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  • Writer: JM
    JM
  • Mar 13
  • 6 min read

If there is one piece of advice this flight instructor (CFI) would impart upon students preparing for a checkride, it’s to purchase and bring with you the most recent version of any required publications.  Checkride evaluators (DPEs) always task their sport, private, instrument, and commercial airplane candidates with planning for a “cross-country” flight.[1]  Making accurate and safe calculations during flight planning is predicated on using current resources.  Most CFIs and DPEs have witnessed students fail a checkride on account of presenting expired publications to explain concepts or while reviewing their cross-country planning during the oral portion of the test.  Don’t be that student!  Any CFI worth their wings should also include discussion pertaining to expiration dates for aeronautical charts and supplements in their ground school lesson plans – before you even begin flight training. 


All aeronautical charts the FAA publishes to aid pilots in flight planning expire “56 days” after their publication date.[2]  For those of us who have been flying for at least a few years, you’ve no doubt heard or complained about this shortened period of validity.  There was a time when both Chart Sectionals and Terminal Area Charts (TACs) were valid for 180 days, but the FAA truncated their effective period to “56 days” in 2021.  The reasoning for this change is up for debate.  The above article cited the “increased frequency” of Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) publications that places “undue strain on the National Aerospace System (NAS).”[3]  In the author’s view, the previously longer validity period unnecessarily increased the number of published NOTAMS between chart editions. The FAA may have also decided on “56 days” for sectionals and TACs to mirror the valid period of the Chart Supplements.  “56 days” has been the valid period for chart supplements for many years and pilots knew to check airfield information on the sectional or TAC against the supplement for any updates before the next map was published.  Some pilots have even theorized that chart-sellers lobbied for the shortened validity period to increase the frequency of sales and profits for these products.  But regardless of your personal theory as to why, we pilots are wise to show to checkrides or complete real-world planning with up-to-date resources. 

 

Sport, Private, and Commercial pilot students, please check the very front of the chart sectional, TAC, or chart supplement for the stamped “effective” and “to” dates.  If your checkride is scheduled after the “to” date, then please keep it at home and write and highlight “for training use only” on the front cover.  More on why you might do that, later.  Also stamped on the front cover – and before the dates – is a short group of numbers followed by a “Z.”  New student pilots may be unable to make sense of them upon initial examination, but those numbers represent a “Zulu” time and you translate them just as you do the valid times for METARs or TAFs.  Instrument students will find similar markings and in the same format on their “Enroute Low Charts” and “Terminal Procedures Publications.”  When it comes to these resources, the FAA didn’t stop at giving us valid dates, they also gave us times on those dates for which these resources are authorized for flight planning.[4] 

 

Pilots flying small, single-engine, non-turbo jet aircraft under Part 91 can still leverage expired resources.  That said, it’s “safe practice” to not use expired charts or supplements in the aircraft, for actual flight planning, or on a check-ride, and to mark them in an obvious way.[5]  A ground student that I’m currently teaching inherited my expired copy of the St. Louis Sectional, that I marked and highlighted “training only,” and that I don’t mind they write on, erase over, highlight, wrinkle, or even tear.  Out-of-date resources make excellent tools for repeated practice of cross-country flight planning so that we might preserve the in-date publications for checkride day or for use in the airplane.  While there is nothing technically wrong with showing to a checkride with a worn but valid sectional, TAC, or supplement, you’ll win points with your DPE if you show to your exam with a gently used, fresh-looking publication.  I’d recommend showing to your check-ride with charts whose only evidence of use is the cross-country flight planning the DPE assigned you in the week preceding the test.  Same goes for your new supplement.  Tab and highlight only those airports of intended use, the field from which you’ll conduct your practical exam, and any alternates you might use.

