Commercial pilot checkride
An oral examination and a flight, measured against a published standard. Nothing on it is a surprise: the tasks are printed in the Airman Certification Standards and the eleven areas of operation are printed in the regulation.
What happens on a commercial pilot checkride?
An examiner works through your paperwork, spends a couple of hours questioning you on the ground, then goes flying with you. The standard is the FAA’s Commercial Pilot — Airplane Airman Certification Standards, document FAA-S-ACS-7B, and it is a public document you can read before you book.
The general procedure comes from 14 CFR 61.43. The test covers the areas of operation for the certificate sought, you are expected to demonstrate them to the standard published for that certificate, and the examiner may discontinue the test at any point where continuing would not be safe or useful. Nothing about that is adversarial. An examiner is checking that a specific list of things is true.
Two things make this test feel different from the private one. The tolerances are narrower, which is the visible part. The less visible part is that the examiner is assessing judgment as a professional standard rather than a private one, because the certificate you are applying for allows somebody to pay you to make those judgments.
The paperwork is where checkrides most often stall, and it is entirely preventable. 14 CFR 61.39(a) sets out what has to be in place: a knowledge test passed inside the preceding 24 calendar months, the required training accomplished and endorsed, a medical certificate where one is required, the age requirement met, an instructor endorsement covering training received inside the two calendar months before application, and a completed and signed application form.
A position on preparation. The maneuvers are learnable in twenty hours; the oral is not, because it draws on everything you have read since your private certificate. Candidates who fail usually fail on the ground.
What are the prerequisites for the practical test?
Six of them, from 14 CFR 61.39 and 61.129. Every one is a document or a logbook entry, and every one can be checked a week ahead.
A valid knowledge test report
Under 14 CFR 61.39(a)(1) the CAX test has to have been passed inside 24 calendar months counted back from the month you apply, and 61.39(a)(2) says the report comes with you to the application.
The aeronautical experience of 14 CFR 61.129
All 250 hours, arranged as the four paragraphs of 61.129(a) require. Bring the logbook with the qualifying flights marked, because an examiner has to satisfy themselves the requirement is met before the test begins.
Twenty hours of training, and the endorsement for it
Instruction across the eleven areas of operation at 14 CFR 61.127(b)(1), endorsed by an authorized instructor under 61.123(e). Ten of the twenty are instrument training and ten are in a complex, turbine or technically advanced airplane.
Three hours of preparation inside two calendar months
14 CFR 61.129(a)(3)(v) wants three hours with an instructor in a single-engine airplane inside the two calendar months preceding the month of the test. Flown earlier they do not count, and this is the requirement most often discovered too late.
The instructor’s endorsement for the test itself
Under 14 CFR 61.39(a)(6) an authorized instructor endorses that you received training inside the two calendar months before application, that you are prepared for the test, and that you have demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of any subject area the knowledge test report marked as deficient.
A medical certificate and a signed application
14 CFR 61.39(a)(4) requires at least a third-class medical where one is needed for the flight. Once the certificate is issued, exercising commercial privileges needs at least a second class under 14 CFR 61.23(a). And 61.39(a)(7) wants the application completed and signed.
What does the examiner actually test?
The eleven areas of operation at 14 CFR 61.127(b)(1), split across an oral portion and a flight. The ACS breaks each area into tasks with knowledge, risk management and skill elements attached.
The eleven areas
Preflight preparation. Preflight procedures. Airport and seaplane base operations. Takeoffs, landings and go-arounds. Performance maneuvers. Ground reference maneuvers. Navigation. Slow flight and stalls. Emergency operations. High-altitude operations. Postflight procedures.
That list is the whole scope of the test. If something is not traceable to one of those eleven headings, it is not part of the practical test.
The commercial maneuvers
The performance and ground-reference work is what most people picture when they think of this checkride: chandelles, lazy eights, steep spirals and eights on pylons, plus the power-off accuracy approach and landing to a designated point. They are flown to the tolerances published in the ACS, and those tolerances are the reason the maneuvers take practice rather than explanation.
