The instrument rating is governed by two documents: the FAA knowledge test, which you sit at a testing center before the checkride, and the Instrument Rating – Airplane Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-8C, effective 31 May 2024, which defines everything an examiner may ask you and every tolerance you must fly to. The ACS is a free download from faa.gov, and reading it properly is worth more than any question bank you can buy.
This page explains how the ACS is built, how the written exam works, and how the two connect on checkride day. If you are working out whether you qualify to take the test at all, our page on instrument rating requirements under 14 CFR 61.65 lists the prerequisites, and the pillar for everything instrument is the instrument rating in Los Angeles. For the generic mechanics of FAA written tests — booking, identification, what to bring — our private pilot written exam guide covers ground this page does not repeat.
The Airman Certification Standards, And Why They Replaced The PTS
For decades FAA practical tests ran on Practical Test Standards, which listed what you had to do and how accurately. The ACS keeps all of that and adds two things the PTS never had: the specific aeronautical knowledge an applicant is expected to hold for each task, and the risk management judgments the applicant is expected to make.
That change matters because it closes the gap between the written exam and the oral. Under the ACS the knowledge you are tested on at a computer in a strip mall and the knowledge an examiner probes across a table are drawn from the same coded list. A question you got wrong in February is a question you can be asked again in May, and the examiner will know which one it was.
How The ACS Is Structured
Areas Of Operation, Tasks And Elements
The document is a hierarchy. At the top are Areas of Operation, numbered in Roman numerals, which mirror the eight areas listed in 14 CFR 61.65(c). Each Area of Operation contains Tasks, lettered A, B, C and so on. Each Task states its regulatory and handbook references, a one-line objective, and then three lists of elements: Knowledge (coded K), Risk Management (coded R) and Skills (coded S).
| Area | Title | What it covers on the day |
|---|---|---|
| I | Preflight Preparation | Weather information, cross-country planning, aircraft and equipment requirements for IFR |
| II | Preflight Procedures | Instrument cockpit check and systems serviceability before flight |
| III | Air Traffic Control Clearances And Procedures | Copying, reading back and complying with clearances, holding procedures |
| IV | Flight By Reference To Instruments | Basic attitude instrument flying, including with instruments failed |
| V | Navigation Systems | Intercepting and tracking, and operating the aircraft's navigation equipment |
| VI | Instrument Approach Procedures | Precision and non-precision approaches, circling, missed approach, landing from an approach |
| VII | Emergency Operations | Loss of communications, approach with loss of primary instruments, unusual attitudes |
| VIII | Postflight Procedures | Checking in and securing the aircraft after an instrument flight |
What An ACS Code Looks Like
Every element carries a code built from four parts: the ACS prefix, the Area of Operation, the Task and the element. An element coded IR.VI.A.K2 is the second knowledge element of Task A within Area of Operation VI on the instrument rating ACS. The codes look bureaucratic and they are, but they are also the mechanism that makes the whole system work.
Knowledge, Risk Management And Skill
The three element types are tested in different places. Knowledge elements are fair game on the written exam and in the oral. Risk management elements are almost always oral, and they are where a well-prepared applicant separates themselves: the examiner is not asking what the regulation says, but what you would do, and why, and what you would do instead. Skill elements are flown, to published tolerances.
The Instrument Rating Knowledge Test
The Numbers
The FAA publishes the question count and time allowance for every test code in Order 8080.6, Conduct of Airman Knowledge Tests. The instrument rating airplane test, test code IRA, is a multiple-choice test of 60 questions with 2 hours 30 minutes allowed and a passing score of 70 percent, and the testing center charges roughly $175. Confirm the current figures on faa.gov when you book, because the FAA does revise test specifications from time to time.
A result is valid for the calendar month in which you took it plus 24 calendar months. Take it early in the rating. An instrument written that expires three weeks before a checkride is one of the more avoidable disasters in flight training, and we have watched it happen to people who were otherwise ready.
Getting The Endorsement
14 CFR 61.65(a)(3) and (a)(4) require you to receive and log ground training from an authorized instructor, or complete a home-study course, covering the ten knowledge areas in 61.65(b), and then to hold an instructor endorsement certifying you are prepared for the test. No endorsement, no test. Instructors will not sign it on faith — expect to be asked to demonstrate consistent practice results first.
The Figures Supplement
The test comes with a supplement of charts, approach plates, excerpts and diagrams, and a substantial share of instrument questions are unanswerable without it. This is the structural difference between the instrument written and the private written: the private test asks you what you know, and the instrument test asks you what you can extract from a document under time pressure. Practice with the supplement in front of you from the first week of study, not the last.
Your Test Report Follows You To The Checkride
When you pass, the Airman Knowledge Test Report lists the ACS codes for every question you got wrong. That report goes to the examiner. The examiner is required to cover those subject areas during the oral portion of the practical test, which means a 72 percent pass buys you a longer and more pointed oral than a 95 percent pass.
This is the single strongest practical argument against cramming a question bank to scrape through. The cost of a weak written is not the score. It is an examiner who now knows exactly which four subjects to spend an extra forty minutes on.
What The Test Actually Concentrates On
The ten knowledge areas in 61.65(b) are weighted very unevenly in practice. In our experience preparing students at Van Nuys, the questions cluster in four places.
