Private pilot checkride week: what to study, what to pack, what to skip
November 14, 2026
The week before a private pilot checkride is when good students start doubting everything they know. You do not need to learn anything new that week. You need to organize what you already know, get the paperwork right, and show up rested.
This is general study advice, not a substitute for your instructor’s sign-off or the FAA’s published standards.
Start with the ACS
The examiner tests to the FAA’s Private Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards (FAA-S-ACS-6C, effective May 31, 2024). It lists every Area of Operation and Task, and for each one the knowledge, risk-management and skill elements you are expected to show. If a topic is in the ACS, it is fair game. If it is not, it is unlikely to be the focus.
Go through it with your instructor and mark every element you would struggle to explain out loud. That list is your study plan for the week.
Monday to Wednesday: the oral
The ground portion is a conversation, usually built around a cross-country flight you plan in advance. Practice explaining, not reciting.
- Your airplane: systems, limitations, performance, weight and balance. Be able to find things in the POH quickly.
- Airworthiness: required documents and inspections, how to check the logbooks, what to do with inoperative equipment.
- Weather: read real METARs and TAFs for your planned route out loud. Our guides to METARs and TAFs are a quick refresher, and the Pilot Lounge has live data to practice on.
- Airspace and charts: classes, weather minimums, special-use airspace, and the symbols along your route.
- Risk management: how you would decide not to go, divert or ask for help. Examiners care about judgment as much as facts.
Thursday: paperwork and the airplane
A surprising number of checkrides are delayed by paperwork. Confirm with your instructor and the examiner:
- Your pilot certificate (student), medical certificate or other qualifying medical status, and government photo ID.
- Your knowledge test report.
- Logbook endorsements and the experience requirements, checked line by line.
- The application in IACRA, completed and ready.
- The airplane’s maintenance records, with required inspections tabbed for quick reference.
- The examiner’s fee and payment method.
Friday: one easy flight
Fly once with your instructor, or solo if you are signed off, and keep it light: a few maneuvers, a couple of landings, nothing new. Then go home.
The night before
- Plan the cross-country with the latest weather, and have your nav log, weight and balance and performance numbers ready.
- Pack your bag (below).
- Eat a real dinner and sleep. Cramming at midnight costs you more than it gains.
What to pack
- Headset (with fresh batteries if it is ANR)
- Logbook, ID, certificates, knowledge test report
- POH and the airplane’s documents
- Charts or a charged tablet with a backup power bank
- Plotter, E6B or flight computer, and a kneeboard
- Pencils, a notepad, and water
- Payment for the examiner
What to skip
- New apps or gadgets. Do not change tools in checkride week.
- Internet horror stories about examiners.
- Overthinking one bad maneuver. If a maneuver goes poorly, the examiner may let you try again. Stay calm, fly the airplane, and keep going.
After you pass
Take a photo with the airplane and the examiner if they are willing, and write down the date and airport. That is the day that deserves a keepsake. The CrosswindBay shop makes milestone mugs, cards and airport-diagram prints for exactly that.
Ground-school partners will appear in the box below only after we are approved for those programs; for now it shows placeholders.
Sources
- FAA, Airman Certification Standards (list of current ACS documents and effective dates): faa.gov/training_testing/testing/acs
- FAA, Private Pilot for Airplane Category ACS (FAA-S-ACS-6C): PDF on faa.gov