CA.I.A — Pilot Qualifications

CA.I.A for the Commercial Pilot Airplane ACS: official objective, references, and 8 exact knowledge, risk-management, and skill descriptions.

FAA-S-ACS-7B, November 2023. This study page does not replace the current FAA publication or an examiner's plan of action.

Official task context

CA.I.A official ACS context
Certificate or ratingCommercial Pilot
Aircraft categoryAirplane
Area of operationArea of Operation I. Preflight Preparation
TaskTask A. Pilot Qualifications
Task code prefixCA.I.A
Official references14 CFR parts 61, 68, 91, 119.1(e); AC 68-1; FAA-H-8083-2, FAA-H-8083-3, FAA-H-8083-25
FAA documentFAA-S-ACS-7B — Commercial Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards
FAA source libraryOpen the official ACS library

Official task objective

To determine the applicant exhibits satisfactory knowledge, risk management, and skills associated with airman and medical certificates including privileges, limitations, currency, and operating as pilot-in-command as a commercial pilot.

What the ACS code means

  • CA identifies the ACS standard family used for this Commercial Pilot Airplane document.
  • I identifies Preflight Preparation, the Area of Operation.
  • A identifies Pilot Qualifications, the Task within that Area.
  • K, R, and S identify knowledge, risk-management, and skill elements. The number selects the item; a trailing lowercase letter identifies a listed sub-element.

Knowledge elements

Official ACS knowledge items and mock-oral treatment
ACS codeOfficial descriptionHow a mock oral can probe it
CA.I.A.K1Certification requirements, recent flight experience, and recordkeeping.Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant.
CA.I.A.K2Privileges and limitations.Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant.
CA.I.A.K3Medical certificates: class, expiration, privileges, temporary disqualifications.Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant.
CA.I.A.K4Documents required to exercise commercial pilot privileges.Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant.
CA.I.A.K5Part 68 BasicMed privileges and limitations.Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant.

Risk management elements

Official ACS risk management items and mock-oral treatment
ACS codeOfficial descriptionHow a mock oral can probe it
CA.I.A.R1Proficiency versus currency.Work through a scenario by identifying the hazard, evaluating the risk, and explaining a practical mitigation or decision.
CA.I.A.R2Flying unfamiliar aircraft or operating with unfamiliar flight display systems and avionics.Work through a scenario by identifying the hazard, evaluating the risk, and explaining a practical mitigation or decision.

Skills elements

Official ACS skills items and mock-oral treatment
ACS codeOfficial descriptionHow a mock oral can probe it
CA.I.A.S1Apply requirements to act as pilot-in-command (PIC) under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) in a scenario given by the evaluator.Describe the procedure, interpretation, or decision process that can be discussed during an oral. Physical aircraft performance remains part of the practical test.

Difficulty data

Difficulty calibration is ongoing for this Task. A difficulty estimate is published only with a sufficiently large, privacy-preserving first directly recorded assessment sample. Any observed difficulty comes from Checkride AI mock-oral practice assessments and is a practice-data proxy, not an FAA practical-test pass or fail rate.

Difficulty calibration remains ongoing until an item clears the private reporting threshold. Percentages, when available, describe the share who needed review on their first directly recorded assessment. Underlying sample sizes are never published, and historical final states are not backfilled into this measure.

How to use this in a mock oral

A mock examiner can ask you to explain the published elements, apply them to the configured aircraft and airport scenario, identify risks, and defend a decision. The prompts are practice scenarios; they are not claimed to be actual FAA examiner scripts or a prediction of the questions you will receive.

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