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Instrument Rating Oral Exam Questions: 25 to Practice, Mapped to the ACS (2026)

25 instrument rating checkride oral questions grouped by ACS area, each with a short answer and the 14 CFR or AIM section to check, plus how to drill them with AI.

Updated 2026-11-01 · Facts and prices checked against vendor sites

The instrument oral is less about reciting numbers and more about showing the examiner you can make IFR decisions with the regulations, the chart and today's weather in front of you. Below are 25 questions examiners commonly build scenarios around, grouped by the areas of the Instrument Rating Airplane ACS (FAA-S-ACS-8C). Each has a short answer and the source to check, because the source is what you'll be asked to show.

Updated November 1, 2026. Regulation text was checked against the current eCFR and holding and reporting rules against the FAA's online AIM today. Answers are summaries for study; read the cited section before your checkride.

Pilot qualifications (IR.I.A)

  1. Are you instrument current right now? To act as PIC under IFR you need, within the preceding 6 calendar months, six instrument approaches, holding procedures and tasks, and intercepting and tracking courses through electronic navigation systems, in actual or simulated conditions (an approved FFS, FTD or ATD can count). Check: 14 CFR 61.57(c).
  2. You haven't met the 61.57(c) tasks in the last 6 calendar months. What now? You can't act as PIC under IFR until you're current again. For the next 6 calendar months you can regain currency by flying the required approaches, holding and course tracking with a safety pilot, a CFII or an approved device. Once that grace period also passes, you need an instrument proficiency check (IPC) from a CFII or examiner. Check: 14 CFR 61.57(c) and (d).
  3. When can you log instrument time? Only when you fly solely by reference to instruments in actual or simulated instrument conditions. Log the location and type of each approach, and the safety pilot's name for simulated time. Check: 14 CFR 61.51(g) and 14 CFR 91.109(c).
  4. Legal isn't the same as proficient. What are your personal minimums? Give real numbers for ceiling, visibility, crosswind and how recently you've flown in actual, and say how they change at night or in an unfamiliar airplane. The ACS lists proficiency versus currency and personal minimums as risk management elements. Check: IR.I.A.R1 and R2, FAA-H-8083-15 (Instrument Flying Handbook).

Weather (IR.I.B)

  1. Where do you get your weather, and which products do you use? Official sources such as the National Weather Service's Aviation Weather Center and Flight Service. Know METAR, TAF, the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation, surface analysis, winds and temperatures aloft, the convective outlook, AIRMETs, SIGMETs and PIREPs, and say what each one told you for this flight. Check: AC 91-92, AIM chapter 7.
  2. What's in AIRMET Sierra, Tango and Zulu? Sierra: IFR conditions and mountain obscuration. Tango: moderate turbulence, sustained surface winds of 30 knots or more, and low-level wind shear. Zulu: moderate icing and freezing levels. Check: AIM chapter 7, section 1, and AC 00-45.

Practicing METAR and TAF decoding with a chatbot? Read Can ChatGPT decode a METAR or TAF? first.

Cross-country planning (IR.I.C)

  1. Do you need an alternate for this flight? Yes, unless the destination has an instrument approach and, from 1 hour before to 1 hour after your ETA, the forecast is at least a 2,000 ft ceiling above airport elevation and 3 statute miles visibility (the "1-2-3" rule). Check: 14 CFR 91.169(b).
  2. Can you use this airport as your alternate? If it publishes alternate minimums, use those. Otherwise the standard minimums are a 600 ft ceiling and 2 SM for a precision approach, or 800 ft and 2 SM for a nonprecision approach. With no instrument approach, the forecast has to allow a descent from the MEA, approach and landing in basic VFR. A triangle-A on the chart means nonstandard alternate minimums or "not authorized". Check: 14 CFR 91.169(c), the Terminal Procedures alternate minimums section.
  3. How much fuel do you need under IFR? Enough to fly to the first airport of intended landing, then to the alternate if one is required, and then 45 minutes at normal cruising speed. Check: 14 CFR 91.167.
  4. Which NOTAMs matter more under IFR? FDC NOTAMs that amend approaches and departure procedures, navaid outages, and GPS or WAAS outages that could take away the approach you planned. 91.103 requires you to become familiar with all available information. Check: 14 CFR 91.103, AIM chapter 5, section 1. More on this: AI NOTAM apps compared.