The useful way to think about them is that each one asks you to change two or three variables smoothly while keeping a third exactly where you put it. That is also, not coincidentally, a description of professional flying.
The oral, and why it is the harder half
Expect a substantial ground session before you go anywhere. It ranges across the same knowledge areas the written drew on, with weight and balance, performance and the limits of 14 CFR 61.133 recurring most often. If your knowledge test report listed deficient subject codes, your instructor’s endorsement has already certified you know them, and the examiner may well check.
Bring the aircraft documents, the maintenance records for the airplane you are flying and the current charts. An examiner who cannot confirm the airplane is airworthy cannot begin.
What we will not pretend
We publish no pass rate and we will not quote one. This school is new, any percentage would be drawn from a sample too small to mean anything, and a number invented for reassurance is worse than an honest gap.
What we will say is that a well-prepared candidate finds this test unremarkable, and that preparation is measurable: the endorsements are in date, the logbook adds up, and the maneuvers hold their tolerances on an ordinary day rather than a lucky one.
What happens if you do not pass?
One of three things ends a practical test: a pass, a notice of disapproval, or a discontinuance. None of the three is unusual and none is permanent.
Unsatisfactory on one or more tasks
The examiner lists which tasks were unsatisfactory. You get additional training on those, an endorsement, and a retest. 14 CFR 61.49 sets the requirement for what has to happen in between.
Best forNobody plans for it. Roughly nobody escapes aviation without one either.
- What is recordedThe tasks, not a grade
- Before the retestTraining plus an endorsement
- Retest coversUsually the failed tasks
- Governing rule14 CFR 61.49
The test stops part way
Weather, an aircraft problem or a scheduling limit can stop a test that was going fine. The examiner records the tasks you completed satisfactorily and you resume from there.
Best forAnyone whose test day runs into weather or a maintenance issue.
- What is recordedTasks already completed
- Credit carriedYes, for completed tasks
- Additional trainingNot required by the discontinuance
- Governing rule14 CFR 61.43
The prerequisites, and the rule behind each
| What has to be in place | Rule | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| CAX knowledge test passed | 14 CFR 61.39(a)(1) | Within the preceding 24 calendar months |
| Knowledge test report presented | 14 CFR 61.39(a)(2) | At application |
| 250 hours arranged per 61.129(a) | 14 CFR 61.129 | Before the test |
| 20 hours of training endorsed | 14 CFR 61.123(e), 61.127 | Before the test |
| 3 hours of test preparation | 14 CFR 61.129(a)(3)(v) | Inside 2 calendar months of the test |
| Instructor endorsement for the test | 14 CFR 61.39(a)(6) | Training within 2 calendar months of application |
| Medical certificate | 14 CFR 61.39(a)(4), 61.23(a) | At the test, and afterwards for privileges |
| Completed, signed application | 14 CFR 61.39(a)(7) | At application |
What does checkride preparation cost?
The examiner’s fee is yours and is not published here. The training that gets you to the test is, and it is fixed at enrolment.
Instrument Rating
Taken before the commercial checkride, so the certificate is issued without the 61.133(b)(1) limitation printed on it.
- ✓Built on 14 CFR 61.65
- ✓Feeds the commercial instrument hours
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
Airline Career Track
Zero hours to a commercial certificate and a flight instructor rating, including the training before each practical test.
- ✓Five phases, one figure
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
- ✓No repricing at stage boundaries
Multi-Engine Add-On
A second practical test in the Piper Seminole, added to a commercial certificate afterwards.
- ✓No hour minimum in 14 CFR 61.63(c)
- ✓Training, endorsement, practical test
- ✓No separate knowledge test
Redbird MCX session
Where procedure work and instrument scan go when the weather or the schedule will not allow the airplane.
- ✓Full-motion, fully enclosed
- ✓Never scrubbed for weather
- ✓Poor for landings, and we say so
What should you be able to check before a checkride?
Four of these are about the operation and one is about the calendar. All five are things you can confirm rather than take on trust.
