# AI.III.A — Pilot Qualifications — Flight Instructor Airplane ACS

> AI.III.A from FAA-S-ACS-25, including the official objective, references, notes, and 7 exact knowledge, risk-management, and skill descriptions.

Canonical HTML: [https://www.check-ride.ai/acs/airplane/flight-instructor/ai-iii-a](https://www.check-ride.ai/acs/airplane/flight-instructor/ai-iii-a)

Site reference: [https://www.check-ride.ai/llms.txt](https://www.check-ride.ai/llms.txt)

## Official Task context

- FAA document: Flight Instructor for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards
- Identifier: FAA-S-ACS-25
- Published source date: November 2023
- Aircraft category: Airplane
- Certificate or rating: Flight Instructor
- Area of Operation: Area of Operation III. Preflight Preparation
- Task: Task A. Pilot Qualifications
- Task code prefix: AI.III.A
- Official references: 14 CFR parts 61, 68, 91; AC 60-28, AC 68-1; FAA-H-8083-2, FAA-H-8083-3, FAA-H-8083-23, FAA-H-8083-25; POH/AFM
- FAA source library: https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/acs

## Official Task objective

To determine the applicant understands pilot training and qualification requirements for different levels of pilot certificate including student pilot, sport pilot, recreational pilot, private pilot, commercial pilot, and flight instructor; can apply that knowledge, manage associated risks, demonstrate appropriate skills, and provide effective instruction.

## Knowledge elements

- **AI.III.A.K1** — Certification, currency, and recordkeeping requirements, including training and logbook entries.
- **AI.III.A.K2** — Privileges and limitations of pilot certificates and ratings at student pilot, sport, recreational, private, commercial, and flight instructor levels.
- **AI.III.A.K3** — Medical certificates: class, expiration, privileges, temporary disqualifications, and operations under BasicMed.
- **AI.III.A.K4** — Documents pilots must possess to exercise privileges of the specified certificate(s) and rating(s).

## Risk management elements

- **AI.III.A.R1** — Proficiency versus currency.
- **AI.III.A.R2** — Flying unfamiliar aircraft or operating with unfamiliar flight display systems and avionics.

## Skills elements

- **AI.III.A.S1** — Deliver instruction on at least two of the elements specified in K1 through K4.

## Difficulty methodology

Difficulty calibration is ongoing for this Task. Observed difficulty is a privacy-thresholded check-ride.ai mock-oral practice proxy, not an FAA practical-test pass or fail rate. Underlying sample sizes and the private reporting threshold are not published.

## Use in practice

A mock examiner can ask a pilot to explain the published elements, apply them to the configured aircraft and airport context, identify risks, and defend a decision. Practice prompts are not represented as actual FAA examiner scripts or predictions of the questions a candidate will receive.