What Does the DPE Ask in the Instrument Oral Exam?

Quick Answer

The instrument oral follows FAA-S-ACS-8C and runs in a predictable arc: your 61.65 experience and endorsements, IFR currency (61.57(c)), aircraft legality and equipment (91.205(d), inspections, VOR checks), then the core — your assigned IFR cross-country with weather and alternate analysis (91.169), approach plate briefings, and the lost-communications drill (91.185).

Opening: Eligibility and the Logbook Audit

Expect the exam to start with the 61.65 math: 50 hours of cross-country PIC time, 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument time including 15 from an authorized instructor, and 3 hours of instrument training within the 2 calendar months before the test. DPEs audit the 250 NM instrument cross-country line by line — was it under IFR on a filed plan, with an approach at each airport and three different kinds of approaches? Miss an element and the flight does not count.

A favorite trick question follows: "Are you instrument current under 61.57(c) right now?" The correct answer distinguishes eligibility from currency — the checkride is normally flown under VFR with a view-limiting device, so 61.57(c) currency is not a prerequisite to test; it governs what you may do after you pass.

The Legality Block

Then the airplane: GRABCARD equipment for IFR under 91.205(d) — and be ready to explain why each item is required, including the detail that the clock must be installed. Inspections: altimeter/pitot-static within 24 calendar months (91.411), transponder (91.413), plus the standard annual/ELT items. VOR check within the preceding 30 days if you will use VOR (91.171) — know the methods and the ±4°/±6° tolerances. With a GPS, expect RAIM vs. WAAS, when LPV minima are available, and what your AFM supplement says about database currency. "The Garmin figures it out" is a failing answer.

The Core: Your Cross-Country and the Plates

The heart of the oral is applied: the DPE hands you real weather for your assigned route and watches the go/no-go and alternate logic. Reciting the 1-2-3 rule (91.169) is table stakes; applying it to an actual TAF — including TEMPO groups inside your ETA window — is the test. Then come the plates: brief an approach fluently (briefing strip, plan view, profile, minima, missed), explain DA versus MDA, and answer when you may descend below minimums (91.175(c)).

Lost communications is guaranteed: 91.185 route logic (AVE-F), altitude logic (highest of Minimum/Expected/Assigned per segment), when to leave the clearance limit — and the part everyone forgets, that in VFR conditions you continue VFR and land as practicable.

The Grading Layer

Two qualities dominate: precision (exact numbers, exact tolerances) and weather judgment. The examiner is deliberately probing whether you separate legal from smart — a freshly rated instrument pilot in a light airplane is one of aviation's riskiest profiles, and answers implying you would launch into anything technically legal sink orals.

The IFR Oral Exam Guide ($24) maps this entire arc: 269 examiner questions with cited exact-number answers and 12 scenario drills across 155 pages aligned to FAA-S-ACS-8C.