Airplanes, including the complex one
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo, Piper Seminole. The Arrow II is how the ten complex hours get flown, and it is on our ramp rather than somebody else’s.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Instructors who sign endorsements
Commercial or ATP, an instructor certificate above it, and a current medical, on all eleven. The 61.39(a)(6) endorsement is a professional judgment, and it is made by somebody who has flown with you.
14 CFR 61.183 · 61.23A simulator for procedure work
The Redbird MCX is full-motion and enclosed, and a session is $189. Emergency procedures and instrument work rehearse well in it; landings do not, so we do not rehearse them there.
$189 standaloneDays a year the weather allows a test
From NOAA ASOS observations recorded at this field across the twelve months ending 1 August 2026, counting a day only where four daylight hours held a 3,000 ft ceiling and five statute miles.
NOAA ASOS via the Iowa Environmental MesonetPrices we withhold until you ask
None. Every program figure is on the site in public, with no ranges and no contact form standing in front of it.
Published in fullWhat this page is, and what it is not
This is a plain-language description of a federal practical test. The controlling documents are the current 14 CFR at eCFR and the FAA’s Commercial Pilot — Airplane Airman Certification Standards, and both are revised from time to time. Read the current ACS before you prepare for a test rather than relying on any summary, including this one.
This school teaches at Van Nuys Airport under part 61. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and there is no cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring relationship with any carrier here. Nothing on this page promises an interview, a job or a salary.
We publish no pass rate and no graduate count. The business is new, the sample would be meaningless, and a number invented to fill the gap would be worse than saying so plainly.
What people ask about the commercial checkride
The FAA’s Commercial Pilot — Airplane Airman Certification Standards, document FAA-S-ACS-7B. It breaks each area of operation into tasks and attaches knowledge, risk management and skill elements to each. It is a public document, so read it before you prepare rather than after.
The performance and ground-reference work — chandelles, lazy eights, steep spirals and eights on pylons — plus the power-off accuracy approach and landing, alongside takeoffs, landings and go-arounds, slow flight and stalls, navigation and emergency operations. The eleven areas of operation are listed at 14 CFR 61.127(b)(1).
Plan for most of a day. The oral portion usually runs a couple of hours, then there is a break, then the flight. The exact split depends on the examiner and on how quickly your paperwork checks out, which is a good argument for having it in order.
14 CFR 61.39(a) sets it out: a knowledge test passed inside the last 24 calendar months, with the report in hand, the required training accomplished and endorsed, a medical certificate where one is required, the age requirement met, the instructor endorsement covering training inside the two calendar months before application, and a completed and signed application.
They have to be flown with an authorized instructor in a single-engine airplane inside the two calendar months immediately before the month of the test, under 14 CFR 61.129(a)(3)(v). Flown earlier, they do not satisfy the paragraph and the test waits.
The examiner issues a notice of disapproval naming the unsatisfactory tasks. You then take additional training from an authorized instructor and receive an endorsement stating you are competent to pass, which is what 14 CFR 61.49 requires, and you retest.
Yes. If weather, an aircraft problem or the clock makes continuing unwise, the examiner issues a letter of discontinuance recording the tasks you have already completed satisfactorily, and you resume from that point rather than starting again.
14 CFR 61.39(a)(4) requires at least a third-class medical where a medical is needed for the flight. Once you hold the certificate, exercising commercial privileges needs at least a second class under 14 CFR 61.23(a), so most candidates already hold one or better.
Not necessarily. The ten complex, turbine or technically advanced hours at 14 CFR 61.129(a)(3)(ii) are a training requirement, and the airplane you present for the test has to be one in which the tasks can be performed. Discuss the aircraft with your instructor and the examiner well in advance.
The twenty hours of training at 14 CFR 61.129(a)(3) is the formal answer, and for the flying it is usually enough. The oral is the part people underestimate, because it reaches back across everything since the private certificate rather than just the last month.
Related reading
Up to the pillar
Commercial pilot licenseThe checkride is decided months earlier than the day itself
Come and fly an hour with an instructor. You will get a written read on where your handling sits, what your logbook still needs against 14 CFR 61.129, and what a sensible schedule to a checkride looks like from here. Enroll within a day and the fee comes off the program.
Fly the aeroplane once, then decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →