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Private Pilot — Airplane & Helicopter
Private Pilot Oral Exam Questions: Privileges, Currency & Medicals
The privileges-and-limitations conversation is where examiners test whether you understand the deal you're making with the FAA: a private certificate lets you fly for fun and personal business — not for compensation or hire. The trap questions are all variations on one theme: when does sharing a flight become getting paid? Add currency (flight review, passenger currency, medical duration) and you have the full topic.
The controlling references are 61.113 (private pilot privileges and the cost-sharing exception), 61.56 (flight review), 61.57 (recent flight experience), 61.23 (medical duration), and the BasicMed rules in Part 68. Logged-versus-acting PIC distinctions also live here, and DPEs use them to separate memorizers from pilots who actually understand the rules.
Cost sharing: pro rata and common purpose
61.113(c) lets a private pilot share operating expenses of a flight with passengers — fuel, oil, airport expenditures, and rental fees — provided the pilot pays at least their pro rata share. Three passengers and you: you must pay at least one quarter. But the FAA (through Chief Counsel interpretations) adds a non-obvious requirement: common purpose. You and your passengers must share a genuine common destination/reason for the flight. If the only reason for the flight is to transport your passengers, you're providing air transportation, and sharing costs doesn't save you.
Also know 'compensation' is interpreted broadly — building flight time you'd otherwise pay for counts as compensation, and goodwill can too. The clean exceptions worth knowing: charitable flights under 91.146 (with conditions), search and rescue reimbursement, aircraft salesperson demonstrations (with 200 hours), and towing gliders/ultralights with the proper endorsement.
Currency: flight review, passengers, and the medical
Flight review (61.56): within the preceding 24 calendar months — minimum 1 hour ground and 1 hour flight with an authorized instructor. A new certificate or rating practical test resets it; a WINGS phase also satisfies it. Passenger currency (61.57): three takeoffs and landings within the preceding 90 days in the same category, class, and type (if required) — full stop for tailwheel, and full stop at night (the period from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise) to carry passengers at night. You can fly solo to regain currency; you just can't carry passengers while out of currency.
Medical (61.23): a third-class medical lasts 60 calendar months if you were under 40 on the exam date, 24 calendar months if 40 or over. BasicMed is an alternative for many private operations: a physical exam with a state-licensed physician on the CMEC checklist every 48 months plus an online medical course every 24 months, with aircraft and operating limits (light aircraft, limited occupants, altitude and speed caps — verify the current figures, which were expanded in recent years, before quoting them). You must have held a valid FAA medical at some point after July 14, 2006, and never had the most recent application denied.
Practice questions with answers & rationales
Q1. Three friends want to fly with you to a concert you're all attending. The flight costs $200 in fuel and rental. What's the most they can legally chip in?
Answer: $150 total — $50 each — because you must pay at least your pro rata share ($50 of $200, four occupants). The common-purpose test is satisfied because you're attending the concert too. If you weren't going to the concert and were just dropping them off, no amount of cost sharing makes it legal: that's transportation for compensation.
Q2. Your boss asks you to fly yourself to a business meeting and the company reimburses the rental. Legal?
Answer: Yes — 61.113(b) allows a private pilot to fly in connection with a business or employment if the flight is only incidental to that business and the aircraft doesn't carry passengers or property for compensation or hire. Flying yourself to your own meeting with reimbursement is the textbook example. Flying a coworker whose presence isn't incidental, or hauling company freight, starts crossing lines — flag that nuance for the examiner.
Q3. When can you log PIC time versus act as PIC?
Answer: They're different rules. You may log PIC (61.51) whenever you are the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which you're rated, sole occupant, or (for airplanes requiring it) acting as a required crewmember. Acting PIC (91.3/61.31) means being the one legally responsible for the flight — which requires the right category/class ratings, endorsements, currency, and medical. Two pilots can each log PIC simultaneously in some scenarios; only one can act as PIC.
Q4. Your last three landings were 91 days ago. Can you fly your spouse to brunch today?
Answer: Not yet. 61.57 requires three takeoffs and landings within the preceding 90 days to carry passengers. Fly three solo landings first (touch-and-goes are fine for tricycle-gear day currency), then pick up your spouse. There is no penalty for being out of currency solo — the rule only gates carrying passengers.
Q5. You did three touch-and-goes at dusk, finishing 45 minutes after sunset. Are you night current for passengers?
Answer: No, twice over. Night passenger currency requires landings made between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise — 45 minutes after sunset doesn't count — and they must be to a full stop. (Bonus distinction: position lights are required sunset-to-sunrise; 'night' for logging is civil twilight; night currency uses the 1-hour definition. Three different 'nights' — examiners love this.)
Q6. When does your flight review expire if you passed your private checkride on June 12, 2026?
Answer: The practical test substitutes for a flight review, so you're good through June 30, 2028 — 24 calendar months means the last day of the month. Any new certificate or rating earned in between resets the clock; so does completing a WINGS phase.
Q7. Can you fly under BasicMed to your checkride?
Answer: A practical test can be taken under BasicMed if the operation itself qualifies (eligible aircraft, occupant/weight/speed/altitude limits, and you meet the BasicMed requirements — CMEC physical within 48 months, online course within 24). The smart answer adds: 'I'd verify the current BasicMed aircraft limits and confirm with the DPE beforehand,' since the limits were expanded recently and examiners respect pilots who verify rather than guess.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Forgetting common purpose — quoting pro rata perfectly and still failing the scenario where you're just dropping friends off.
- Saying 'I can't be compensated, period.' The exceptions (incidental business flying, 91.146 charity events, glider towing) are exactly what gets asked next.
- Mixing up logging PIC with acting PIC. Practice explaining both in one breath.
- Counting touch-and-goes for night or tailwheel passenger currency — both require full-stop landings.
- Quoting the wrong medical duration for your age bracket, or forgetting 'calendar months' runs to month-end.
- Treating BasicMed as 'no medical needed.' It has its own exam, course, aircraft and operating limits, and eligibility history requirements.