PLT039: Landing Direction Indicators
What code PLT039 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Landing Direction Indicators before your checkride.
Interpret airport landing indicator
What this means for your checkride
Airport landing direction indicators show which way to land at a field without a tower. The segmented circle surrounds indicators like the wind cone (points into the wind), the tetrahedron or landing direction indicator (small end points the landing direction), and traffic-pattern indicators showing non-standard legs.
Reading these keeps you landing with the flow and into the wind, so the FAA tests interpreting the segmented circle and its indicators.
Pilots read the tetrahedron like a wind cone. The tetrahedron shows landing direction, small end forward, which may differ from the instantaneous wind that the wind cone shows.
Where to study it
A code on your test report is an area of deficiency. An authorized instructor must review it with you and endorse that review before you take the practical test, and the examiner may revisit it during the oral. Study it until you can explain it out loud, not just recognize the answer.