Safety and Aeronautical Knowledge
What the exam tests
Safety and Aeronautical Knowledge tests judgment and aeromedical knowledge: ADM, risk management, oxygen and alcohol rules, stall and spin awareness, and weather hazards. Questions often ask what a pilot should do when a flight is legal but risky.
ADM and risk
- PAVE frames the risk: Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressures.
- IMSAFE is the self-check: Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion.
- Hazardous attitudes-anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho, resignation-have antidotes: follow the rules, think first, it could happen to me, taking chances is foolish, I am not helpless.
- Personal minimums and a go/no-go decision made before pressure builds are more reliable than in-flight improvisation.
Aeromedical and aerodynamic limits
- 91.211(a): supplemental oxygen is required for crew when cabin pressure altitude is above 12,500 ft up to and including 14,000 ft for more than 30 minutes, and continuously above 14,000 ft. Passengers must be provided oxygen above 15,000 ft.
- 91.17: no flying within 8 hours of alcohol, with 0.04% or higher blood alcohol, or while under the influence.
- A stall occurs at the critical angle of attack, not at a specific airspeed. Load factor raises stall speed; a spin requires a stall plus yaw.
Worked example
A pilot plans a 45-minute flight at 13,500 ft MSL. Is supplemental oxygen required for the pilot? Reasoning: 91.211(a)(1) covers cabin pressure altitudes above 12,500 ft up to 14,000 ft when the duration is more than 30 minutes. The flight is 45 minutes, which exceeds 30 minutes, so oxygen is required. A 25-minute flight at the same altitude would not trigger that paragraph. Above 14,000 ft, the requirement is continuous, not time-based.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing oxygen is required only above 14,000 ft.
- Forgetting the 30-minute rule between 12,500 and 14,000 ft.
- Confusing hypoxia with hyperventilation.
- Thinking a stall is defined by low airspeed rather than critical angle of attack.
- Letting get-there-itis override a failed IMSAFE check.