- Chart interpretation. Enroute charts, approach plates, minimums sections, notes and the fine print around alternate minimums. This is the largest single block and the one most students underestimate.
- Weather products and their limitations. Not whether you can recite a METAR, but whether you can read a forecast and decide what it means for an alternate under 14 CFR 91.169.
- Regulations specific to IFR. 91.167 fuel, 91.169 alternates, 91.171 VOR checks, 91.173 clearances, 91.175 descent below minimums, 91.177 minimum altitudes, 91.185 lost communications, 91.205(d) equipment, and 61.57(c) currency.
- Navigation systems and procedures. Holding entries, course intercepts, approach segments, and how different navigation sources behave when they fail.
Aerodynamics and aircraft systems barely feature. If you are spending study evenings on the theory of lift, you are studying for the wrong test.
An Honest Study Plan
- Download the ACS first. FAA-S-ACS-8C is free. Print the eight Areas of Operation and use them as your table of contents for everything else.
- Read the two FAA handbooks. The Instrument Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-15, teaches the flying. The Instrument Procedures Handbook, FAA-H-8083-16, teaches the system. Both are free PDFs on faa.gov, and between them they answer most of what the test asks. Check you have the current edition.
- Work through a commercial course for structure. The major written-test publishers all sell instrument ground courses with video, question banks and endorsements. Any of them is fine. What is not fine is treating the question bank as the syllabus.
- Do every question with the figures supplement open. Reading the answer is worthless. Finding it on the chart is the skill being tested.
- Track your wrong answers by ACS code, not by score. A recurring code is a subject you do not understand, and it is the subject the examiner will ask about.
- Sit the test when practice scores sit consistently above 90. Not 75. The margin is what protects your oral.
Most students who study four or five evenings a week are ready in six to eight weeks alongside their flying. Trying to do the written after the flying is finished usually adds a month to the rating, because the momentum is gone.
Where Ground School Fits
Our instrument course includes 10 hours of ground instruction inside the $11,700 price, and that is where the endorsement comes from and where the chart work gets done properly with someone who can see what you are misreading. A home-study course satisfies the regulation, but very few people diagnose their own chart-reading errors accurately, and chart reading is most of this test. Our ground school page covers how we run it, and the instrument rating cost breakdown shows what those ten hours are worth inside the package.
Related Reading
- Instrument rating requirements under 14 CFR 61.65 — prerequisites, hours and endorsements.
- Instrument rating in Los Angeles — the full course.
- The private pilot written exam — booking, identification and test-day mechanics.
- FAA written test centers in Los Angeles — where to sit it locally.
- What to expect on an FAA checkride — how the oral and flight run.
- IFR explained — the system the test is about.
Instrument Written Exam And ACS FAQ
What Is The Instrument Rating ACS?
The Instrument Rating – Airplane Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-8C, effective 31 May 2024. It defines eight Areas of Operation, the Tasks within them, and for each Task the knowledge, risk management and skill elements an applicant must demonstrate, along with the tolerances the examiner holds you to. It is a free download from faa.gov.
How Many Questions Are On The Instrument Written Exam?
The FAA lists the instrument rating airplane test, code IRA, as a 60-question multiple-choice test with 2 hours 30 minutes allowed and a passing score of 70 percent. Test specifications are published in FAA Order 8080.6, so confirm the current figures on faa.gov when you book.
How Much Does The Instrument Written Exam Cost?
Roughly $175, charged by the testing center rather than by the flight school. It is one of three third-party costs outside any course price, alongside the examiner's fee and chart subscriptions.
How Long Is An Instrument Written Exam Result Valid?
The calendar month of the test plus 24 calendar months. If you have not passed the practical test within that window you must take the knowledge test again, which is the main reason to sit it early in the rating rather than at the end.
What Are ACS Codes On My Test Report?
Codes such as IR.VI.A.K2 that identify the exact knowledge element behind each question you answered incorrectly. They appear on your Airman Knowledge Test Report, the examiner sees them, and the examiner is required to cover those subject areas during the oral portion of the practical test.
Is The Instrument Written Harder Than The Private Written?
It is different rather than simply harder. The private test largely asks what you know. The instrument test asks what you can extract from an enroute chart or an approach plate under time pressure, which is a skill you have to practice with the figures supplement in front of you.
Do I Need An Endorsement To Take The Instrument Written?
Yes. 14 CFR 61.65(a)(4) requires an endorsement from an authorized instructor certifying that you are prepared for the knowledge test, after ground training covering the ten knowledge areas in 61.65(b) or completion of a home-study course.
What Should I Study For The Instrument Written?
Start with FAA-S-ACS-8C, then the Instrument Flying Handbook and the Instrument Procedures Handbook, both free on faa.gov. Add a commercial ground course for structure and a question bank for practice, and work every question with the figures supplement open rather than reading answers.
Ground School And The Endorsement At Van Nuys
Our instrument course includes ten hours of ground instruction and the endorsement for the knowledge test, and ground instruction on its own is $110 per hour if you are training elsewhere and want help with chart work. Book a free consultation to talk through where you are, or call (818) 330-1318 any day between 9 AM and 9 PM. If you are not a pilot yet and this is all ahead of you, a 60-minute discovery flight is $229 and you fly it from the left seat. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406, on Van Nuys Airport.