 

“But Josh,” another student recently asked me, “how do I find and buy a publication for the practical exam if my test date is the same day those new publications go valid?”  This is a great question and represents a situation I had not previously encountered.  If a checkride is scheduled for the calendar week immediately after old publications expire, that doesn’t give a student much time to locate and purchase new, valid versions for the test.  But after visiting several prominent websites that sell pilot resources, I discovered that it is possible to purchase the future version before its validity date by choosing the “next release of chart” option in their purchase menu.  Those same websites post numbers to their customer service offices so pilots can place an order by phone for the future resource that they require.  The first two above photos are of charts and a supplement I received by mail a full six days before their valid dates. As with all orders via internet or over the phone, place it several weeks prior to the exam and confirm the “arrival date” several days before the checkride, at the latest.  “My new sectional is still in the mail,” won’t cut it with the DPE on test day.

 

In the preceding paragraphs I mentioned how DPEs will assign a “cross-country flight plan…in the week leading up to the test.”  Cross-Country Flight Planning is a testable skill included in every Airman Certification Standard (ACS) and Performance Training Standard (PTS) for pilot candidates.[6]  Students should contact their DPE a full calendar week ahead of a checkride to confirm test details – date, location, aircraft to be used, testing fee, etc.  But during that phone call or email, I’d also recommend asking for “cross-country flight planning details.”  The examiner should provide a departure airport, a destination airport, their weight, and the weight of any baggage they intend to carry along in the plane, at a minimum. 


Some examiners are particular and will not reveal to their test candidates any cross-country details until a day or two prior to the test to limit collaboration.  If your DPE is one to hold their cross-country details until the last minute, make sure you schedule accordingly – coordinating that time you require with your family and scheduling time off with your employer should you need to. A thorough check-ride, cross-country flight plan should take you a few hours.   

 

Regarding weather, most DPEs will ask that students reference weather forecasts valid for the day of the exam and that means waiting to perform those final calculations the afternoon or evening prior to your test, after TAFs and Prognostic Charts are released for the next day.  If the forecast you leveraged during planning doesn’t match the actual weather conditions the following day, that’s OK.  Good examiners will inquire about how recent weather changes might impact the “go, no-go” decision students make by the end of the oral exam.  But good examiners also won’t expect students to wake-up at 4 AM to recalculate their cross-country planning ahead of a 7 AM exam start – particularly when travel, classroom set-up, and an aircraft walk-around are required the morning of.  Furthermore, there is nothing preventing collaboration with a CFI on check-ride cross-country planning.  Why not meet with your CFI the afternoon before your test to double-check all of your preparations?  You’re paying a CFI to prepare you for the test and to help identify and correct those planning mistakes before you meet with your evaluator.

 

One final suggestion: purchase or download the most current version of the relevant ACS or PTS, “bookmark” or “tab” for ease of reference, and bring it with you to your check-ride.  It will send a clear message to the DPE that you’re familiar with the standards you’re expected to meet!  If you’re “old school” and prefer hard-copies of materials, those websites offering updated navigation planning products also sell current copies of an ACS or PTS.  If you’re computer-oriented, you can download to your computer a copy of the ACS or PTS for free from the FAA’s website.  Navigate to the “Training & Testing” page, open the “Airmen Testing” tab on the left, and you’ll see links to both the ACS and PTS in the sub-menu, below.[7]  That said, I strongly urge hard copies of any navigational charts and supplements for your checkride as you may need to refer to them in the plane, during the flight portion of your test.  But electronic copies of the ACS or PTS work just fine as your likely to refer to them and discuss standards with your DPE before you leave the ground.

 

Best of luck on your checkride!

 

Fly on Folks,

Josh Meyer     


[1] “Training &Testing,” FAA.gov, 2025: https://www.faa.gov/training_testing

[3] Ibid.

[5] “Frequently Asked Questions…What is the FAA Policy for Carrying Current Charts?” FAA.gov, 2024: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/faq/

[6] “Training &Testing,” FAA.gov, 2025: https://www.faa.gov/training_testing

[7] Ibid.

 
 
 

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