IPC oral prep with the Instrument Rating simulation

You practice with the Instrument Rating oral simulation. That simulation covers the IPC tasks FAA-S-ACS-8C lists for an instrument proficiency check, and you leave with the citation to open next. Checkride.bot has no separate IPC exam. A session in the simulation does not restore instrument currency, and it is not the check an examiner or instructor signs.

Pick the Instrument Rating airplane exam. The areas below are the IPC tasks that exam covers.

The standard is FAA-S-ACS-8C, Instrument Rating - Airplane Airman Certification Standards, effective May 31, 2024. Appendix 1 is titled Practical Test Roles, Responsibilities, and Outcomes. The Instrument Proficiency Check is a section inside that appendix. 14 CFR 61.57(d) is the rule that requires the check, and it points at the ACS incorporated in 14 CFR 61.14.

What the check covers

14 CFR 61.57(d)(1) says that if you have failed to meet the instrument experience in 61.57(c) for more than six calendar months, you may reestablish instrument currency only by completing an IPC. The check must include the areas of operation in the applicable ACS for the rating you hold. For an airplane, that book is FAA-S-ACS-8C.

14 CFR 61.57(c)(1), for an airplane, is the experience inside the 6 calendar months before the month of the flight: six instrument approaches, holding procedures and tasks, and intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems. That work is in actual weather, or under simulated conditions with a view-limiting device. The instrument rating oral walks the same paragraph, including the training-device mix in 61.57(c)(2).

The ACS then sets a floor. The person conducting the IPC has to see you meet the standards in FAA-S-ACS-8C, and as a minimum you demonstrate the tasks in the table in the Instrument Proficiency Check section of Appendix 1. The person giving the check should build a scenario that uses as many of those required tasks as practical, so they can assess aeronautical decision making and risk management.

Area I and Area II are marked "None" on that table. The minimum does not require Pilot Qualifications, Weather Information, Cross-Country Flight Planning, the IFR systems tasks, or the instrument flight deck check. Area III requires Task B, Holding Procedures. Area IV requires Task B, Recovery from Unusual Flight Attitudes. Area V requires Task A, Intercepting and Tracking Navigational Systems and DME Arcs. Area VI requires every task: non-precision approach, precision approach, missed approach, circling approach, and landing from an instrument approach. Area VII requires Tasks B, C, and D. Tasks B and C apply to multiengine tests only: one engine inoperative during straight-and-level flight and turns, and an instrument approach and landing with an inoperative engine. Task D, for everyone, is an approach with loss of primary flight instrument indicators. Area VIII requires checking instruments and equipment.

14 CFR 61.57(d)(3) says who may give the check: an examiner; a person authorized by the U.S. Armed Forces to conduct instrument flight tests, if the pilot being tested is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces; a company check pilot authorized to conduct instrument flight tests under part 121, 125, or 135 or subpart K of part 91, when both are employees of that operator or fractional ownership program manager; an authorized instructor; or a person approved by the Administrator to conduct instrument practical tests.

An Advanced Aviation Training Device may be used for the majority of the IPC, as the letter of authorization for that device specifies. The circling approach, the landing task, and the multiengine airplane tasks must be accomplished in an aircraft or a full flight simulator at Level B, C, or D. A Basic Aviation Training Device cannot be used for any part of the IPC. The ACS points at AC 61-98, as amended, for how to conduct the check.

How the check is sampled

The Instrument Rating oral sample and the IPC minimum task table are not the same list. You still practice in the Instrument Rating oral simulation. Lost communications is Area VII, Task A, on the rating ride. The IPC minimum table does not list it. Alternates and the 45-minute IFR fuel reserve live in Area I, which the minimum table also skips. A scenario can still change the weather on the approach you are about to fly. Do not treat "not on the minimum list" as "the plate does not matter." Area VI is every approach task. Going below the DA or MDA is still 14 CFR 91.175, and the instrument page has the visual-reference rule.

Holding is on the minimum list, so it gets the same probe as a rating ride. AIM 5-3-8 says an uncharted hold includes direction from the fix, the fix, the radial or course, leg length in miles if DME or RNAV is used, left turns if required, and an expect-further-clearance time. Standard turns are right turns. Naming the three entries is not the task. The follow-up is which entry you would fly for the clearance just read, and the speed you need before the fix. Clearance readback is what WilcoAI practices.

Partial panel is not optional on the minimum list. Area VII, Task D, is required in a single-engine airplane and in a multiengine airplane. The rating page covers which instruments die with the pitot tube and which die with the static port. FAA-H-8083-15B is the Instrument Flying Handbook the instrument ACS points at for systems and attitude instruments.

Where IPC answers slip

The month count. "I did six approaches last year" is not 61.57(c), and it is not an IPC. 61.57(c) looks at the 6 calendar months before the month of the flight. 61.57(d) is the later line: once you have failed to meet that experience for more than six calendar months, currency comes back only through the check. If you do not know which window you are in, say which logbook dates you still need to check. The citation is 61.57, not a mnemonic.

The device. Logging approaches in a basic aviation training device does not finish an IPC. The ACS is blunt: a BATD cannot be used for any part of the check. Circling and the landing from the approach stay in an aircraft or a Level B, C, or D full flight simulator, even when an AATD covers other tasks.

The airplane you bring. In a single-engine airplane, Area VII Tasks B and C are not part of the minimum. In a multiengine airplane, they are. The note in the ACS says those two tasks apply to multiengine tests only. VMC and the single-engine instrument approach are the commercial and ATP multiengine tasks on the other pages. Here they show up because the IPC table includes them when the airplane has two engines.

Area I on the app. The free task on the instrument exam is Task A on most exams, and on this ACS Task A is pilot qualifications. That task is not on the IPC minimum list. Use it to say the currency rule out loud, then move to holding, unusual attitudes, intercepting and tracking, and the approaches.

Practice it out loud

On Checkride.bot, pick the Instrument Rating airplane exam. That oral simulation covers the IPC tasks. The app has no separate IPC exam. The examiner is AI. Work Area III Task B, Area IV Task B, Area V Task A, and all of Area VI. Add Area VII Task D, and add Tasks B and C if you will take the check in a multiengine airplane. 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, and the live session needs internet.

Speak the hold, the approach minimum, and whether you are still inside 61.57(c). Vague answers get a follow-up. The debrief is Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, a score by ACS area, and the citation for anything that needed work. Open it in RegBrief. Sample prompts for 91.175, lost comms, and the alternate rule are on the sample oral questions page. Those prompts belong to the instrument rating oral. The IPC minimum table does not require the lost-comm task or the alternate task.

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