PLT065: Single-Engine Service Ceiling Chart
What code PLT065 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Single-Engine Service Ceiling Chart before your checkride.
Interpret information on a Service Ceiling Engine Inoperative Chart
What this means for your checkride
For a multiengine airplane, the single-engine service ceiling is the highest altitude at which the airplane can still climb at 50 fpm with one engine inoperative. A service ceiling engine inoperative chart shows that ceiling as a function of weight and conditions, so you enter with weight and read the altitude where OEI climb performance falls to 50 fpm. Above that altitude, expect the airplane to descend on one engine.
Knowing the OEI service ceiling tells you the altitude below which you can still climb or hold altitude after an engine failure.
Confusing the single-engine service ceiling (50 fpm OEI) with the all-engine service ceiling (100 fpm both engines) overstates single-engine capability.
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.