What Lost Communication Questions Are on the Instrument Oral?

Quick Answer

Lost communications (14 CFR 91.185) is a guaranteed instrument-oral topic. The examiner wants four things in order: first, if you encounter VFR conditions, you continue VFR and land as soon as practicable; in IMC, route by AVE-F (Assigned, Vectored, Expected, Filed), altitude by the highest of Minimum/Expected/Assigned for each segment, and clearance-limit logic that determines when you begin the approach.

Start With the Rule Everyone Forgets

Examiners report the single most-missed element of 91.185 is paragraph (b): if you can proceed in VFR conditions, you stay VFR and land as soon as practicable. Applicants launch straight into AVE-F while flying an imaginary airplane through a scenario that had "tops at 6,000, clear above" in it. Open your answer with the VFR rule unprompted — real lost-comm days mostly end with a VFR landing somewhere sensible — and only then continue into the IMC logic. Before any of it: troubleshoot (volume, headset jacks, the other radio, 121.5) and squawk 7600.

Route: AVE-F, Applied

In IMC, 91.185(c)(1) sets route precedence: the route Assigned in your last clearance; if being Vectored, direct to the fix, route, or airway specified in the vector clearance; absent that, the route ATC told you to Expect; otherwise the route Filed. The oral version is always concrete — "you were cleared via V123, being vectored to intercept, comms fail now" — so practice narrating which letter applies and why, not reciting the acronym.

Altitude: Highest-Of, Per Segment

91.185(c)(2) is where orals get won or lost: for each route segment, fly the highest of the altitude Assigned in your last clearance, the minimum IFR altitude for the segment (the MEA), or the altitude ATC told you to Expect. The classic scenario: level at 6,000, next segment MEA is 8,000, the segment after drops to 5,000. Correct answer: climb to 8,000 for the high segment, then descend back to your assigned 6,000 — not "stay at 8,000 forever," and not down to 5,000, because assigned beats a lower MEA. The examiner is checking that you apply it segment by segment.

The Clearance Limit Fork

91.185(c)(3) closes the drill. If the clearance limit is a fix from which an approach begins, hold as instructed and commence descent/approach as close as possible to your EFC — or, with no EFC, to your filed ETA. If it is not such a fix (classically, you were cleared to the airport), leave the limit at the EFC, or with no EFC proceed to an approach fix and time the approach to begin as close as possible to your ETA. Expect the follow-up nobody prepares: "you fly the approach at ETA and go missed — now what?" 91.185 goes silent there; the expected answer combines 91.3 emergency authority with a sensible choice (another approach or your alternate) — labeled as such.

The IFR Oral Exam Guide ($24) runs three full lost-comm scenarios with MEA ladders and EFC math among its 269 cited questions and 12 drills — 155 pages aligned to FAA-S-ACS-8C.