IR.I.A — Pilot Qualifications
IR.I.A for the Instrument Rating Airplane ACS: official objective, references, and 8 exact knowledge, risk-management, and skill descriptions.
FAA-S-ACS-8C, November 2023. This study page does not replace the current FAA publication or an examiner's plan of action.
Official task context
| Certificate or rating | Instrument Rating |
|---|---|
| Aircraft category | Airplane |
| Area of operation | Area of Operation I. Preflight Preparation |
| Task | Task A. Pilot Qualifications |
| Task code prefix | IR.I.A |
| Official references | 14 CFR part 61; AC 68-1; FAA-H-8083-2, FAA-H-8083-3, FAA-H-8083-15, FAA-H-8083-25 |
| FAA document | FAA-S-ACS-8C — Instrument Rating – Airplane Airman Certification Standards |
| FAA source library | Open the official ACS library |
Official task objective
To determine the applicant exhibits satisfactory knowledge, risk management, and skills associated with requirements to act as pilot-in-command under instrument flight rules.
What the ACS code means
- IR identifies the ACS standard family used for this Instrument Rating 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
| ACS code | Official description | How a mock oral can probe it |
|---|---|---|
| IR.I.A.K1 | Certification requirements, recency of experience, and recordkeeping. | Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant. |
| IR.I.A.K2 | Privileges and limitations. | Explain the element, apply it to a scenario, and connect the answer to current references or aircraft information when relevant. |
| IR.I.A.K3 | Part 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
| ACS code | Official description | How a mock oral can probe it |
|---|---|---|
| IR.I.A.R1 | Proficiency versus currency. | Work through a scenario by identifying the hazard, evaluating the risk, and explaining a practical mitigation or decision. |
| IR.I.A.R2 | Personal minimums. | Work through a scenario by identifying the hazard, evaluating the risk, and explaining a practical mitigation or decision. |
| IR.I.A.R3 | Fitness for flight and physiological factors that might affect the pilot’s ability to fly under instrument conditions. | Work through a scenario by identifying the hazard, evaluating the risk, and explaining a practical mitigation or decision. |
| IR.I.A.R4 | Flying 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
| ACS code | Official description | How a mock oral can probe it |
|---|---|---|
| IR.I.A.S1 | Apply requirements to act as pilot-in-command (PIC) under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) 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.
Related ACS tasks
- All Instrument Rating Airplane ACS tasks
22 task-level resources from FAA-S-ACS-8C.
- IR.I.B — Weather Information
Area of Operation I. Preflight Preparation
- IR.I.C — Cross-Country Flight Planning
Area of Operation I. Preflight Preparation