How to track Part 61 checkride progress

The Checkride reference in DaPilot is a prep view for the certificate you are working toward. It reads your logbook, lays out the areas of operation and the aeronautical experience that Part 61 lists by name for that certificate, and shows where each one stands, with every line cited to its 14 CFR paragraph. This guide covers what it tracks, the difference between what DaPilot reads for you and what you confirm yourself, and why none of it is an eligibility ruling.

Advisory only, by design

DaPilot does not decide whether you are ready for a checkride. The reference is a checklist that points back at the regulation and at the people who actually make the call: you, your instructor, and the examiner. There is no "eligible" or "ready" badge anywhere in it. A full checklist means you have logged the items the rule names; it does not mean you meet the requirement. Your instructor's recommendation under §61.39 and the examiner's determination are the gates, not this screen.

Pick the certificate

The Checkride reference keeps a single picker for Student, Private, and Commercial ASEL. Pick the certificate you are working toward and the screen reframes around that target. This is the one place in DaPilot where a certificate picker belongs; the flight form does not have one.

The reference covers airplane single-engine land (ASEL) under Part 61. It is labeled that way on purpose. Part 141 programs, added-rating credit, and the alternate paths in §61.109(j) and §61.129 have different numbers, and the figures shown are the baseline minimums, not your specific path. Confirm your route with your instructor.

Two kinds of rows: read versus confirmed

DaPilot is careful about the difference between what it can read from your logbook arithmetic and what only a human can attest to. The screen separates the two visually.

From your logbook

These rows are derived straight from fields you already logged, and they are rendered as facts, not verdicts. Tap any one to see the contributing flights (show your math). They include:

• The hour minimums where the logged field matches the quantity the rule counts: total time, dual, solo, PIC, night, and instrument as logged.
• Night takeoffs and landings, read from your full-stop night landings.
• Complex and TAA time, read from the aircraft you flew.

Where a sum could overcount, DaPilot says so inline instead of coloring it as met. For example, a cross-country hour total that the rule expects to be PIC, or instrument time that depends on the kind of simulator, carries a caveat naming the sub-condition and its citation so the number is never mistaken for a clean match.

You confirmed this

Some requirements describe a specific flight in words that no field can prove on its own: a solo cross-country of a given distance, a landing at a towered airport, a multi-leg flight with full-stop landings. For these, DaPilot asks you to confirm which flight satisfied the requirement.

Confirmations re-validate against the underlying flight. If you later edit or delete the flight that backed a confirmation, DaPilot re-checks or drops the row rather than leaving a stale claim standing.

Timing windows are information, not a pass or fail

A few items, like the recency of test preparation before a practical test, have a time window. DaPilot shows the window as "assumed, confirm" and, when a flight falls outside it, describes the timing neutrally ("outside the 2-calendar-month window; many students re-fly closer to the test, confirm with your instructor"). It never renders this as expired or failed. The window is context for a conversation with your instructor.

Look up another pilot by certificate number

Any signed-in pilot can look up another pilot's checkride progress by FAA certificate number. An instructor preparing to recommend a student, for example, can see the student's name and aggregate progress for a certificate without the student exporting anything.

The lookup shows your name and aggregate progress for the certificate: summed hours against the minimums, plus which areas of operation and experience items are covered. It does not expose the per-flight breakdown, individual flights, or contact details. This is an open lookup: if you are signed in, your name and aggregate progress are visible to another pilot who has your certificate number. The Privacy Policy describes this sharing and your options.

What it covers, and what it does not

The catalog is Student, Private, and Commercial ASEL under Part 61. Instrument, CFI, and added-rating experience tracking are not in this reference. DaPilot does not enrich airports with coordinates or auto-compute cross-country distances, so a distance requirement is never satisfied automatically; you confirm the flight that met it.

Tips from instructors

Confirm the named flights as you fly them, not the week before the checkride. The solo cross-countries and towered-airport landings are easy to identify the day you fly them and hard to reconstruct months later.

Use the show-your-math drill-down when a number looks high. A cross-country total that the rule expects to be PIC will tell you, on tap, exactly which flights it summed, which is where an overcount usually hides.

The lookup is the cleanest way for a student and instructor to get on the same page before an endorsement. Read the progress together, then sign in the app or on paper.

Last updated June 7, 2026 · 9 min read