The Commercial Pilot Written Exam, Test Code CAX
One hundred questions in two and a half hours, 70 to pass, on the sixteen knowledge areas in 14 CFR 61.125. It is the least expensive part of a commercial certificate and the one most often left too late.
What Is The Commercial Pilot Written Exam?
It is the FAA knowledge test with the code CAX, and the current Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix puts it at 100 questions, two and a half hours, and a pass mark of 70. It is taken at an approved knowledge testing centre on a computer, and you leave with your result the same day.
14 CFR 61.123(d) makes passing it a condition of the certificate, and 61.123(c) puts a step in front of it: an authorized instructor either conducts the ground training on the knowledge areas in 61.125 or reviews your home study, and then endorses your logbook to certify that you are prepared. You cannot simply book the test and turn up.
Our position on this test is unfashionable. It is not hard, it is broad, and it is the only part of a commercial certificate that can be studied on a sofa at no cost per hour. Pilots who leave it until the flying is in full flow end up revising in the most expensive month of their training, which is a self-inflicted problem with an obvious fix.
How Many Questions, How Long, And What Passes?
One hundred questions, two and a half hours, and 70 to pass. Those figures come from the FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix in its 22 October 2025 revision, which also shows sixteen as the minimum age for sitting the CAX. The certificate itself still waits for eighteen under 61.123(a), so the test can lawfully be passed two years before the certificate can be issued.
Two and a half hours for a hundred questions is a minute and a half each, which sounds tight and is not. Most of the paper is quick recall; the time goes on the handful of items that need a chart, a computer or a weight and balance calculation. Work those in a first pass at speed, flag them, and come back. The people who run out of time are almost always the people who fought one question early.
The result is issued as an Airman Knowledge Test Report with a list of the subject codes you got wrong. Keep it. The examiner will raise those codes at the oral, on the day itself, which is a detail people discover on checkride morning far too often.
How Do You Prepare For And Sit The Test?
Five stages. The first is a legal requirement rather than a study tip, and the last one matters more than most people expect.
Get The Ground Training Done
61.123(c) requires an authorized instructor either to conduct ground training on the aeronautical knowledge areas in 61.125, or to review a home-study course covering them. Both routes are lawful. Home study plus scheduled ground sessions is what most working students actually do, and it is what our ground instruction hours are for.
Take The Endorsement Seriously
The same paragraph requires the instructor to certify in your logbook that you are prepared for the knowledge test. A good instructor will not sign that until your practice results are consistently well clear of the pass mark, and you should be suspicious of one who signs it early.
Book At An Approved Testing Centre
The test is delivered on a computer at an FAA-approved knowledge testing centre with your photographic identification and your endorsement. Book it around your flying rather than into a gap between two lessons; arriving tired from an hour of circuits is a poor way to start a two and a half hour exam.
Sit It, And Manage The Clock
One hundred questions, two and a half hours. Answer everything you know quickly, flag the chart and calculation items, and return to them with the time you have banked. There is no credit for finishing early and no penalty for using the full allowance.
Keep The Test Report
The report lists the subject codes for every question you missed, and the examiner is entitled to probe those areas at the oral. Read them, fix them with your instructor, and note what you did. That conversation goes much better when you can say what you did about it.
When Should You Take The Commercial Written?
Early, and earlier than most people do. 61.39(a)(1) puts the knowledge test pass inside the 24-calendar-month period ending with the month of your practical test. Two years is a long runway, and there is no advantage in leaving the ground study until the flying is at its most expensive.
The counter-argument is real and worth stating: sit it too early and the material has faded by the oral. The examiner will ask about the subject codes you missed, and a test taken twenty-three months ago is a poor foundation for that conversation. The sensible window is after the instrument rating and before the commercial phase gets busy, which for most students here is somewhere between four and eight months before the checkride.
There is a harder deadline to watch as well. If the practical test slips past the twenty-four month window, the pass expires and the whole test is sat again. That is entirely avoidable and it happens every year, usually to people whose checkride was delayed by weather, an aircraft in maintenance, or an examiner’s diary.
What Subjects Does The Commercial Written Cover?
The sixteen aeronautical knowledge areas in 14 CFR 61.125(b). You are examined on the ones that apply to the category and class you are seeking, which is why the airplane paper does not test the lighter-than-air item at the end of the list.
