Fundamentals of flight from the right seat

The candidate flies the four fundamentals to commercial tolerances from the right seat. This is the last flight of phase 2 and the handover point into maneuver teaching.

Still no teaching. Narration begins at lesson 26. This lesson establishes that the flying is solid enough to have attention taken away from it.

Element 6 is the underrated one. A candidate who trims properly can let go of the yoke, which is what makes it possible to point at something, look at the student, and keep flying. A candidate who flies with pressure held cannot teach from the right seat for an hour without getting tired and sloppy.

Ground 30 minutes, flight 90 minutes. Reconciles with the declared 0.5 ground and 1.5 dual. Debrief runs on shutdown.

Instructor: FAA-S-ACS-25 at Area VIII. The airplane. Notes from lessons 10 and 13.

Candidate: headset, the flight manual for the airplane being flown.

Cockpit capture not required. Optional. A candidate who wants a baseline before the recorded phase 3 lessons may find it useful.

1. Brief the tolerance change explicitly. Lessons 10 and 13 were private standards. This is commercial. Say the numbers.
2. Fly from the left seat as safety pilot.
3. Watch the trim. Ask the candidate to take both hands off the yoke in level flight, in a climb, and in a descent.
4. Do not ask for narration. Last time this will need saying.
5. Debrief on shutdown, self-critique first, and set up what phase 3 will be like.

1. Fly the four fundamentals to commercial tolerance from the right seat.
2. Demonstrate trim by flying hands-off briefly in three configurations.
3. Consolidate takeoffs and landings.
4. Self-critique first.

Identical wording in the study guide.

1. The candidate flies straight-and-level, level turns, climbs and climbing turns, and descents and descending turns to commercial pilot tolerances, from the right seat.
2. The candidate flies hands-off briefly in level flight, a climb, and a descent, demonstrating trim.
3. The candidate completes at least four takeoffs and landings to commercial tolerances.
4. The candidate maintains a traffic scan appropriate to the right seat throughout.
5. The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's.

Falling short does not block phase 3. No proficiency gate (Decision 9). It triggers the visibility rule in policy/REMEDIATION-VISIBILITY.md. Given that phase 3 will add narration on top of this flying, a candidate who is at the edge here should expect extra work early in phase 3 and should be told so plainly.

The instructor takes the airplane when:

• Deviation below 300 ft AGL on approach not corrected within two seconds.
• Drift toward the runway edge on takeoff roll not arrested immediately.
• Airspeed below 1.1 Vso on final without correction applied.
• Bank exceeding 45 degrees in the pattern.
• Attention inside the cockpit in the pattern while a traffic conflict develops.

Positive exchange of controls, both directions, every time.

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

• FAA-S-ACS-25, Area of Operation VIII, all four tasks. Note the tolerances.
• FAA-H-8083-3C, the basic maneuvers chapter, plus the October 2025 addendum.
• Your lesson 13 debrief.

Deliverable: Write down the commercial tolerances for altitude, heading, and airspeed for the four fundamentals. Then write, in one sentence, which of the four you expect to be hardest from the right seat and why.

Reuses VS-10-1 and VS-10-2 from lesson 10. Both currently empty.

This lesson is complete and deliverable whether or not its Video Slots are filled.

This is the gate that is not a gate. Nothing stops a candidate entering phase 3. But phase 3 adds narration on top of this flying, and narration takes roughly the capacity that sloppy flying is already consuming. A candidate who is working hard to hold commercial tolerance here will go silent at lesson 26, which is precisely the failure US-5.3 is written about.

Say that to them, in those terms, at the debrief. It is far more useful than a grade.

Tracker Status set by the instructor, named, dated. This is the last Area VIII assessment before phase 3.

• ✓Traces to a story. US-5.1, US-2.3
• ✓Carries ACS tasks and Part 61 references
• ✓Completion standards are observable behavior, at commercial tolerances
• ✓Common errors listed
• ✓Intervention threshold stated explicitly
• ✓Student preparation named, in the student half
• ✓FAA references verified current, 2026-08-13
• ✓Passes the design system check
• ✓Appears in the program structure and coverage matrix, hours reconciling
• ✓Both halves exist
• ✓Video Slots named, and the lesson states it is deliverable with them empty
• ✓Vocabulary matches CONTEXT.md
• ✓No em dashes, no POH performance numbers, no pricing
• ✓Falling short does not block progression (Decision 9)