulled directly from the ACS and you can see them on the left hand side under the knowledge risk management and skills portion. So it'll say something like PA dot 1 dot a dot K one. And that refers to the certification requirements, recent flight experience and record keeping. So if you see that code on your written exam, it means that you missed a question pertaining to that subject matter. So let's jump into it. Certification requirements. Well, basically in order to qualify for a private pilot certificate, what is required of you? So this is referring to sub part E echo private pilots in part 61 and part 61 103 talks about eligibility requirements. So of course here it says you must be at least 17 years of age for a rating in other than a glider or balloon. So gliders and balloons have a slightly different age requirements. But for airplanes, you need to be at least 17 and then 16 if you are looking for a rating in a glider or balloon. You need to be able to read, speak and write and understand the English language. You need to receive a logbook endorsement from an authorized instructor and it goes on to describe what that instructor needs to have done in order to issue that endorsement. You need to meet the aeronautical experience requirements of this part and we'll get to that here in just a second. And then finally, you need to pass a practical test on the areas of operation listed in 61107. That's essentially your checkride. That's the practical test you're about to do. You also need to of course hold a US student pilot certificate or you might already have a sport pilot or recreational pilot certificate, which would qualify as well. So talking about that aeronautical experience, of course you're going to need to have at minimum at least 40 hours of flight time, which includes at least 20 hours of flight training from an authorized instructor and 10 hours of solo time. Now you might be saying, well, if you only have 20 hours of flight training and 10 hours of solo, that is only 30 hours, whereas the other 10 come from. And the answer again is these are minimum times. So you need to have at least 20 hours of training with at least 10 hours of solo, the other 10 or usually much more for most people is going to be comprised of a combination of solo or training. Of that 20 hours of flight training, you need to have at least three hours of cross-country flight training. You need to have at least three hours of night flight training in a single engineer plane. And included within that three hours of night flight training needs to be at least one cross-country flight of over 100 nautical miles at night. You need to also have included at least 10 take-offs and 10 landings to a full stop at night. And then you're also going to need three hours of instrument flight training in a single engineer plane. Among that 10 hours of solo time, you need to have at least five hours of solo cross-country time, including one solo cross-country flight of at least 150 nautical miles in total distance with full stop landings at three different points. Now technically your home airport would count as one of these points, but I really, really really truly hate it when students kind of take the easy way out and only do essentially go to two other airports and then come back home. You know, these solo cross countries are so important and so formative to your development as a pilot. And the whole idea is for you to gain new experiences. So going to new airports and gaining these new experiences is what it's all about and to that. And you know, I also really hate when students just choose to go to airports that are local to them and that they've been to a hundred times. They might go to one airport that's far away for a cross country and then come home and essentially land at their neighboring airport before coming back to their home airport. And there's just so much opportunity lost, invaluable experience. Not to mention, I mean, you're paying for this flight. Why do you want to do things you've already done? So I encourage everybody, take these opportunities, assuming you work through it with your instructor and you guys come up with a safe flight plan and you both feel good about your skills and doing so. But take these opportunities to explore new places and go to new airports that you've never been to. Don't just stay local to what you're already comfortable and familiar with. Okay, this is about expanding our horizons and spreading your wings. No pun intended. All right. And then finally, the last little portion of these solar requirements must include at least three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop at an airport with an operating control tower. So that's the long and short of it when it comes to pilot qualifications or certification requirements. Those are the things you're required to have done in order to qualify for a private pilot certificate. Moving on to the recent flight experience. This should all be a common knowledge to all of you. It's hopefully one of the first things you kind of learn about. And that's the fact that flying is a perishable skill and we need to keep up with those skills and keep current in order to hopefully remain proficient in in our flying abilities. And of course, there is a difference between currency and proficiency. And we're going to talk about that. But let's talk about strictly the currency side of things when we're talking about currency. We're talking about legal. Okay. Currency equals legal proficiency equals safe. So let's talk about the legal side of things when it comes to recent flight experience. Of course, we know that in order to act as pilot and command of an aircraft carrying passengers, you need to have done at least three takeoffs and three landings in the previous 90 days. Now this is for daytime VFR operations. Okay. And of course, for the purposes of the legal definition of daytime for this purpose, we're talking about one hour before sunrise to the time of one hour after sunset. That is what constitutes daytime. Night time therefore is the time one hour after sunset to the time one hour before sunrise. So in order to carry passengers, you need to have made three takeoffs and three landings in the previous 90 days. Now if we are flying at night time with passengers, you'll need to do those three takeoffs and three landings at night and to a full stop, meaning you have to come to a stop. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to get off the runway. You can do stop and goes, come to a full stop on the runway and then basically reconfigure the plane and take off again. But those takeoffs and those landings need to be done between the hours of one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise. Now there's another little caveat which you know, we're not going to get too much in the weeds here, but if you are in a tail wheel aircraft, no matter if it is daytime or nighttime, those landings need to be done to a full stop when you are in a tail wheel aircraft. This also pertains to only the class of aircraft that you are flying. So if you are in a single engine airplane and you do three takeoffs and landings, then you can fly passengers in a single engine airplane. However, if you are going to be flying a multi-engine aircraft, you need to do those three takeoffs and landings in a multi-engine aircraft in order to take passengers in that. So that's just to be able to act as PIC in charge of an aircraft carrying passengers. But what about to be able to simply act as PIC of any aircraft? Well for that, of course we are talking about our flight review. Now flight review is required to be done a minimum of every 24 calendar months. Now there's been a lot of push lately which is great that you know you don't have to wait 24 calendar months for a flight review. As a matter of fact, you can do it, a lot of people do it every year or you can do it in an ongoing fashion where maybe you schedule a flight with a CFI maybe once every three months and you go out every three months with a CFI to work on new skills. And that CFI can endorse you for a flight review after a number of those flights and you keep up your currency of course but you also keep up your proficiency most important at that point. There's also ways to do it through the Wings program, getting Wings credit which is essentially kind of what those flights every three months with an instructor would get you, get you those Wings credits and then you can turn those Wings credits in to qualify for your flight review. So those are the things we're talking about when it comes to recent flight experience. Now again, that's the legal side of things. When we get into proficiency, we're kind of skipping ahead here a little bit into the risk management portion of the ACS but remember proficiency equals safe. So let's say you do three take-offs and landings on one given day and then you go almost three months without flying. It's been 87 days since you last flew and this particular day comes around. It's a beautiful day. You have some friends that you'd like to take out to go for a hundred dollar hamburger or more appropriately these days, maybe a five hundred dollar hamburger, but you're going to go out to lunch. You have to ask yourself just because you are technically legal at this point, it has not been 90 days yet. So you are still current. Is it going to be the wisest choice for you to get into an aircraft with your friends and family, nonetheless, and go flying after such a long break? Remember, flying is a perishable skill. It is not like riding a bike. You don't just get right back on and remember everything to do and how to do it. So understanding the difference between currency, which is the legal requirement and proficiency, which is how safe you are going to be able to actually operate that aircraft. There are two different things and is going to be a key factor in what the examiner is looking for. Is that decision making and that presence of mind to understand that your skills will have diminished, even with a relatively small break, even if you took a month off, your skills will have diminished and you might not realize it until it's too late. So having that forethought and that presence of mind to understand that, "Hey, even though I feel good, even though I remember what the controls feel like in my hands and I remember all the regulations and I feel like it was just yesterday that I flew, if it's been any extended amount of time, you may want to go up at the very least by yourself first, but maybe even more prudently with another pilot or an instructor to help kind of get your grounding again. So to speak, just to get those, you know, flap those wings, get the rust broken off to make sure that you truly are going to be safe and proficient when you take your friends and family." All right. Lastly, record keeping. So when it comes to record keeping, we're kind of talking about log books and if we look at our log book requirements, this is going to be in part 61-51 pilot log books. So the question might come up, "Do you have to log every flight you take or make?" And the answer is no. Now with that said, I don't know many pilots who don't log every flight they do. I think most of us are pretty anal about that. We like to keep track of things. But when it comes to what is required record keeping, you're only required to log the training time and aeronautical experience that documents the training and aeronautical experience used to meet the requirements for a certificate, rating, or flight review. You also must log the experience required to show your recency of experience. So your currency that we just spoke about. So if a flight is not going to be used towards a certificate or rating, and if it's not required for recency of experience, so you're 90 days, you're three take-offs and landings in 90 days or your flight review, then technically you don't have to log it. You just have to keep track of the things required to show that you are legally compliant with your recency of experience and/or that you qualify for a certificate or rating that you are applying for. All right, so that covers the first line in the knowledge section of pilot qualifications, moving on to privileges and limitations. So again, this is laid out for us in part 61. This is 61-113. And basically it says, "Except as provided imperiaf's B through H of this section, no person who holds a private pilot certificate may act as pilot and command of an aircraft that is carrying passengers or property for compensation or hire. Nor may that person for compensation or hire act as pilot and command of an aircraft." So basically bottom line is a private pilot, you cannot fly for money. You cannot operate for hire, you cannot carry passengers or property for hire, and you may not act as PIC of an aircraft that is for compensation or hire. Okay? Pretty straightforward, just know that you can't fly for money. That's really what it comes down to. Now, there are certain small caveats to this, which is laid out. Again, as it states here in the regulations, except as in paragraphs B through H and in paragraphs B through H, it talks about the fact that a private pilot may for compensation or hire, act as pilot and command of an aircraft in connection with any business or employment, if the flight is only incidental to that business or employment, and the aircraft does not carry passengers or property for compensation or hire. So does that mean you can't collect any money as a private pilot? Well, no, because as I'm sure you probably know, we talk about this weird term called pro-rad-a-share. This is outlined in paragraph C. It says a private pilot may not pay less than the pro-rad-a-share of the operating expenses of a flight with passengers. Provided the expenses involve only fuel, oil, airport expenditures or rental fees. So in other words, if you have friends and family with you or you're flying with another pilot, you guys can split the expenses of that flight evenly. If you're renting an aircraft and going out for that $500 hamburger, you can split the rental costs evenly. So if there are three of you on board, you can pay a third, and the other two can pay a third as well. So you can fly a lot cheaper by taking passengers with you and splitting the cost of those expenses. But you always have to pay your equal share. That doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else has to pay an equal share. You might have three people with you and one of the other two people pays for both of them, but you have to pay your equal share. There are three of you, so you have to pay no less than one-third. We're not going to get into the other paragraphs here. There's a few other kind of caveats and things that you can do as a private pilot, but all you need to know is that $61,113 is what talks about private pilot privileges and limitations. And as long as you know that in general, you can't operate for hire. You cannot be paid to fly. You can split expenses with your pro-radar share, paying your equal share. Then that's really kind of what you want to know. Now the other things to know, what can you do with your private pilot certificate? Well, you can fly anywhere in the world. Now obviously you'll need to adhere and be aware of any laws in any other countries and make sure you are in compliance with those laws. You can fly any American registered. United States registered. That means they have an N at the beginning of their tail number, November, aircraft anywhere in the world. And you can fly during the day, during the night, and really outside of just being paid to fly, you can do almost anything you want, almost. What can't you do? Well, unless you have an instrument rating, you can't fly in the clouds. You have to abide by the VFR weather minimums and cloud clearances. You can't fly in class A airspace. But once you get that instrument rating, that all changes. Okay, you can also fly any aircraft that is a single engine aircraft. And you know, we're assuming that you're getting a single engine land rating as your initial certificate rating. Okay, so you can fly any single engine land aircraft up to 12,500 pounds of maximum gross weight. That is not a jet. Okay. Now, there are other endorsements you'll need to fly certain types of aircraft, like your high performance endorsement for aircraft with engines producing over 200 horsepower. That means 201 or more. You'll need your complex endorsement for aircraft that have retractable landing gear, flaps, and a constant speed controllable pitch propeller. Okay, it's not a complex aircraft unless it has all three of those. Okay. And of course, you'll need a tail wheel endorsement to fly a tail wheel aircraft. So these are all things you can get endorsements for through training with a instructor. But as long as it's under 12,500 pounds of maximum gross weight and not a jet, you don't need a type rating. Anything above that weight or anything that has a jet engine, you need a type rating for, but not if it's anything other than that. All right, so those are basically your privileges and limitations as a private pilot. Moving on, we're talking about medical certificates. Class, expiration, privileges, temporary disqualifications. This is all going to be laid out in part 61, 23 medical certificates. So basically when it comes to your medicals, you want to know the three different types of medicals, your class one, class two, class three. You want to know what you're able to do with those medicals. Basically, class three is your standard private pilot, you know, puts in around born holes in the sky type of medical. With a class three medical, you can fly friends and family around the United States and you can fly IFR, VFR, whatever you want as a private pilot. Class two medical is required to operate for hire. So if you do get your commercial certificate and you want to get a job doing something, you're going to basically need a class two medical. Class one medicals, that's basically when you get to the airlines, when you're going part 135, part 121, you are carrying passengers for hire. That is when you have passengers or property for hire. That's when you're going to need that class one medical. But other jobs like flying skydivers, doing crop dusting, doing fairy flights, things like that, ban or tone, anything like that, you just need a class two medical. And there's even jobs that you can do with even just a class three medical or even no medical. If you have just basic med, for instance, you could be a flight instructor. You can be a flight instructor with basic med or just a class three medical. There's not much more you can do with just a class three medical or basic mid other than that. There might be one or two things. Honestly, I'm just, I'd have to look it up. But those are the general privileges for each medical. Private pilot, third class, working pilot, second class, airline pilot, first class is the kind of basic way you can understand that. You'll also need to know how long each medical is good for. What happens if you have a first class medical after 12 months if you're under 40? There's this magic line drawn in the sand for people who are under 40 and people who are over 40 and things change with your medical durations on either side of that line. So what happens if you're under 40 and you have a first class medical after 12 months? What happens if you have a second class medical after 12 months? Well, I'll lay it out for you very basically. So if you are under 40, a first class medical is going to be good for 12 months. A second class medical is also good for 12 months. A third class medical is good for 60 months, five years, six zero. So what that means is when you get a first class medical under the age of 40, for the first 12 months, you are going to have first class privileges. After 12 months, that first class has now expired. It does not change the class of medical. It's still a first class medical, but now you only have third class privileges. Not second class. Why? Because Second class is also only good for 12 months, so that's expired as well. So for the first 12 months under 40, it doesn't matter if you have a first class or a second class. It's gonna be good for 12 months. And after that, it's going to revert to third class privileges for the remaining 48 months. If you are over 40, over 40 your first class medical is only good for six months. Your second class medical is still good for 12 months, but your third class is only good for 24 months. So what happens if you have a first class medical after six months? Well your first class expires, however your second class is still in effect for another six months. So after the first six months, your first class reverts two second class privileges for six more months. After that second six month period, it has now been 12 months total. Those second class privileges expire and you now have third class privileges for the remaining 12 months. So I know it can be a little complicated, but that's kind of what you need to know. And again, as long as you know where to look it up in the regulations, 61, 23, you don't necessarily need to memorize all the specific details. All right, next line item is documents required to exercise private pilot privileges. So these are required documents. Again, we talked about the paybacker name and pilot. We're talking about I am safe. We're talking about required documents. So as the pilot, what documents do you need to have with you to legally operate as pilot and command? Well, you need your pilot certificate, just like you need to drive a license when you drive a car. You need your pilot certificate when you fly a plane. You need to have a valid government issued photo ID. This is required because your pilot certificate, unlike your driver's license, while it is government issued, they do not confirm your identity before issuing it. There's no picture on it. In other words, so there's no way by looking at a person's pilot certificate to know if that is that person because there's no picture to identify them. So you have to have a photo ID to supplement your pilot certificate. Then of course, you need to have your medical with you. And finally, there's a little difference here, whether you're a student pilot or a private pilot, but of course, as a student pilot, you need to have your logbook with you with the proper endorsements for the flights that you're doing when you're solo. But once you're a private pilot, you do not need to have your logbook with you. And to some extent, it's even a bad idea to have your logbook with you because if it's a physical logbook, which so many of us have digital these days or sometimes both. But back in the day, if you just had a physical logbook only, that's your only record of your recency of experience. And if something were to happen, you get in a crash, and that logbook burns up in the crash. Well, now the authorities don't have anything to go off of really to know what type of training you received, how current you were, how proficient you might have been, makes the investigation a lot more difficult. But these days, it's not as big of an issue. There's a lot more digital record keeping. But you still don't need your logbook with you as a private pilot. So the three main documents, your photo ID, your pilot certificate, and your medical certificate. All right, next line item is in regards to basic med part 68 basic med privileges limitations. Now, if you are not on basic med, if you have a valid medical, your understanding of basic med probably doesn't need to be too thorough. I mean, you need to know the basics of it. And it's not that difficult, but you just need to know it kind of at a surface level at the very minimum. However, if you are flying on basic med, then you definitely need to know this inside and out because I guarantee you that examiner will be looking for holes in your knowledge and understanding of what your privileges and limitations are with your basic med. So at the surface level basic med, you just need to understand that you need to go to a doctor and it can be your primary care physician. Once every 48 months, there's a paper that you need to print off and take it's like a little checklist and you take it with you to the doctor and it tells them everything they need to examine and attest to to say that you are in good enough health to fly. Now, in order to qualify for basic med, you need to have held a valid medical at some point since July 14, 2006. So if you're a new pilot and you have not ever had a medical, you need to be able to get a medical and pass a medical exam for at least a third-class medical before you're able to get on basic med. However, if maybe you were flying 10, 12, almost 20 years ago at this point, but if you were flying, let's say 10 years ago and you haven't flown since, but you had a medical back then in 2013. It's obviously long expired, but since you've had that medical and it's been since July 14, 2006, you are eligible for basic med. So basically with basic med, you need to see a physician like your primary care physician once every four years, minimum, and then every two years or 24 months, you need to complete an online course and complete that training course. There are free courses you do online and under basic med, then as long as you have completed this examination with your primary care physician and you've completed the online training course, you can basically use your driver's license to fly and you'll fly under whatever restrictions that driver's license has on it, but you can fly anywhere in the United States. You can fly any aircraft up to 6,000 pounds and not more than six occupants, meaning you could have up to five passengers. You can fly both VFR and IFR, but you cannot fly above 18,000 feet, so it would keep you out of the flight levels, but for the majority of us out here, that's going to be just fine. And then you can't fly an aircraft that to exceed 250 knots. So there are some limitations there, but for the vast majority of people, basic med would allow you to do pretty much anything you would want to an aviation if you're just flying for fun or even for commuting purposes for your own personal transportation. So those are the basics when it comes to basic med. And now we move on to the risk management portion in the ACS. And here under risk management, it says the applicant demonstrates the ability to identify, assess and mitigate risks in encompassing failure to distinguish proficiency versus currency. So just like we talked about earlier, currency equals legal, proficiency equals safe. Just because you are legal does not mean you are going to be safe. And it is up to you as the pilot to be able to distinguish the two, be able to make good decisions, even if you're feeling confident in your skills to understand that these are perishable skills and things might not be quite as smooth or quite as proficient as they used to be. And it is up to you to understand that if you go an extended period of time without flying, those skills might have diminished, you might not be quite as sharp as you think you are. So taking proper steps like flying with a instructor or even possibly just going out by yourself to kind of break some rust off at the very least is always a good idea. And you never want to subject any passengers, be it family friends or otherwise, to any unnecessary risk due to your lack of proficiency. Next line item says flying unfamiliar airplanes or operating with unfamiliar flight display systems. So most pilots know and it's pretty obvious to anybody who begins to fly a plane that planes are not like cars. You can't just get a pilot certificate and go out and fly any other airplane like you would in a car, right? We get our driver's license. We can drive our minivan. We can drive our Honda Civic. We can drive big trucks. You could even rent a big 26 foot moving truck and drive that around. Obviously there's a little bit of a learning curve and I'm sure there have been some mishaps. But you know, you are both legally able and usually skill wise able to figure out driving different vehicles without any previous training. The case is not the same when it comes to aircraft. Every aircraft is different even if it looks similar on the outside. It is always important to receive specific training on every given aircraft, the airframe and avionics because avionics even more so than an airframe can be really quite different. If you did all your training with a six pack, and now you're moving into a touch screen, G1000 or G3X or anything like that. There is a huge learning curve and things can go wrong very quickly when you don't know how to pull something up that you need to see or reference or how to use the tools that are in that aircraft. So basically the examiner is going to ask you about, give you an example of a different type of aircraft than what you've been flying and they're going to ask you questions about whether you could fly that aircraft and then whether you would fly that aircraft or should. And usually in my experience the answer to could you is going to be yes. Sometimes it will require those additional endorsements like we talked about, like a high performance endorsement or complex, but usually the answer would be yes. It would be a single engine land aircraft, but then the question is would you, would you take this aircraft or what would you want to be sure to do before you take that aircraft? Okay, so understanding that you want to receive specific training and that every airplane's different is what they're going to be looking for and is obviously very important from a practical standpoint as you go forward in your aviation career. All right, finally we get to the skills portion and basically the skill that you need to demonstrate is it says the applicant demonstrates the ability to apply requirements to act as PIC under visual flight rules, VFR, in a scenario given by the evaluator. So essentially the skill is be able to talk about everything we just talked about in the context of a real world scenario that the examiner is going to give you and that's just that's what they're going to do. You know, my kind of go to when I'm giving mock check rides, I say hey, first and foremost, you know, we're going to be going on this trip together you and I, I'm not a pilot. I'm just your buddy and you're taking me on this trip and we're going here and there are certain things that you're going to need to have done before we take this trip in order to act as pilot and command. Tell me about those. Okay, that's kind of a straightforward question, but you know, also kind of just what you need to be thinking about in a real world context when you go out on trips with friends. All right, so that takes care of our first section of the ACS, pilot qualifications. Again, if you can basically, if everything I just spoke about today and this podcast is familiar to you and you didn't, if you did not learn anything from this podcast, then you are more than ready to take on this portion of the check ride. If you did learn something great, I hope it helps you in your check ride and hopefully you can go and maybe brush up on these subjects that you didn't know about, but that takes care of pilot qualifications. Be sure to join me on the next episode when we get into airworthiness requirements and we're just going to keep trucking along in the ACS page by page so that when your check ride comes around, you are more than ready. Thanks so much for joining me today, guys, and we will see you next time on centerline.