PLT215: Flight Instruments
What code PLT215 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Flight Instruments before your checkride.
Recall flight instruments - magnetic compass
What this means for your checkride
The magnetic compass needs no electrical power, but it has predictable errors: it leads or lags when you turn, and it swings when you speed up or slow down on easterly and westerly headings.
The compass errors appear on every checkride and drive the memory aids ANDS and UNOS, so the FAA tests when and why the compass misreads.
Pilots forget the compass is only reliable in straight, level, unaccelerated flight; during a turn or a speed change it is temporarily wrong.
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.