ASA Oral Exam Guide: Airline Transport Pilot

The Fifth Edition is an extensive update to comply with the ATP Airman Certification Standards (ACS) and Advisory Circular 61-138 Airline Transport Pilot Certification Training Program, ensuring ATP applicants will be familiar with what they will be expected to know, consider and do. Information has been updated and added for current regulations, procedures, and equipment to include ADS-B, TIS-B, NOTAMs (domestic and security), weather services including the flight risk assessment tool, and risk management.

This guide has more than 100 pages than previous editions, with chapters dedicated to system operations, performance and limitations, weather information, high altitude aerodynamics, air carrier operations, human factors, and regulations. Appendices provide the FAA’s ATP Airplane Multiengine Applicant Qualifications Job Aid and the ATP Practical Test Checklist.

All the subjects an ATP candidate will be tested on during checkrides, career interviews, and aircraft transition rides are covered. Chapters are dedicated to turbine aircraft theory, performance and limitations, airline operational procedures, aeronautical decision making (ADM) and crew resource management (CRM), regulations, and instrument procedures.

Answers and explanations were researched using FAA documents (and are identified so readers know where to go for further study on any given question) as well as through interviews with a variety of airline pilots, 121/135 operators, and examiners. The ATP Oral Exam Guide teaches applicants not only what to expect, but also how to exhibit subject mastery and confidence when they’re under the examiner’s scrutiny. It identifies the candidates' strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in their aeronautical knowledge, which increases study efficiency.

Written to help prepare applicants for their oral exams with FAA examiners. Using a question-and-answer format, each Oral Exam Guide lists the questions most likely to be asked by examiners and provides succinct, ready responses. An excellent study tool for pilots gearing up for their checkride, airman check, or interview. Flight instructors find these an indispensable part of the test preparation process, teaching ATP candidates how to exhibit subject mastery and confidence when under the examiner’s scrutiny.