Rules, Reporting And Aerodynamics
The list opens with the regulatory and theoretical ground, and the first item is the one that separates this paper from the private one: the regulations that relate specifically to commercial privileges, limitations and flight operations.
- Federal Aviation Regulations relating to commercial pilot privileges, limitations and flight operations
- Accident reporting requirements of the National Transportation Safety Board
- Basic aerodynamics and the principles of flight
- Meteorology, including critical weather situations, windshear recognition and avoidance, and the use of weather reports and forecasts
Performance And Loading
Four of the sixteen areas are arithmetic, and they carry a disproportionate share of the questions that take real time in the exam room. This is where a practice paper is worth more than another hour of reading.
- Safe and efficient operation of aircraft
- Weight and balance computations
- Use of performance charts
- Significance and effects of exceeding aircraft performance limitations
Navigation And Judgment
The navigation items still include pilotage and dead reckoning with a chart and a magnetic compass, which some pilots find quaint until the day an avionics fault makes it the only method available.
- Use of aeronautical charts and a magnetic compass for pilotage and dead reckoning
- Use of air navigation facilities
- Aeronautical decision making and judgment
- Principles and functions of aircraft systems
Operations
The final group is operational, and it maps closely onto the flying you will be doing during the commercial phase itself. The last item on the statutory list concerns lighter-than-air ratings and does not apply to an airplane applicant.
- Maneuvers, procedures and emergency operations appropriate to the aircraft
- Night and high-altitude operations
- Procedures for operating within the National Airspace System
- Procedures for flight and ground training for lighter-than-air ratings
What Does The Training Around The Written Cost?
Ground instruction sits inside our program prices rather than being metered separately. These are the figures the ground training lives inside.
Airline Career Track
The whole sequence to a flight instructor rating, with ground instruction and the written tests along the route built into the plan.
- ✓Private, instrument, commercial and instructor phases
- ✓Ground instruction inside the program
- ✓Financing opens at $2,500 down
- ✓Part 61 throughout
Private Pilot — Comprehensive
Ten hours of ground instruction inside the figure, which is where the habit of studying properly gets built.
- ✓55 hours single-engine, 5 hours Redbird MCX
- ✓50 hours dual, 10 hours ground instruction
- ✓Books and training materials included
Instrument Rating
The rating whose own written test most students sit shortly before or after the CAX.
- ✓Redbird MCX time inside the program
- ✓Cross-country hours that also feed 61.129(a)(2)
- ✓Ground instruction included
What Can You Buy Without Enrolling?
Two single sessions, for pilots who want to test the ground before committing to a program.
Assessment Flight
An hour of dual instruction with you flying, and a conversation about where the written fits into your plan.
- ✓Logged as dual instruction received
- ✓Credited against any program within a day
- ✓Bring the logbook and we will read it
Redbird MCX Session
A standalone hour in the full-motion simulator, which is a good place to make abstract procedural knowledge concrete.
- ✓FAA-approved, fully enclosed and motion-equipped
- ✓Never cancelled for weather
- ✓Poor for landings, and we say so
What Happens If You Fail The Commercial Written?
You retrain and you retake it. 14 CFR 61.49(a) sets the condition: somebody who fails a knowledge test may go back for it only after receiving the necessary training from an authorized instructor who has determined that the applicant is proficient to pass it, and after obtaining an endorsement from the instructor who gave that additional training.
In practice that means a real session on the areas you failed rather than a quick signature. There is no cap on attempts in that paragraph and no fixed waiting period written into it, but the endorsement is a genuine gate: your instructor is putting their certificate behind the assertion that you are ready this time.
The failure is also a small piece of information rather than a catastrophe. It costs a test fee and a delay, both of which are trivial against 250 hours of flying. What it should change is the study method, because a failed CAX almost always means practice papers were being answered from memory of the answers rather than from understanding of the material.
The CAX Test In Six Facts
Everything a candidate needs to hold in their head, with the source beside each one. All six come from the FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix or from part 61 itself.
100 Questions
The commercial airplane paper is the long one. For comparison, the private and instrument airplane tests are 60 questions each on the same matrix.
2.5 Hours Allotted
Two and a half hours, which is thirty minutes more than the private and instrument airplane tests receive. The time is spent on charts and calculations rather than on recall.
