Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee

Airman Certification System Working Group

Airman Certification Standards
BACKGROUND

• Pilots and Industry have long contended FAA 

testing is outdated, not relevant and/or 

meaningful

– Hurdle to get out-of-the way in order to become a 

certificated pilot

– Rote memorization

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CURRENT PROCESS

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CURRENT PROCESS

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CURRENT PROCESS

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CURRENT PROCESS

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AVIATION RULEMAKING COMMITTEE

• Formed September 2011

• Recommendations:

– Integrate knowledge, skill, and risk 

management elements for each 

task and area of operation

– Create one reference document for 

each certificate called the Airman 

Certification Standards (ACS)

– Align training, testing, and 

reference materials and maintain 

alignment

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AVIATION RULEMAKING ADVISORY 

COMMITTEE

• FAA accepted ARC report September 2012

• ARAC

– Standing committee is collaboration between industry and 

FAA to assist with regulatory matters

• To act upon the ARC recommendations, formed 

Airman Testing Standards and Training Working 

Group (ATST WG)

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ARAC ATST WG TASKS

• Develop draft Airman Certification Standards 

(ACS)

– Private Pilot

– Instrument Airplane

– Authorized Instructor

• Proposal to realign, streamline, and consolidate 

FAA guidance material such as FAA-H-8083-XX 

series handbooks

• Develop knowledge test question bank that aligns 

with, or “maps” to, the ACS

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ARAC ATST WG

• Completed work – September 

2013

• Final Report and 

Recommendations 

unanimously accepted and 

forwarded to the FAA for 

implementation

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ARAC ATST WG 

• Recommendations –

– Adoption and Implementation of Airman 

Certification System

• Standards, Guidance, and Testing

– Recommendations on Effectively Managing the 

Integrated Airman Certification System

• Stakeholder Participation

• Quality Management System 

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Airman Certification System 

Working Group

• Formed February 2014

– Membership includes industry associations, academia, 

test prep providers, pilot examiners, and multiple FAA 

offices and staff

• Tasks

– Finalize ACS documents 

– Map guidance and test questions to ACS

– FAA internal guidance, training, and conversion from 

PTS to ACS

– Prototype beta testing

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Airman Certification System 

Working Group

• Airman Certification Standards

• The core of the system 

• Aligns aeronautical knowledge areas with 

flight proficiency areas of operation

• Integrates risk management 

• Incorporates and supersedes the PTS

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NEW SYSTEM

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NEW SYSTEM

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NEW SYSTEM

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NEW SYSTEM

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NEW SYSTEM

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NEW SYSTEM

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Safety Management System 

Framework

• Safety Policy: Defines and describes aeronautical knowledge, 

flight proficiency, and risk management as integrated 

components

• Safety Risk Management: Processes through which internal 

and external stakeholders identify and evaluate regulatory 

changes, safety recommendations, or other factors that 

require modification of airman testing and training materials

• Safety Assurance: Processes to ensure the prompt and 

appropriate incorporation of changes arising from new 

regulations and safety recommendations

• Safety Promotion: Ongoing engagement with both external 

stakeholders (e.g., the aviation training industry) and FAA 

policy divisions

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AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARD

• Standards are clarified and enhanced

– Material is presented better

• Check rides are not changing

• The ACS will be the only necessary reference 

for both knowledge and skill

• Flight instructors can train more effectively

• Examiners can test more effectively

• Training will tie to testing

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AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARD

• Areas of operation and tasks largely 

unchanged

• Each task has five blocks

– Reference

– Objective

– Knowledge

– Skills

– Risk Management

• Each block has itemized standards or elements

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AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARD

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AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARD

• Task Reference and Objectives

– Same as PTS

– Refer to listed references just like in 

the PTS

• FAA Handbooks

• Advisory Circulars

• Regulations

• AFM

• Etc.

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AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARD

• Task Knowledge Elements

– Better than the PTS

– Clearly itemizes the knowledge required

– Correlates directly to knowledge test

– Effective retraining and retesting for 

failed knowledge test questions

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OLD TASK KNOWLEDGE ELEMENTS

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NEW TASK KNOWLEDGE ELEMENTS

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ACS TASK SKILL ELEMENTS

ARAC ACS WG – AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

• Built upon current Practical Test Standards

• Completion standards for flight proficiency 

largely unchanged

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PTS TASK SKILL ELEMENTS

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ACS TASK SKILL ELEMENTS

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RISK MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS

ARAC ACS WG – AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

• Practical Test Standards

– Lists generic special emphasis areas and SRM 

tasks

– Gives no guidance for specifically how they 

correlate to each task

• Airman Certification Standards

– Does away with generic special emphasis areas 

and SRM tasks

– Itemizes risk management elements for each task

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PTS RISK MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS

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ACS RISK MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS

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REVIEWING THE KNOWLEDGE TEST

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REVIEWING THE KNOWLEDGE TEST

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REVIEWING THE KNOWLEDGE TEST

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CURRENT LEARNING STATEMENT CODES

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REVIEWING THE KNOWLEDGE TEST

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ACS TEST QUESTION CODING

ARAC ACS WG – AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

• Allows everything to be mapped and tracked 

to each specific element for each task and 

area of operation in a particular ACS

Applicable ACS:

Private Pilot Airplane

Area of Operation:

III – Airport and Seaplane 

Base Operations

Task:

B – Traffic Patterns

Element:

4 – Right-of-way rules 

Block:

Knowledge

PA.III.B.K4

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NEW ACS TEST REPORT

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ACS KNOWLEDGE TEST MAPPING

ARAC ACS WG – AIRMAN CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

• ACS codes replace PLT codes

• Every test question correlates to a knowledge 

element in ACS

• Instruction and retesting will be specific, 

targeted, and based on specified learning 

criteria

• Notice of Disapproval for the practical test will 

use the ACS codes to identify the deficient 

skill(s)

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ACS KNOWLEDGE TEST REVIEW

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ACS KNOWLEDGE TEST REVIEW

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ACS WG PROGRESS TO DATE

• Multi-year, multi-phase project

– Culmination and built upon 

previous work

• Published Commercial and 

Authorized Instructor in 

Federal Register for comments

– FAA-2013-0316

• Prototyping Private ACS

– ERAU – Daytona Beach 

Campus

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ACS WG PROGRESS – NEXT STEPS

• Finalize foundation ACS’s

• Expand Prototyping

• FAA

– Train Inspectors

– Draft new test questions

– New internal guidance/orders

– Train evaluators

• Switch from current system to 

integrated Airman Certification 

System

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Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee

Airman Certification System Working Group

Airman Certification Standards

Questions

David.Oord@aopa.org

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