PLT428: Minimum Equipment List
What code PLT428 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Minimum Equipment List before your checkride.
Recall regulations - minimum equipment list
What this means for your checkride
A minimum equipment list (MEL) is an FAA-approved list of equipment that may be inoperative on a specific aircraft while it stays airworthy for a flight, with any required conditions or procedures. With an approved MEL, it governs; without one, 91.213 sets the default rules for deactivating and placarding inoperative equipment.
Dispatching with inoperative equipment is tightly controlled, so the FAA tests how an MEL works and the default 91.213 process when there is none.
Pilots think any inoperative item grounds the airplane, or that they can ignore it. With an MEL you follow it exactly; without one, 91.213 lets you fly only if the item is not required and is deactivated and placarded inoperative.
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.