70 To Pass
The minimum passing score is 70. It is the same threshold as the private and instrument airplane tests; what changes is the breadth of the material behind it.
Valid 24 Calendar Months
61.39(a)(1) requires the pass to sit inside the 24 calendar months that run up to the month of the practical test. Miss the window and the whole test is retaken.
Minimum Age 16
The matrix shows sixteen for the CAX, while 61.123(a) holds the certificate itself at eighteen. The test can therefore be passed well before the certificate can be issued.
Endorsement Required First
61.123(c) requires an authorized instructor to have conducted the ground training or reviewed your home study, and to certify in your logbook that you are prepared for the test.
How Does The CAX Differ From The Other Airplane Written Tests?
These figures come from the FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix, 22 October 2025 revision. The commercial paper is longer than the other two and is allotted more time; the pass mark is identical.
Instrument Rating (IRA)
Sixty questions in two hours, on a narrower and deeper body of material.
Best forsitting shortly before or after the CAX, while the study habit is running
- Questions60
- Time Allotted2.0 hours
- Passing Score70
- Minimum Age15
Commercial Pilot (CAX)
One hundred questions in two and a half hours, across sixteen knowledge areas.
Best forafter the instrument rating and before the commercial phase gets busy
- Questions100
- Time Allotted2.5 hours
- Passing Score70
- Minimum Age16
The Three Airplane Tests Side By Side
| Test | Questions | Time Allotted | Passing Score | Minimum Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Pilot Airplane (PAR) | 60 questions | 2.0 hours | 70 | Age 15 |
| Instrument Rating Airplane (IRA) | 60 questions | 2.0 hours | 70 | Age 15 |
| Commercial Pilot Airplane (CAX) | 100 questions | 2.5 hours | 70 | Age 16 |
Can You Sit The Commercial And Instrument Writtens Together?
They are separate tests with separate codes, separate endorsements and separate fees, so nobody sits them in one session. What people mean by the question is whether to study for them in the same period, and the answer there is usually yes.
The material overlaps at the edges: weather, charts, airspace, performance and decision making all appear in both. Studying them close together means reading a subject once and sitting it twice, which is the closest thing to a shortcut this part of training offers. It is also intense, and if you are working full time it can be too much at once.
The practical constraint is the flying rather than the reading. An instrument written passed months before the instrument checkride is fine; a commercial written passed early is fine too, within the 24-calendar-month window in 61.39(a)(1). Set both dates backwards from the checkrides you expect, then check that neither one expires on the way.
What Stands Behind The Ground Instruction Here?
We have no reviews of our own to quote and we will not borrow anybody else’s. Five things about the ground side that you can check.
Instructors Who Can Sign The Endorsement
Every one of the eleven holds a commercial certificate or better plus a flight instructor certificate, which is what 61.123(c) requires of whoever signs you off for the knowledge test.
14 CFR 61.183 · 61.23Hours Of Ground Instruction In The Comprehensive Program
Three hours sit inside the Standard private pilot program and ten inside the Comprehensive. Ground time is the least expensive learning in aviation, so we do not meter it separately.
Published program inclusionsKnowledge Areas In The Rule
14 CFR 61.125(b) lists sixteen aeronautical knowledge areas, and an applicant is trained on the ones that apply to the category and class sought. Our ground syllabus is built against that list rather than against a question bank.
14 CFR 61.125(b)Charged For A Test Report Debrief
Reading your Airman Knowledge Test Report with an instructor and fixing the missed subject codes is part of the training, not an extra. The examiner will ask about those codes at the oral.
Inside every programPass Rates Published
None, because the operation is new and any figure would be meaningless. What is published instead is the syllabus, the rule behind each requirement and the price.
Stated on every page of this siteCommercial Written Exam: Common Questions
One hundred. The FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix in its 22 October 2025 revision shows the commercial pilot airplane test, code CAX, at 100 questions with two and a half hours allotted and a minimum passing score of 70.
70. That is the minimum passing score shown on the FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix for the CAX, and it is the same threshold applied to the private and instrument airplane tests. The report you receive lists the subject codes for every question you missed.
Twenty-four calendar months. The governing rule is 14 CFR 61.39(a)(1), which puts a knowledge test pass inside the 24-calendar-month period ending with the month of your practical test. If the checkride slips past that window, the test is sat again in full.
