top of page

FAA Areas of Emphasis

The FAA establishes areas of emphasis for each practical test. These are areas deemed critical to aviation safety and are required to be taught by CFIs and evaluated by examiners. These were reported in the Practical Test Standards (PTS) and go “beyond” the specific skills required for the certificate sought. For example, Runway Incursion Awareness is independent of checkride, and it’s therefore present in most. Make sure to cover these with your instructor and emphasize them during all phases of flight. Yes, the ACS supersedes the PTS, but the FAA Safety Team keeps bringing these up in multiple ways, including mass distributions to CFIs through the FSDOs.

​

The emphasis areas for each certificate are listed below. This FAA presentation provides some further clarification, guidance, and tools to review them. I recommend you take a look!

​

​PRIVATE PILOT

  1. Positive aircraft control;

  2. Procedures for positive exchange of flight controls (who is flying the airplane);

  3. Stall/spin awareness;

  4. Collision avoidance;

  5. Wake turbulence avoidance;

  6. Land and Hold Short Operations (LAHSO);

  7. Runway incursion avoidance;

  8. Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT);

  9. Aeronautical decision making (ADM);

  10. Checklist usage; and

  11. Other areas deemed appropriate to any phase of the practical test.

 

INSTRUMENT RATING

  1. Positive aircraft control;

  2. Positive exchange of the flight controls procedure (who is flying the aircraft);

  3. Stall/spin awareness;

  4. Collision avoidance;

  5. Wake turbulence avoidance;

  6. Land and hold short operations (LAHSO);

  7. Runway incursion avoidance;

  8. CFIT;

  9. ADM and RM;

  10. Checklist usage;

  11. SRM;

  12. Icing condition operational hazards, anti-icing and deicing equipment, differences, and approved use and operations; and

  13. Other areas deemed appropriate to any phased of the practical test.

 

COMMERCIAL PILOT / FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI)

  1. Positive aircraft control,

  2. Positive exchange of the flight controls procedure,

  3. Stall/spin awareness,

  4. Collision avoidance,

  5. Wake turbulence avoidance,

  6. LAHSO,

  7. Runway incursion avoidance,

  8. CFIT,

  9. ADM and risk management,

  10. Wire strike avoidance,

  11. Checklist usage,

  12. Temporary flight restrictions (TFRs),

  13. Special use airspace (SUA),

  14. Aviation security,

  15. Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM), and

  16. Other areas deemed appropriate to any phase of the practical test.

 

FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR INSTRUMENT (CFII)

  1. Positive aircraft control;

  2. Positive exchange of the flight controls procedure (who is flying the aircraft);

  3. Stall/spin awareness, as applicable;

  4. Collision avoidance;

  5. Wake turbulence avoidance;

  6. LAHSO;

  7. Runway incursion avoidance;

  8. CFIT;

  9. ADM and RM;

  10. Checklist usage;

  11. SRM;

  12. Icing condition operational hazards, anti-icing and deicing equipment, differences, and approved use and operations;

  13. RNP;

  14. CRM for multi-pilot aircraft; and

  15. Other areas deemed appropriate to any phase of the practical test.

​

bottom of page