The Private Pilot Syllabus
Safety and aeronautical decision-making before the airplane. Our promise, what the FAA requires of you (the actual regulations, cited), every free FAA book with a link, how to decode document numbers and use the ACS, how the checkride works, and 38 lessons in four stages. Every lesson tells you what is required, exactly which book and chapter to read before you arrive, and the home-simulator profile to fly first. Three simulator appendices: Microsoft Flight Simulator X, 2020, and 2024.
Both books carry a small QR code on every page: whoever finds your printed copy can scan it for their own. Print the one-page “Start here” handout ↗ Printed and bound copies of both books, shipped by Amazon: coming — details.
The Syllabus Workbook
The syllabus tells you what to do; the workbook is where you record that you did it. A fillable lesson sheet for every one of the 38 lessons: the study references to tick off, the simulator profile to log, each ACS task marked met or repeat, completion standards, and an honest debrief with instructor initials. Plus a progress tracker, an hours tracker against 14 CFR 61.109, personal-minimums and risk worksheets, radio-call cards, and a card for every simulator profile.
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The 38 lessons, in four stages
G = ground session, S = simulator profile flown at home, F = flight lesson, C = check or test. Each lesson in the PDF lists the ACS tasks, the exact chapters to read, the sim profile, the flight, and the completion standards.
Stage 0 - Foundations before the first flight
Four ground sessions and two simulator profiles that cost nothing but time and pay for themselves in the first ten hours. You will meet the airplane already knowing how it flies, how its systems work, what the rules are, and how a professional thinks about risk.
- G1 Safety, aeronautical decision-making, and risk management · Ground · 2.0 hr
- G2 How an airplane flies: principles of flight, aerodynamics, and the controls · Ground + S1 · 2.0 hr + 45 min sim
- G3 Aircraft systems, flight instruments, and the POH · Ground + S2 · 2.0 hr + 45 min sim
- G4 Regulations, documents, airspace basics, and the airport · Ground · 2.0 hr
Stage 1 - Pre-solo: learning to fly the airplane
Every fundamental, taught to the ACS standard from the first time you see it. Each flight has a simulator profile to fly the night before so the airplane time goes to the parts a simulator cannot teach.
- F1 Preflight, taxi, and the discovery flight · Flight + S3 · 1.5 hr flight, 1.0 hr ground, 45 min sim
- F2 The four fundamentals and trim · Flight + S4 · 1.3 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F3 Energy management, slow flight, and the first look at stalls · Flight + S5 · 1.3 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F4 Power-on and power-off stalls to ACS standards, spin awareness · Flight + S6 · 1.3 hr flight, 30 min sim
- F5 Ground reference maneuvers and wind · Flight + S7 · 1.2 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F6 Airport operations, radio communications, and the traffic pattern · Flight + S8 · 1.3 hr flight, 60 min sim
- F7 Normal takeoffs and landings, go-arounds · Flight + S8 · 1.3 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F8 Crosswind takeoffs and landings · Flight + S9 · 1.3 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F9 Emergency procedures: engine failure, emergency descent, systems malfunctions · Flight + S10 · 1.3 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F10 Basic instrument maneuvers (hood work) · Flight + S11 · 1.3 hr flight, 60 min sim
- C1 Pre-solo knowledge test and stage check · Check · 1.5 hr ground, 1.3 hr flight
- F11 First solo · Flight · 0.5 hr solo after 0.5 hr dual
- F12 Solo practice: pattern and maneuvers review · Solo + dual · 0.5 hr dual review, then 1.5 hr solo
Stage 2 - Cross-country: navigation, weather, night, and solo cross-countries
Four ground sessions build the knowledge the oral exam is mostly made of, then dual and solo cross-countries put it to work. Every route is flown in the simulator first.
- G5 Weather theory and weather services · Ground · 2.5 hr
- G6 Airspace, charts, and the Chart Supplement · Ground · 2.5 hr
- G7 Cross-country planning, performance, and weight and balance · Ground + S12 · 3.0 hr + 60 min sim
- G8 Aeromedical factors and human factors · Ground · 1.5 hr
- C2 FAA knowledge test (the written) · Check · 2.5 hr test
- F13 Dual cross-country #1 · Flight + S13 · 2.5 hr flight, 90 min sim
- F14 Dual cross-country #2 (long), diversion and lost procedures · Flight + S14 · 3.0 hr flight, 90 min sim
- F15 Night flight: preparation, pattern work, and ten full-stop landings · Flight + S15 · 1.5 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F16 Night cross-country (more than 100 nm) · Flight · 2.0 hr flight
- F17 Instrument time, radio navigation, and radar services · Flight + S16 · 2.0 hr flight (at least 1.7 under the hood), 60 min sim
- F18 Solo cross-country #1 · Solo + S17 · 2.5 hr solo, 60 min sim
- F19 Solo cross-country #2 (the 150-nm flight) · Solo + S18 · 3.0 hr solo, 90 min sim
- F20 Solo towered-airport landings and remaining solo time · Solo · 2.5 hr solo
Stage 3 - Checkride preparation
The remaining ACS tasks, everything polished to standard, a mock oral and a mock checkride, and the endorsements. The goal is a checkride with no surprises.
