Pilot Privileges & Limitations
As a Private Pilot, this is the maximum amount of compensation or money you can receive for carrying passengers on a flight
What is nothing (pro rata share only, you must pay at least your equal share of gas, oil, airport fees, and rental)?
Of all the documents required to be onboard an aircraft, this is the only one that does not expire and remains valid as long as the aircraft is safe to fly and has met its inspections.
What is the Airworthiness Certificate?
This type of hypoxia occurs when the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood is reduced, often caused by breathing in Carbon Monoxide.
What is hypemic hypoxia?
This is the hazardous attitude of a pilot who says, "It won't happen to me."
What is invulnerability?
If you are under 40 years old, a first-class medical certificate remains valid for third-class privileges for this long.
What is 60 calendar months (5 years)?
You completed your 3 night landings 89 days ago, making you legally allowed to carry passengers tonight, but you haven't flown in actual dark conditions since then. This scenario highlights the critical difference between these two flight-readiness concepts.
What is 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise?
1. This critical safety inspection must be completed every 12 calendar months, and it cannot be replaced by a 100-hour inspection.
2. These are the types of inspections that UAA conducts.
1. What is the Annual Inspection?
2. What are 10 stage 50 hour progressives?
If you go scuba diving and do a dive that does require a controlled ascent, you must wait at least this many hours before flying.
What is 24 hours (it is 12 hours for a dive not requiring a controlled ascent)?
The antidote for this hazardous attitude is: "Follow the rules. They are usually right."
What is anti-authority?
1. This is the FAA’s legal limit for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) when acting as a crewmember, alongside the "___ hours bottle-to-throttle" rule.
2. This is UAA's legal limit for BAC when acting as a crewmember alongside the __ hours rule.
What is less than .04% BAC and 8 hours for FAA?
What is less than .02% BAC and 12 hours for UAA?
You completed your 3 night landings 89 days ago, making you legally allowed to carry passengers tonight, but you haven't flown in actual dark conditions since then. This scenario highlights the critical difference between these two flight-readiness concepts.
What is currency (meeting the bare minimum legal requirements) versus proficiency (having the actual skill, practice, and confidence to fly safely)?"
The national and state (Arizona specifically) duration of validity for Certificate of Aircraft Registration.
What is seven years nationally and twelve months for the state of Arizona?
The FAA recommends that pilots use supplemental oxygen during the day when flying above this altitude, although regulations only legally require it for the flight crew after 30 minutes at this altitude.
What is 10,000 feet (recommended day) and 12,500 feet (legally required for crew after 30 minutes)?
While the FAA generally recommends a wait time of 5 times the maximum dosing interval for most sedating OTC medications, the FAA's AME Guide mandates a specific, much longer grounding period of this many hours specifically for diphenhydramine (Benadryl) due to its long pharmacological half-life.
What is 60 hours?
(If a pilot takes a single dose of Benadryl, they must wait 2.5 full days before they can legally act as PIC)!
1. Under the FAA's expanded BasicMed regulations, a pilot is subject to strict aircraft size and passenger limits, specifically restricting them to flying aircraft with no more than this many seats, carrying up to this many passengers, and weighing no more than this maximum takeoff weight.
2. These are further restrictions for BasicMed.
1. What is an aircraft certified for up to 7 seats (occupants), carrying a maximum of 6 passengers, with a maximum certificated takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds?
2. What is restricted to flying at or below 18,000 MSL and at a maximum indicated airspeed of 250 knots and not flying for compensation or hire?
Your neighbor needs to get to a wedding in another city for the weekend, and you have nothing going on. They offer to pay for the airplane rental if you fly them there. Is this legal?
No. The FAA requires a "common purpose" for cost-sharing flights. You must have your own personal reason for traveling to that destination.
According to FAR 91.207, an aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) battery must be replaced or recharged after these two specific conditions are met.
What are after 1 cumulative hour of use OR when 50% of its useful life has expired?
The term for when the body's cells and tissues are unable to use the oxygen delivered to them, often because of cellular poisoning from agents like cyanide, narcotics, or excessive alcohol.
This 6-step decision-making model is used by pilots to identify and mitigate risks during an unexpected inflight event.
What is the DECIDE model (Detect, Estimate, Choose, Identify, Do, Evaluate)?
A 45-year-old pilot receives a First-Class Medical on June 10, 2025. On July 1, 2026, they are offered a paid job towing banners (Commercial PIC), and their friend also asks them for a casual flight. Explain why they must legally refuse the job but can still fly their friend.
What is: Their Second-Class privileges (required for commercial flight) expired after 12 calendar months (on June 30, 2026), but their Third-Class privileges (required for private flight) remain valid for 24 calendar months (until June 30, 2027)?"
A local flight school wants to hire you as a Private Pilot to tow gliders, and a local aircraft dealer wants to pay you to demonstrate an airplane to a prospective buyer. Under FAR 61.113, you can legally do both for compensation only if you meet these two separate flight time thresholds.
What is 100 hours of PIC time in the same category/class/type for the glider tow (FAR 61.69), and 200 hours of logged flight time to demonstrate the aircraft as a salesman (FAR 61.113)?
An aircraft had a 100-hour inspection when the tachometer read 1259.6. This is when the next 100 hour inspection is due. The minimum amount of hours needed to get to a FAA approved maintenance center.
What is 1359.6 and 10 hours?
To survive flight in low-visibility or night conditions, pilots use this 8-letter acronym to identify the primary vestibular and visual illusions—ranging from the deadly illusion caused by sudden head movements to the false sensation of pitching backward during rapid acceleration.
What is ICEFLAGS?
Inversion
Coriolis
Elevator
False horizon
Leans
Autokinesis
Graveyard spiral
Somatogravic
A difficult, turbulent landing or a single late-night flight triggers these two short-term states, which are easily resolved. However, persistent life pressures or a cumulative sleep deficit over weeks trigger these two long-term states, which require systemic lifestyle changes to cure.
What are acute stress and acute fatigue (short-term), versus chronic stress and chronic fatigue (long-term)?
While both allow a pilot with a disqualifying medical condition to fly, this medical authorization is issued for progressive conditions and has a strict expiration date, whereas this other document is issued for static, non-progressive conditions and does not expire.
What is a Special Issuance (which is time-limited and requires periodic medical reviews) and a Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA) (which is permanent and granted after a practical demonstration, like a medical flight test)?