Sources
Colophon
What the chapters are written against, and how we keep them current.
The standards
Every chapter maps to one element of the Airman Certification Standards — the document your examiner grades from.
- FAA-S-ACS-6CPrivate Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification StandardsEffective May 31, 2024
- FAA-S-ACS-8CInstrument Rating – Airplane Airman Certification StandardsEffective May 31, 2024
- FAA-S-ACS-7BCommercial Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification StandardsEffective May 31, 2024
- FAA-S-ACS-25Flight Instructor for Airplane Category Airman Certification StandardsEffective May 31, 2024
The references
Where a chapter cites a handbook or a regulation, this is the edition it means.
- FAA-H-8083-25CPilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge2023
- FAA-H-8083-3CAirplane Flying Handbook2021
- FAA-H-8083-15BInstrument Flying Handbook2012
- FAA-H-8083-9BAviation Instructor’s Handbook2020
- FAA-H-8083-28BAviation Weather HandbookCurrent edition — Replaces AC 00-6 (Aviation Weather) and AC 00-45 (Aviation Weather Services), both cancelled.
- FAA-H-8083-2ARisk Management Handbook2022
- FAA-H-8083-1BAircraft Weight and Balance Handbook2016
- Current editionAeronautical Information ManualRevised on the FAA’s schedule; chapter references cite paragraph numbers, which are stable across revisions.
- Current editionAeronautical Chart Users’ Guide
- Parts 1, 21, 23, 39, 43, 61, 68, 91, 99, 119, 135Title 14, Code of Federal RegulationsCited from the eCFR, which is the authoritative current text.
Keeping it current
The FAA revises these on its own schedule — the ACS documents roughly every couple of years, the AIM three times a year, the handbooks less often. When one changes, the chapters that cite it are reviewed against the new text and this page is updated with the new edition and date.
Regulations are cited by section number and link to the eCFR, so the text you read is always the current one. Where a chapter quotes a tolerance — an altitude, an airspeed, a distance — it is the figure from the ACS edition listed above.
If you find something that has moved and we haven’t caught it, tell us. That is the most useful message we get.