- F21 Short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings · Flight + S19 · 1.3 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F22 Steep turns and the forward slip to ACS standards · Flight + S20 · 1.2 hr flight, 30 min sim
- F23 Maneuvers review to ACS standards · Flight + S21 · 1.5 hr flight, 45 min sim
- F24 Emergency operations drill and systems review · Flight · 1.3 hr
- C3 Mock oral exam · Check · 2.5 hr ground
- F25 Mock checkride flight · Flight + S22 · 2.0 hr flight, 60 min sim
- F26 Final polish and endorsements · Flight + ground · 1.5 hr flight, 1.0 hr ground
- C4 The practical test: oral exam and flight · Checkride · Half a day
Also in the PDF: our promise, the FAR requirements in full, the document decoder, how the checkride works, three simulator setup appendices (FSX, MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024) with a translation table, a chapter-by-chapter study locator for every book, and a glossary.
Every book you need, and where to get it
Every document below is published by the FAA and is free. You never need to buy a study guide to learn this material; you need to read the sources the examiner reads. These are the same links the syllabus cites.
The test plan. Every task your examiner can ask, with the references for each one. Read it first and keep it open all year.
The ground-school textbook: aerodynamics, systems, instruments, weight and balance, performance, weather, airports, airspace, navigation, aeromedical factors, and aeronautical decision-making. Download the whole book or one chapter at a time.
How to actually fly the maneuvers: takeoffs, landings, stalls, ground reference, emergencies, night. The flight-lesson textbook.
Airspace, ATC procedures, radio phraseology, airport lighting and markings, emergencies, weather hazards, the Pilot/Controller Glossary. Read online; cited as chapter-section-paragraph, e.g. AIM 4-3-3.
Part 61 = certification of pilots (what you must do). Part 91 = general operating and flight rules (how you must fly). Also Part 67 (medical), Part 68 (BasicMed), and NTSB Part 830 (accident reporting).
The book behind every 'Risk Management' element in the ACS: PAVE, IMSAFE, the 3P model, hazards vs. risks, single-pilot resource management.
Consolidates the old weather advisory circulars (AC 00-6 Aviation Weather and AC 00-45 Aviation Weather Services) into one book: weather theory, hazards, and every product you will read in a briefing. Listed on the FAA handbooks index page.
Deeper than the PHAK chapter when you want to understand the math behind the CG envelope.
Only Chapters 3 to 5 (flight instruments, attitude instrument flying, basic maneuvers) are needed for the Private certificate's 3 hours of instrument training.
Explains how the ACS codes work, how the oral and flight portions are conducted, and how the examiner grades.
The exact wording of every logbook endorsement you will need (solo, cross-country, knowledge test, practical test).
Referenced by the ACS for the spin awareness task.
Free sectional charts (PDF and GeoTIFF), the Chart Supplement (airport data), airport diagrams, and the Chart User's Guide that decodes every chart symbol.
Print your home airport's diagram and use it for every simulator session and every real taxi.
AC 90-66 (non-towered airport operations), AC 68-1 (BasicMed), AC 91-73 (single-pilot taxi procedures) and every other AC the ACS cites.
Not an FAA publication and not free online in an official form; your school provides it. Sections you will live in: 2 Limitations, 3 Emergency Procedures, 4 Normal Procedures, 5 Performance, 6 Weight and Balance, 7 Systems.
Read, rehearse, then fly.
Every lesson lists (1) what is required - the ACS tasks and FAR items it covers, (2) what to study before you arrive - the exact FAA book, chapter, and section, and (3) what we will do - the simulator profile to fly at home, then the flight or ground session itself, with completion standards.
The rule of this program: you do not arrive at a lesson without having read the study assignment and flown the simulator profile. If life got in the way, tell your instructor and reschedule the flight as a ground session. Flying an unprepared lesson is the most expensive thing you can do in training.
A home simulator (Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 or 2024, or X-Plane) is not loggable time and cannot teach the feel of the flare or a real crosswind. It is superb for flows, checklists, power settings, pattern geometry, radio calls, instrument scan, and navigation, which is where most students burn airplane hours. Sim profiles are marked SIM; they are optional in the sense that you can skip them and pay for the same learning at the airplane's hourly rate.
There is no separate ground school in this syllabus. The knowledge for the written and the oral is assigned lesson by lesson, in the order you need it, so that the written test at the end is a review rather than a cram.