IR.VIII.A — Checking Instruments and Equipment
IR.VIII.A for the Instrument Rating Airplane ACS: official objective, references, and 3 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 VIII. Postflight Procedures |
| Task | Task A. Checking Instruments and Equipment |
| Task code prefix | IR.VIII.A |
| Official references | 14 CFR part 91; FAA-H-8083-2, FAA-H-8083-3, FAA-H-8083-25; POH/AFM |
| 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 checking flight instruments and equipment during postflight.
What the ACS code means
- IR identifies the ACS standard family used for this Instrument Rating Airplane document.
- VIII identifies Postflight Procedures, the Area of Operation.
- A identifies Checking Instruments and Equipment, 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.VIII.A.K1 | Procedures for documenting in-flight/postflight discrepancies. | 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.VIII.A.R1 | Performance and documentation of postflight inspection and aircraft discrepancies. | 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.VIII.A.S1 | Conduct a postflight inspection and document discrepancies and servicing requirements, if any. | 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.VII.D — Approach with Loss of Primary Flight Instrument Indicators
Area of Operation VII. Emergency Operations