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Aircraft systems and equipment (IR.II)

  1. What equipment do you need for IFR? Everything required for day VFR (and night VFR at night), plus two-way radio and navigation equipment suitable for the route, a gyroscopic rate-of-turn indicator, a slip-skid indicator, a sensitive altimeter adjustable for barometric pressure, a clock showing hours, minutes and seconds, a generator or alternator of adequate capacity, an attitude indicator and a heading indicator (the "GRABCARD" mnemonic). Check: 14 CFR 91.205(d).
  2. What inspections does the airplane need to go IFR? On top of the annual (and 100-hour if applicable) and ELT checks: a VOR check within the preceding 30 days if you'll use VOR, and altimeter, static system and encoder checks plus a transponder check within the preceding 24 calendar months. Check: 14 CFR 91.171, 14 CFR 91.411, 14 CFR 91.413.
  3. What are the VOR check tolerances, and what do you record? VOT or a designated ground checkpoint: plus or minus 4 degrees. Designated airborne checkpoint: plus or minus 6 degrees. Dual VORs checked against each other: 4 degrees apart at most. Record the date, place and bearing error, and sign the log or record. Check: 14 CFR 91.171(b) to (d).
  4. Which instruments are vacuum-driven in your airplane, and how would you notice a failure? Answer from your own airplane: in many older trainers the attitude and heading indicators run on vacuum and the turn coordinator is electric. A failure often shows as a slow drift, so cross-check and watch the suction gauge or warning annunciator. Check: your POH section 7, FAA-H-8083-15 chapter 5.
  5. What happens to your instruments if the static port ices over? The altimeter freezes at the altitude where it blocked, the VSI reads zero, and the airspeed indicator reads low in a climb and high in a descent. Use the alternate static source, which in most unpressurized airplanes makes the altimeter and airspeed read a little high. Check: FAA-H-8083-15 chapter 5, your POH.

ATC clearances and holding (IR.III)

  1. Copy this clearance and read it back. Use the CRAFT order: clearance limit, route, altitude, frequency, transponder code. Examiners care that you can say what you'd do if part of it doesn't make sense. Check: AIM chapter 4, section 4 (ATC clearances).
  2. How do you enter this hold, and how fast can you fly it? Pick a direct, parallel or teardrop entry from your heading relative to the holding course. Maximum holding speeds are 200 KIAS up to 6,000 ft MSL, 230 KIAS from 6,001 to 14,000 ft, and 265 KIAS above 14,000 ft, unless charted otherwise. Inbound legs are 1 minute at or below 14,000 ft MSL, 1½ minutes above. Check: AIM 5-3-8.
  3. What must you report to ATC without being asked? Among others: vacating an assigned altitude, being unable to climb or descend at least 500 feet per minute, a missed approach, a true airspeed change of 5% or 10 knots (whichever is greater) from the flight plan, the time and altitude reaching a holding fix or clearance limit, leaving a holding fix, unforecast weather, and any loss of navigation, approach or communication capability. Without radar, also leaving the final approach fix inbound and any ETA error of more than 2 minutes. Check: AIM 5-3-3, 14 CFR 91.183, 14 CFR 91.187.

