Kenny Keller (Helicopter Land Ground School) explains why commercial pilot applicants must use the FAA Airman Certification Standards (ACS), how the ACS replaces the older Practical Test Standards (PTS) in name but not in core content, and how students and instructors should study the ACS page-by-page. He emphasizes the back-of-book Practical Test Checklist as critical—missing items on that list will cause an examiner to deny the checkride. Keller also notes HOGS has extensive training videos (650 in-course, 1,000+ on YouTube) and encourages students to carry and study their own copy of the ACS.
Questions this video answers
November 22, 2025
650 videos in all courses
Over 1,000 videos on YouTube
The "Practical Test Checklist" (back of the ACS booklet)
The examiner will deny the checkride and you will be sent home.
Chapters
All right, commercial pilots want to introduce you to the airman certification standards. And look at that. See how that's kind of all bent up? It's bent. There's marks in here. As I was using this going through and prepping for commercial people, we've already prepped this year and got through checkrides using the new airman certification standards, previously known as the pts. So the main purpose of this video is I want to explain to you how to use this, why you should be using it, and I want to put out there that we have 650 videos in all of our courses inside Helicopter Land Ground School. We have over 1,000 videos on YouTube. So I've probably said the term PTS, you know, 50,000 times in 13 years. So when you come across one of our videos and I say pts, I now mean acs. Basically the same thing. They've changed it up a little bit. But the practical test is ESSENCE hasn't changed that much. We've put four people through with the new acs, and I can tell you I actually like this better than the practical test standards. I think it makes it easier for you, the student, and for your instructor. I think it makes it easier for both. I was happy that this one, as I showed you, this is the way it should look when somebody pulls out their ACs and it's all nice and crisp and clean. I know you haven't been using it. And in turn, I'm going to be a little harder on that ground knowledge, because I know you haven't even looked at this thing. So the most important page in here, when I was a new CFI 25 years ago, I asked the examiner, hey, give me some tips as a new cfi. He said. He told me one thing. He said, ever heard of the pts? Because it was the PTS then, now the acs. He said, make sure you point out to your students. I'll just show you real quick. There's a page here at the back called Practical Test Checklist. If you have. If you're missing any of these items the day of your checkride, guess what? You're going home. And you may waste thousands of dollars. You wasted your time, instructors time, examiner's time. You can't take the test. If everything that's on that list is not with you, he's going to deny you. And you can't even get started. So super, super important to have everything to be able to take the test. So we've been working through it. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with it. And you want to work through the whole book page by page and just start going through it. It is a guideline for everything that's going to go on in the oral and everything that you're going to do in your flight. So if you don't have one yet and you're going for your commercial rating, get one of these. Your instructor should have his own copy and he should be using that to guide guide you through as you get ready for the practical test. And you should have your own copy that you're using for your home self study or you're watching HOGS videos or however you're studying. You should be going through this the Airman certification standards. So do me a favor and don't email me every time you see PTS pop up somewhere because again, we can't change 1600 videos overnight to update to what is now called the acs. So use it, learn it, know it. We'll see in the next video when.
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