I85PREP
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FAA MEI: Preflight Preparation

FAA MEI · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Preflight Preparation

What the examiner is testing

Preflight Preparation tests whether you can prepare a flight and teach a learner to prepare one: airworthiness, weather, performance, weight and balance, fuel, alternates, risk controls, and personal minimums. The examiner expects a systematic briefing, not a scattered checklist recital.

Airworthiness and documents

  • ARROW: Airworthiness certificate, Registration, Radio station license when required, Operating limitations (POH/AFM and placards), Weight and balance.
  • Annual inspection: 12 calendar months. 100-hour inspection: required when carrying persons for hire or giving flight instruction for hire, under the listed conditions.
  • Transponder and pitot-static/altimeter checks: 24 calendar months. VOR check: 30 days for IFR. ELT inspection: 12 months, with battery limits in the maintenance records.
  • Fuel reserves: VFR 30 minutes day and 45 minutes night; IFR 45 minutes. IFR alternate requirements depend on forecast weather and approach availability.

Weather and performance

  • Compare METAR (observed) with TAF (forecast); use PIREPs for actual conditions aloft. AIRMETs cover widespread moderate hazards; SIGMETs cover severe or hazardous conditions.
  • Pressure altitude = field elevation + (29.92 - altimeter setting) x 1,000. Density altitude = pressure altitude + 120 x (OAT - ISA temperature), where ISA temperature at field elevation is 15 C minus 2 C per 1,000 feet.
  • Weight and balance: compute moment, total weight, and CG. Verify both maximum weight and CG envelope, including baggage and fuel burn.

Worked example

Field elevation 5,000 feet, altimeter 30.12, OAT 25 C. Pressure altitude = 5,000 + (29.92 - 30.12) x 1,000 = 5,000 - 200 = 4,800 feet. ISA temperature at 5,000 feet is 15 - (2 x 5) = 5 C. Density altitude = 4,800 + 120 x (25 - 5) = 4,800 + 2,400 = 7,200 feet. The airplane will perform as if it were at 7,200 feet: longer takeoff roll, lower climb rate, and higher true airspeed for the same indicated airspeed. The reasoning is that the altimeter setting correction establishes pressure altitude first, then temperature expands the air.

Traps that cost marks

  • Using indicated altitude instead of pressure altitude in the density-altitude calculation.
  • Mixing Fahrenheit and Celsius, or forgetting the standard lapse rate.
  • Checking the CG only at takeoff, not at zero fuel or with a heavy passenger load.
  • Treating a TAF as current weather, or ignoring a TFR and NOTAM during the briefing.
  • Planning VFR reserves as 45 minutes for a night flight and 30 minutes for day, but reversing them under pressure.