Navigation and approaches (IR.V and IR.VI)

  1. Can you fly this RNAV (GPS) approach with your GPS? Only with an IFR-approved installation used as its AFM supplement allows and a current database. Know whether your unit is WAAS. Without WAAS you need a RAIM prediction, and you can't fly the LPV or LNAV/VNAV lines. Check: your AFM/POH GPS supplement, AIM chapter 1, section 1.
  2. What's the difference between LPV, LNAV/VNAV, LP and LNAV minimums? LPV and LNAV/VNAV give vertical guidance down to a decision altitude (DA). LP and LNAV are lateral-only, flown to a minimum descent altitude (MDA). LPV and LP need WAAS. Check: AIM chapter 5, section 4, and the chart legend in the Terminal Procedures Publication.
  3. When can you descend below the DA or MDA? When you're continuously in a position to land on the intended runway at a normal descent rate with normal maneuvers, the flight visibility is at least what the approach requires, and at least one listed visual reference for that runway is distinctly visible. If the approach lights are your only reference, you can't go below 100 ft above the touchdown zone elevation unless the red terminating bars or red side row bars are also visible. Check: 14 CFR 91.175(c).
  4. When do you have to go missed? At the DA, or at the missed approach point on a nonprecision approach, if those conditions aren't met; and any time below the DA or MDA that you lose the required visual references (except a bank-angle loss while circling). If you lose sight of the runway while circling, make the initial climbing turn toward the landing runway and fly the missed. Check: 14 CFR 91.175(e), AIM chapter 5, section 4.
  5. What are approach categories, and why do they matter for circling? They're based on 1.3 times the stall speed in the landing configuration at maximum landing weight: A is under 91 knots, B 91 to under 121, C 121 to under 141, D 141 to under 166, E 166 and up. If you'll circle faster than your category's range, use the next category's minimums. Check: 14 CFR 97.3, AIM chapter 5, section 4.

Emergency operations (IR.VII)

  1. You lose two-way radio communication in IMC. Walk me through it. Squawk 7600. If you're in VFR conditions or get into them, stay VFR and land as soon as practicable. Otherwise fly the route last assigned, or direct from the radar vector, or the route ATC said to expect, or the filed route. Fly the highest of the last assigned altitude, the MEA, or the altitude ATC said to expect, for each segment. Then leave the clearance limit and start the approach based on your EFC or ETA, as the regulation spells out. Check: 14 CFR 91.185.
  2. Your attitude indicator fails in IMC. What do you do? Recognize it by cross-checking, cover it, tell ATC, and fly partial panel with the remaining instruments or the standby. Then decide whether to land at the nearest suitable airport with the best weather. The ACS tests an approach with loss of primary flight instrument indicators. Check: IR.VII.D, FAA-H-8083-15.

How to drill these with an AI examiner

More instrument study help: How to use AI to study for the instrument rating (including the October 26, 2026 knowledge test chart change), the best AI apps for checkride oral prep and the private pilot oral exam questions this list is modeled on.

Study aid only, not legal advice. Your CFII, the examiner, the current charts, the AIM and 14 CFR are the authorities. Cockpit Index isn't paid by any app on this page.

Compare every tool on our checkride prep page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the instrument rating oral graded against?

The Instrument Rating Airplane Airman Certification Standards (FAA-S-ACS-8C). The examiner tests knowledge, risk management and skill elements across areas such as preflight preparation, ATC clearances and holding, navigation, approaches and emergency operations.

Do I need to memorize approach minimums for the oral?

No. You need to read them correctly from the current chart and explain what they mean for your airplane's approach category and equipment. Know the regulatory numbers, such as the 91.169 alternate rules and standard alternate minimums, by heart.

Can an AI examiner replace a mock oral with my CFII?

No. AI examiners are good for repetition and for finding weak ACS areas between lessons. Bring the weak areas they find to your CFII, who signs you off for the checkride.

Is ChatGPT accurate for instrument rating regulations?

Often close, but it can mix up details such as the lost-communication altitude rules or alternate minimums. Use it to quiz yourself and always check the answer in 14 CFR or the AIM.

Is there a free way to practice the instrument oral with AI?

Checkride.bot lets you try one ACS task on every exam free with no account. Several other instrument oral tools, such as CheckrideReady and FlightAcademia.ai, list free trials on their sites; check each listing for current terms.

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