PLT454: Required Aircraft Inspections
What code PLT454 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Required Aircraft Inspections before your checkride.
Recall regulations - required aircraft / equipment inspections
What this means for your checkride
In general, no person may operate an aircraft unless within the preceding 12 calendar months it has had an annual inspection performed under Part 43 and been approved for return to service. In addition, an aircraft carrying persons for hire, or used to give flight instruction for hire in an aircraft the instructor provides, must have received a 100-hour inspection within the preceding 100 hours of time in service. The 100-hour limit may be exceeded by not more than 10 hours only while en route to a place where the inspection can be done, and that excess time counts against the next 100 hours.
Pilots must know when an annual versus a 100-hour inspection is required and how the small en route overrun for the 100-hour inspection works.
The 100-hour inspection applies to for-hire carriage and paid flight instruction in a provided aircraft, not to every private flight; the annual inspection is what all aircraft need every 12 calendar months.
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.