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Implementing The ACS

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The author discovered a significant discrepancy where private pilot knowledge test reports included codes for "risk management" (R) and, critically, "skills" (S) elements for missed questions, which should theoretically only feature "knowledge" (K) codes.
  • This issue suggests that existing knowledge test questions were inaccurately remapped to the new Airman Certification Standards (ACS) codes rather than being updated to properly align with the ACS's intended separation of knowledge, risk management, and skills.
  • Upon being informed, the FAA manager acknowledged their unawareness of this specific mismatch and committed to investigating why skills-related elements were appearing on written knowledge test reports.
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Following up on Robert Wright’s excellent article in September’s issue (“Are The ACS Working?”), yes, I agree that they are working except for one thing, something that I found out about by accident. But first, some background.

During the summer, the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) offers National Flight Academies for CAP Cadets where they go from zero flight hours to hopefully solo in 10 days. This year, the NFAs were cancelled and the cadets were offered virtual ground schools that culminated in taking the private pilot airplane knowledge written exam.

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