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Lesson 6 · Before Solo · §61.87(b) Knowledge Test

The Pre-Solo Written

The open-book exam your instructor gives before your first solo. Work through it with your FAR/AIM and POH, then review it with your CFI.

20 min read§61.87(b)§61.89§91.103§91.113§91.119§91.155

Before your first solo, your instructor must give you a knowledge test covering the applicable parts of FAR 61 and 91, your airport and airspace, and the flight characteristics and limitations of your airplane §61.87(b). It’s separate from (and in addition to) the FAA knowledge test.

It’s open book. Each question asks you to supply an answer, not pick one, so some digging in the FAR/AIM and POH is part of the point. Write your answers down, then go through every one with your CFI.

General

  1. What personal documents and endorsements must you have before you fly solo?
  2. What are your limitations as a student pilot on carrying passengers or cargo, and flying for compensation or hire?
  3. Who has final authority and responsibility for the aircraft when you’re flying solo?
  4. What are your weather minimums?
  5. What preflight action does the regulation require concerning the airport and aircraft performance for a local flight?
  6. What are the requirements for safety belts and shoulder harnesses?
  7. What’s the minimum fuel reserve for day VFR, and on what cruise speed is it based?
  8. What aircraft certificates and documents must be on board when you fly solo?
  9. Right-of-way: overtaking, head-on, and converging from the side?
  10. Who has right-of-way when two aircraft are on final at the same time?
  11. ADS-B Out is required in all airspace at and above ____ ft MSL, excluding airspace at and below ____ ft AGL.
  12. Minimum safe altitudes over congested and other-than-congested areas?
  13. No altimeter setting available at the airport: what do you set before a local flight?
  14. Steep turns, stalls and slow flight: recovery must be complete no lower than how many feet AGL?
  15. When is a go-around appropriate?
  16. You may not act as PIC within ____ hours of drinking alcohol, or with ____% or more alcohol in your blood.
  17. Visibility and cloud clearance: Class D; Class E below 10,000 MSL; Class G below 1,200 AGL by day; Class G below 1,200 AGL at night.
  18. Can a student pilot request a special VFR clearance? Explain.
  19. Your run-up blasts rocks and debris at another aircraft or person. Careless or reckless operation? Why?
  20. VFR cruising altitudes above 3,000 ft AGL: which ones, and what determines them?
  21. What is the emergency frequency?

Your airplane

  1. Minimum equipment and instruments that must work for day VFR (look it up the six-step way).
  2. Define each V-speed and give the number for your airplane: VSO, VS, VX, VY, VFE, VA, VNO, VNE.
  3. Best glide speed?
  4. How does VA change with weight?
  5. Any limitations on flap use?
  6. When should you use carburetor heat (if equipped)?
  7. When could a spin occur in your airplane?
  8. Spin recovery procedure for your airplane?
  9. Stall speed in a 60° bank, flaps up?

Airport and airspace

  1. Traffic pattern for each runway at your home airport, and pattern altitude (MSL)?
  2. How do you enter and exit the pattern there, and what radio calls are required?
  3. How do you approach and enter the pattern at an uncontrolled airport?
  4. Recommended radio calls in the pattern at an uncontrolled airport?
  5. Typical Class D dimensions, and what’s required before you enter?
  6. How can you tell a runway is closed?
  7. An ATC instruction you don’t understand or think is unsafe: what do you do?
  8. Lost-comms procedures at your home airport?
  9. ATC light gun signals: steady green, flashing green, steady red, flashing red, flashing white, alternating red/green?
  10. Equipment and endorsements a student needs to solo in Class B?
  11. A magenta dashed line around an airport: what does it mean for VFR pilots?
  12. A dashed blue line around an airport?
  13. Minimum visibility and ceiling for VFR in Class D?
  14. At a towered airport, should you still look at final before taking the runway? Why?
  15. Standard direction of pattern turns, and how a non-standard pattern is shown?
  16. What’s CTAF for?
  17. You call Centennial Tower 10 miles out and hear “N51547, standby.” Can you enter the Class D?
  18. Describe the airspace that affects your home airport, and how you’d identify its boundaries.

Quiz

Pre-solo spot check

1 / 5

You call the tower: "N51547, standby." Can you enter the Class D?

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