3.1 Required Pilot and Aircraft Documents

The Private Pilot Airplane (PAR) knowledge test treats documents as a go/no-go item, not a paperwork afterthought. Before you even look at weather, 14 CFR 91.7 says no person may operate a civil aircraft unless it is in an airworthy condition, and the pilot in command is responsible for determining whether that aircraft is in condition for safe flight. Airworthiness has two halves: legal (correct certificates, inspections, required equipment, and limitations) and mechanical (the airplane is actually safe to fly). The documents in this section prove the legal half. If they are missing, expired, or inconsistent with the N-number on the tail, the flight does not start.

Aircraft documents: ARROW is a memory aid, not the regulation

Instructors still teach ARROW (or AROW when the radio license is not required). Use the letters to remember what to look for; cite the actual rules on the test. The aircraft-side rules are 14 CFR 91.203 and 91.9. The extra radio license, when it applies, comes from the FCC in 47 CFR Part 87, not from Part 91.

91.203(a) requires two items to be in the aircraft: (1) an appropriate and current airworthiness certificate, and (2) an effective U.S. registration certificate issued to its owner — or, for operation in the United States, the second copy of the Aircraft Registration Application as provided in 47.31(c), a Certificate of Aircraft Registration under part 48, or a registration certificate issued under the laws of a foreign country. 91.203(b) is specific about display: the airworthiness certificate (or a special flight authorization under 91.715) must be displayed at the cabin or cockpit entrance so that it is legible to passengers or crew. The registration certificate must be on board; the regulation does not require it to be taped next to the airworthiness certificate.

A standard airworthiness certificate — the familiar certificate for Normal, Utility, Acrobatic, Commuter, or Transport category — does not carry a calendar expiration date the way a medical or registration does. It remains effective as long as the aircraft is maintained in an airworthy condition, required inspections and airworthiness directives are current, and the registration remains effective. An expired, surrendered, or otherwise ineffective registration makes the airworthiness certificate ineffective. You cannot treat a clean airworthiness certificate as a free pass if the N-number is no longer registered to that owner.

Registration duration — confirm the date on the certificate

Registration is no longer the old three-year cycle that older oral-exam scripts still recite. Under current 14 CFR 47.40 (including Amdt. 47-36, 90 FR 5571, Jan. 17, 2025), a Certificate of Aircraft Registration issued in accordance with 47.31 expires seven years after the last day of the month in which it is issued. The holder may apply for renewal during the six months preceding that expiration date by submitting Aircraft Registration Renewal Application AC Form 8050-1B and the 47.17 fee. Always read the expiration date printed on the certificate in that airplane. Do not assume a rental’s paperwork is current because last year’s checkout said it was, and do not substitute a remembered “three years” or “36 calendar months” for the date on the form.

N-number display is a separate identification rule. 91.9(c) requires a U.S.-registered civil aircraft to be identified in accordance with part 45 or 48. 14 CFR 45.23 requires marks consisting of the Roman capital letter “N” (United States nationality) followed by the registration number; suffix letters must also be Roman capitals. On fixed-wing airplanes, 45.25 places those marks on the vertical tail surfaces or on the sides of the fuselage. Under 45.29, the marks on most fixed-wing aircraft must be at least 12 inches high, with listed exceptions for some smaller or older aircraft. Limited, restricted, experimental, or provisionally certificated aircraft must also display the applicable word near each entrance in letters not less than 2 inches nor more than 6 inches high.

Special flight permit versus standard airworthiness

A special flight permit (often called a ferry permit) is not a standard airworthiness certificate. 14 CFR 21.197 allows a special flight permit for an aircraft that may not currently meet applicable airworthiness requirements but is capable of safe flight, for listed purposes — most commonly flying the aircraft to a base where repairs, alterations, or maintenance will be performed, delivering or exporting it, production flight testing, evacuating it from impending danger, or certain customer demonstration flights. 91.213(e) also lets an aircraft with inoperative instruments or equipment operate under a special flight permit issued under 21.197 and 21.199. The permit comes with operating limitations. It is not authority to carry extra passengers on a sightseeing hop or to ignore the conditions printed on the authorization.

Operating limitations and weight and balance

91.9(a) is operational, not just documentary: no person may operate a civil aircraft without complying with the operating limitations specified in the approved Airplane or Rotorcraft Flight Manual, markings, and placards. 91.9(b) requires a current, approved AFM (or, when an AFM is not required by 21.5, a current approved AFM, approved manual material, markings, and placards, or any combination) to be available in the aircraft. For most training airplanes that manual is the Pilot’s Operating Handbook. Weight-and-balance data belong in that limitation set. A POH whose equipment list and empty-weight CG still describe last year’s radio stack, after the shop installed a Garmin last month, is not “current.” If a rear-seat passenger and full tanks put the airplane outside the envelope, every certificate can be on board and the flight is still illegal under 91.9.

Radio station license — only when required

U.S. domestic flights generally do not need an individual FCC aircraft radio station license. The FCC eliminated that domestic licensing requirement: you do not need the license to operate a two-way VHF radio, radar, or ELT on a flight that does not land in a foreign country or communicate with a foreign ground station. Flying through international airspace on a domestic routing that never talks to a foreign station and never lands abroad does not, by itself, recreate the requirement. If you travel to a foreign destination — Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, and similar destinations are the usual PAR examples — an FCC aircraft radio station license is required, and the pilot typically also needs a Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit. That is why the second “R” is “when required,” not “always.”

Pilot documents under 61.3

To serve as a required pilot flight crewmember of a U.S. civil aircraft, 61.3 requires you to have in physical possession or readily accessible in the aircraft: (1) your pilot certificate (or an allowed temporary document), (2) acceptable photo identification, and (3) the appropriate medical certificate issued under part 67, or other documentation acceptable to the FAA. Acceptable photo IDs include a State driver’s license, a government identification card, a U.S. Armed Forces identification card, an official passport, a SIDA credential, or another form the Administrator finds acceptable. For a private pilot not using BasicMed, the medical is at least a third-class certificate (61.23). A third-class medical taken under age 40 remains valid for private-pilot privileges through the last day of the 60th month after the month of examination; at age 40 or older it is the 24th month. A private pilot operating under 61.113(i) BasicMed carries a U.S. driver’s license plus the Part 68 papers — medical-education-course completion during the preceding 24 calendar months and a comprehensive medical examination during the preceding 48 calendar months. Those airman and medical documents, plus photo ID, must be presented on request to the Administrator, NTSB, any federal, state, or local law-enforcement officer, or TSA (61.3(l)).

PAR scenario: you arrive for a rental checkout and find a current airworthiness certificate displayed at the door, a registration that expired last month, and a POH in the seat-back pocket. Do not fly. 91.203 requires an effective registration, and an expired registration also knocks out the effectiveness of the airworthiness certificate. The fix is a current registration certificate (or the authorized temporary application copy), not a longer walk-around.