Yes. 14 CFR 61.123(c) wants an endorsement written in the logbook by an authorized instructor who either conducted the ground training on the knowledge areas in 61.125 or reviewed your home-study course, and who certifies that you are prepared for the knowledge test.
The sixteen aeronautical knowledge areas in 14 CFR 61.125(b), applied to the category and class you are seeking. They run from the regulations governing commercial privileges and limitations through meteorology, weight and balance, performance charts, navigation, aircraft systems, night and high-altitude operations and procedures within the National Airspace System.
It is broader rather than harder. The private airplane test is 60 questions in two hours; the CAX is 100 questions in two and a half. The pass mark is 70 for both. What changes is the range of material and the number of items that need a chart or a calculation.
After the instrument rating and before the commercial phase gets busy, which for most students is four to eight months before the checkride. 14 CFR 61.39(a)(1) allows up to 24 calendar months, but a test passed too long ago makes a poor foundation for the oral, where the examiner probes the subject codes you missed.
You retrain and retake it. 14 CFR 61.49(a) requires the necessary training from an authorized instructor who has determined that you are proficient to pass, plus an endorsement from the instructor who gave that additional training. The paragraph sets no cap on attempts.
Not in one sitting — they are separate tests with separate codes and endorsements. Studying for them in the same period is sensible, because weather, charts, airspace and performance material overlap, and reading a subject once to sit it twice is the nearest thing to a shortcut available here.
Yes. Ground instruction sits inside our program prices — three hours in the Standard private pilot program and ten in the Comprehensive — and our instructors give the endorsement 61.123(c) requires. Testing centre fees are charged by the centre rather than by us, and we do not quote them.
What This Page Is, And What It Is Not
This page describes an FAA knowledge test using figures published in the FAA Airman Knowledge Testing Matrix in its 22 October 2025 revision and paragraphs of 14 CFR part 61 as they stand today. Both change. Check the current matrix and the current regulation before relying on any number here, and tell us if you find a discrepancy.
Airline Pilot Flight School is a part 61 flight training provider at Van Nuys Airport. It is not a testing centre, it does not administer FAA knowledge tests, and it does not set or collect testing fees. It is also not an airline, not owned by one, and holds no hiring relationship with any carrier.
We publish no pass rate for this test or any other. The operation is new, the figure would be meaningless, and a school quoting one is asking you to trust a number nobody audits. The syllabus, the rule and the price are published instead.
Nothing here is a promise of employment. A knowledge test pass is a step toward a certificate, and a certificate is permission to be paid to fly rather than an offer of work.
Come And See How The Ground Training Actually Runs
Ground instruction is where the least expensive learning in aviation happens, and it is the easiest part of a school to inspect before you commit.
Come to 7900 Balboa Blvd at Van Nuys and ask to see the ground syllabus for the commercial phase. Ask how many hours are scheduled, who teaches them, and whether they are taught against the knowledge areas in 61.125(b) or against a question bank. The answer to that last question tells you a great deal.
Bring your Airman Knowledge Test Report if you already hold one from an earlier certificate. The subject codes on it are a map of what an examiner will probe at your next oral, and an instructor can turn that map into a study plan in about half an hour.
The Ground Syllabus
Built against the sixteen knowledge areas in 61.125(b) rather than around a bank of remembered answers. Ask to read it before enrolling; it is not a secret document.
The Endorsement Standard
Ask an instructor what practice results they want to see before signing the endorsement 61.123(c) requires. A specific answer is a good sign; a vague one is not.
The Redbird MCX
$189 standalone. Procedural knowledge learned on paper becomes real in a box far more cheaply than in an aircraft, which is most of what a simulator is genuinely good for.
Your Test Report
Bring it. The missed subject codes are what the examiner will ask about at the oral, and turning them into a plan takes half an hour with somebody who knows the ACS.
Study Early, Fly Prepared
This is the one part of a commercial certificate that costs nothing per hour to prepare for. Getting it out of the way early leaves the expensive months free for flying, and it makes the oral a conversation rather than an interrogation.
Read Around The Written Test
The Commercial Cluster
What A Commercial Pilot License IsBecoming A Commercial Pilot, Step By StepCommercial Pilot License RequirementsThe Commercial Pilot CheckrideFly 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 →