Practice the airline transport pilot airplane oral

This is practice for the airline transport pilot airplane oral. You answer by voice, on the airplane you will bring, and you get stopped when the system description or the performance number is incomplete. It is oral practice for the ATP practical test. It is not ground school, and it does not qualify you for a part 121 operation by itself.

The standard is FAA-S-ACS-11A, Airline Transport Pilot and Type Rating for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards, effective May 31, 2024. The code prefix in that book is AA. The same ACS covers an ATP certificate and an airplane type rating. The plan of action uses the class you bring: single-engine land, single-engine sea, multiengine land, or multiengine sea.

What the oral covers

Area I is Preflight Preparation, and it does not open with pilot qualifications the way the private airplane ACS does. Task A is Operation of Systems. Task B is Performance and Limitations. Task C is Weather Information, marked (ATP). Task D is High-Altitude Aerodynamics, marked (ATP) and limited to multiengine land and sea. Task E is Air Carrier Operations, the same (ATP) and multiengine limit. Task F is Human Factors (ATP). Task G is The Code of Federal Regulations (ATP). Task H is water, seaplane bases, maritime rules, and aids to marine navigation, for sea airplanes.

The ATP certificate task table in Appendix 1 says what the evaluator must include. For an initial ATP or an added class, airplane multiengine land requires Area I Tasks A through G. Airplane single-engine land requires Area I Tasks A, B, C, F, and G, not the high-altitude task and not the air carrier task. Sea classes add Task H. The evaluator may still test the other tasks. Tasks whose titles include (ATP) are required on an ATP practical test and are not required on a type rating only practical test. A type rating plan of action still includes systems and performance.

Area II is the preflight assessment, start, taxi, and the before-takeoff check. Area III is takeoffs and landings, including a rejected takeoff and a go-around. Sea classes add glassy water, rough water, and confined-area tasks. Area IV is steep turns, unusual-attitude recovery, and specific flight characteristics. Area V is stall prevention in partial flap, clean, and landing configurations. Area VI is instrument procedures, from an instrument takeoff through departures, arrivals, non-precision and precision approaches, circling, the missed approach, and holding. Area VII is emergencies, including powerplant failure. Multiengine applicants get the inflight failure and restart, the approach and landing with a powerplant failure, and a precision approach with a powerplant failure. Area VIII is after landing, parking, and securing.

You pass the ground portion before the flight portion starts. Oral questions continue through the whole test. The minimum sample, unless a task says otherwise, is any element you missed on the knowledge test, at least one knowledge element, at least one risk management element, and the skill elements.

How a DPE probes

Appendix 3 says the systems task is part of the oral. You explain and describe the operation of the airplane's systems and components, using the terminology in the flight manual, and you identify the limitations. The knowledge list runs from landing gear and the powerplant through fuel, electrical, ice protection, avionics, and the minimum equipment list and configuration deviation list. The examples in each element are not a promise that every line will be asked. They are the field the evaluator can sample for the airplane you brought. Memory items, if the airplane has them, are a skill on this task.

Performance is the next oral block, and it is required for the certificate and for a type rating. If the weather knowledge element on products is selected, the evaluator covers at least three of those products. The same "at least three" note applies to the meteorology element. Then the scenario changes a wind, a weight, or a runway, and you say whether the takeoff or the landing still fits the chart.

On a multiengine ATP ride, Task D and Task E are not optional. High-altitude aerodynamics asks for the relationship between Mach, indicated airspeed, and true airspeed, for VMO/MMO convergence, and for factors that contribute to an upset at high altitude. Air carrier operations asks for oxygen-mask altitudes, loss of cabin pressure, crew resource management, and operations specifications. The CFR task on a multiengine ATP ride includes 14 CFR part 117 and the listed subparts of part 121, along with parts 61 and 91 and 49 CFR part 830. Single-engine ATP applicants get part 135 subparts on that task instead of the part 121 line, and they do not get Task D or Task E.

If you do not already hold an airplane multiengine class rating, FAA-S-ACS-11A says the evaluator also tests Maneuvering with One Engine Inoperative and the VMC Demonstration from the commercial airplane ACS, FAA-S-ACS-7 as amended, Area X, Tasks A and B. A second-in-command type rating does not remove that requirement. The commercial pilot oral is where those two tasks are introduced.

Where ATP answers slip

Privileges. 14 CFR 61.167(a)(1) says an ATP certificate gives you the same privileges as a commercial pilot certificate with an instrument rating. That is the privilege sentence. It does not, by itself, make you pilot in command of a part 121 flight. Say which operation the story is, and which other part still has to qualify you. The text is in RegBrief.

Medical. 14 CFR 61.23(a)(1) requires a first-class medical when you exercise pilot-in-command privileges of an ATP certificate. The same paragraph requires a first-class medical for second-in-command privileges of an ATP certificate in a flag or supplemental part 121 operation that requires three or more pilots, and when you serve as a required pilot flightcrew member in a part 121 operation if you have reached your 60th birthday. A second-class medical is a different row in that section. Do not import the commercial rule and stop.

Type ride versus certificate. A clean systems brief can still miss the ATP tasks. Weather, high-altitude aerodynamics, air carrier operations, human factors, and the CFR task are the ones the ACS marks (ATP). If you are doing a type rating only, those five drop off the required list. If you are doing the certificate in a multiengine airplane, they do not. High-altitude aerodynamics and air carrier operations are multiengine certificate tasks even when the airplane you bring is not a jet. Appendix 3 says the content of those two tasks is included in the training 14 CFR 61.156 requires for multiengine applicants, regardless of which multiengine airplane you bring.

Oxygen and the missed approach. Task E asks for the altitudes and conditions that require oxygen masks. The crew and passenger rule in 14 CFR 91.211 is the one the commercial oral already states: At cabin pressure altitudes above 12,500 feet MSL up to and including 14,000 feet MSL, the required minimum flight crew must be provided with and use supplemental oxygen for that part of the flight at those altitudes that is of more than 30 minutes duration. At cabin pressure altitudes above 14,000 feet MSL, that crew must be provided with and use supplemental oxygen during the entire flight time at those altitudes. At cabin pressure altitudes above 15,000 feet MSL, each occupant of the aircraft must be provided with supplemental oxygen. Instrument tasks on this ride still use 14 CFR 91.175 for the DA or MDA. The instrument oral and the IPC prep page are the pages for currency and the proficiency check. An IPC is not an ATP practical test.

Practice it out loud

Pick the Airline Transport Pilot airplane exam in Checkride.bot. The examiner is AI. Start with Area I Task A and Task B, then add the (ATP) tasks your certificate table requires. Enter knowledge-test codes if you have them. One task is free to try, Task A on most exams: a full voice session and a debrief, no account and no payment. The app is iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 or later. The live session needs internet.

Name the system, the limitation in the flight manual, and what you will do when the evaluator changes the weight. The debrief is Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, a score by ACS area, and the citation for anything that needed work. Read the section in RegBrief.

Checkride.bot is a self-study practice tool, not an FAA-approved training program.