EASA Pilot Exams: Theory and the Skill Test

The two gates: knowledge and skill

Every EASA pilot licence and most ratings stand on two pass marks. The first is theoretical: a set of written examination papers you have to clear before the authority will issue the licence or rating. The second is practical: a skill test flown with an examiner, where you demonstrate that you can actually fly the aircraft to the standard the licence describes. One proves you know the material; the other proves you can apply it in the air. You need both, and Part-FCL spells out how each is conducted, what counts as a pass, and how long a pass stays alive.

This guide walks the two gates in order — theoretical knowledge first, then the skill test — and finishes on a third rule that quietly saves applicants a great deal of duplicated effort: crediting, where flight time or theoretical knowledge already earned can count towards a new licence or rating. All three rules live in the General Requirements subpart of Part-FCL, so they apply across the licence range rather than to one licence type.

Theoretical knowledge examinations

The theoretical knowledge (TK) examinations are governed by FCL.025. The rule does three jobs: it fixes who is responsible for an applicant sitting the papers, it sets the pass standard, and it puts time limits and attempt limits around the whole exercise. The pass standard and the validity window are the two numbers most applicants need to plan around, and the rule states them explicitly.

For the ATPL, CPL or IR route, point (b)(3) is the one that sends you back to the complete set: four attempts at one paper, or six sittings, or the 18-month period in point (b)(2).

Responsibility and the validity of a clean pass matter just as much as the marks. The same rule sets out who controls when you may sit, and how long the completed examination stays usable.

The LAPL and PPL validity period sits in the same paragraph, in the wording the quote skips. That wording carries a dated amendment. Use the variant in force on the sitting date, not the block printed first.

Part-FCL does not list the examination subjects inside FCL.025. The list is in an Appendix. Confirm it there for the licence, not from memory.

The practical skill test

Knowing the material is necessary but not sufficient — you also have to fly to standard in front of an examiner. FCL.030 sets the conditions around the skill test: chiefly its sequencing relative to the theoretical knowledge, and who recommends you for it.

Read the order in the quote. The point does not record how the test is graded.

Crediting

Pilots rarely start from zero. Time already flown, and theoretical knowledge already examined, can often be carried into a new licence or rating instead of being repeated. FCL.035 is the rule that governs that crediting, and it has two halves: crediting of flight time and crediting of theoretical knowledge.

The page does not quote the credit points after (b)(1), so it does not state them.

In practice

Picture a student at ExampleATO working towards a CPL. Their plan is two-tracked from day one. On the knowledge side, they sit the licence's set of theoretical knowledge papers, each needing 75 % to pass, with the whole set to be cleared inside the 18-month window that started at the end of the month they first sat a paper. They watch the four-attempts and six-sittings ceilings in point (b)(3). Breaching either means retaking the complete set. On the skill side, they cannot present for the skill test until they have passed the theoretical knowledge (their course is modular, not integrated) and their instructor has recommended them with the training records in hand.

Once the papers are all green, a second clock starts — the validity period of the completed examination, 36 months for the CPL — inside which the licence must be issued. That window is exactly the kind of date worth tracking deliberately rather than trusting to memory: a TK pass that lapses before issue is wasted effort. Avioverse's certifications tracker is built for precisely this — it can hold per-subject exam progress alongside the skill-test milestone, and surface the TK-pass validity window so the issue deadline never sneaks up on you. The same record then feeds the next stage, because crediting under FCL.035 means a pass earned now can shorten the path to the next licence later.

With both gates cleared, attention turns to what you actually put on the licence. Class, type and instrument ratings — how they are added, what each demands, and how they shape what you are entitled to fly — are the subject of the next guide, Ratings on Your Licence: Class, Type and Instrument Ratings.