AFOQT Aviation Information Practice Test: Free Drill

What is on AFOQT Aviation Information?

Questions on how an airplane is controlled and why it flies, the parts of an aircraft and an airport, runway markings and lights, basic instruments, weather and common flight terms.

Topics and what the questions ask (our summary)
Topic	Typical question
Flight controls	Which surface rolls, pitches or yaws the airplane; what the pilot does with the yoke and pedals
The four forces	Lift, weight, thrust and drag: which opposes which, and what changes each
Lift and stalls	Angle of attack, the critical angle, what happens in a stall
Aircraft parts	Fuselage, empennage, flaps, slats, trim tabs, landing gear types
Airports and runways	Runway numbers, markings, lights, taxiway signs, traffic patterns
Instruments	Airspeed, altimeter, attitude indicator, heading indicator, vertical speed
Weather and performance	Wind direction, density altitude, temperature lapse rate
Helicopters	Main rotor, tail rotor, collective and cyclic

Which control moves an airplane about which axis?

Ailerons roll the airplane about its longitudinal axis, the elevator pitches it about its lateral axis, and the rudder yaws it about its vertical axis.

Primary flight controls (FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, in our words)
Control surface	Motion	Axis	Cockpit control
Ailerons	Roll	Longitudinal (nose to tail)	Yoke or stick turned left or right
Elevator (or stabilator)	Pitch	Lateral (wingtip to wingtip)	Yoke or stick pushed or pulled
Rudder	Yaw	Vertical	Rudder pedals

Flaps, slats and spoilers are secondary controls: they change lift and drag rather than the airplane's attitude. Trim tabs reduce the force the pilot must hold on a control.

What do AFOQT Aviation Information questions look like?

Short questions with five options. Two examples follow: a flight-control question and a runway-number question.

AFOQT-style question 1 · Controls
Which control surface changes an airplane's pitch, moving the nose up or down?
1. AAilerons
2. BElevator
3. CRudder
4. DFlaps
5. ETrim tab
Worked answer
B: Elevator. The elevator, on the horizontal tail, pitches the airplane about its lateral axis. Ailerons roll it and the rudder yaws it.
1. Pitch is nose up or down, about the lateral (wingtip to wingtip) axis.
2. The horizontal tail controls pitch.
3. Its movable surface is the elevator.
The trap: Choosing flaps. Flaps change lift and drag for takeoff and landing; they are not the primary pitch control.
AFOQT-style question 2 · Runways
One end of a runway is numbered 09. What number is painted on the other end?
1. A09
2. B18
3. C27
4. D90
5. E36
Show the worked answer
C: 27. Runway 09 points about 090° magnetic. The other end points the opposite way, 090 + 180 = 270°, so it is runway 27.
1. 09 means a heading of about 090°.
2. The reciprocal heading: 090 + 180 = 270°.
3. Drop the last zero: 27.
The trap: Adding 18 to the number (09 + 18 = 27) works, but adding 9 or doubling does not. Think in degrees: add or subtract 180.

Lift your Pilot composite

Four Aviation Information drills and eight full mocks, every answer explained.

The AFOQT Pass Pack gives you 8 full mocks on the real clock, 32 drills of 12 questions for the sections that cost you points, and a predictor that turns your mocks into the odds of reaching your target. One payment, no subscription, and your free score stays free.

Prep courses for these tests usually cost $19 to $129. The AFOQT Pass Pack is US$39 (£29), once.

See the AFOQT Pass Pack How our questions are built and checked

8
timed mocks: 32
topic drills: 1
score predictor

Which numbers come up on Aviation Information?

Runway numbering, the standard temperature lapse rate, standard sea-level conditions and a few rules of thumb; each one turns a question into simple arithmetic.

Numbers worth knowing (standard aviation references)
Fact	Number
Runway number	Magnetic heading ÷ 10, rounded: 270° is runway 27
Opposite runway end	Add or subtract 18 (180°): 09 and 27
Standard temperature lapse	About 2 °C cooler per 1,000 feet of altitude
Standard sea-level conditions	15 °C and 29.92 inches of mercury
Knot	One nautical mile per hour, about 1.15 statute miles per hour
Standard rate turn	3° a second, so 360° in 2 minutes

What do I need to know about airports for the AFOQT?

Runway numbers and markings, the meaning of the common signs and lights, and the parts of a traffic pattern. These questions are pure recall, so a one-page sheet covers most of them.

Airport facts worth knowing (FAA Aeronautical Information Manual, in our words)
Item	What it means
Large X on a runway	The runway is closed
PAPI lights	Four white too high; two white and two red on the glide path; four red too low
VASI lights	Red over white on path; white over white high; red over red low
Hold short line	Solid lines on the side where you must stop until cleared; dashed lines on the runway side
Displaced threshold arrows	Usable for taxi, takeoff and rollout, but not for touchdown
Blue taxiway edge lights	Mark the edges of a taxiway; runway edge lights are white
Traffic pattern legs	Upwind, crosswind, downwind, base and final, with left turns unless marked otherwise

The light patterns are where most points go, because the wrong options are the other patterns. Learn them as pairs: more white means high, more red means low.

Why does Aviation Information matter?

It is one of the four subtests in the Pilot composite, alongside Math Knowledge, Table Reading and Instrument Comprehension. For non-rated jobs it matters less.

The Pilot composite (Wikipedia and AFROTC sources)
Composite	Built from	Commonly published minimum
Pilot	Math Knowledge, Table Reading, Instrument Comprehension, Aviation Information	Pilot: minimum 25

Aviation Information is the most "studyable" Pilot subtest: unlike Table Reading or Instrument Comprehension, it is knowledge you can read up on. Flying lessons help too, and pilot selection separately credits flying hours.

How should I study for Aviation Information?

Read the chapters on flight controls, aerodynamics, airports and weather in the FAA's free Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, then use the drill to check what has stuck.

A useful test of your notes: explain to someone else, without looking, how a pilot starts a left turn, what happens in a stall and why runway 27 is called 27. If you can, you are ready for most of the subtest.

You do not need the whole handbook. The chapters on aircraft structure, principles of flight, flight controls, airport operations and weather theory cover most of what the subtest asks. Make a one-page sheet of the controls table and the numbers above, take the free drill, and then the full AFOQT practice test. Pair it with Table Reading for the Pilot composite.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need flying experience for Aviation Information?

No. It helps, but the subtest covers material you can learn from a basic handbook.

How many questions are on Aviation Information?

20 items in 8 minutes on Form T.

Are there helicopter questions?

Some. Know the main and tail rotor, and what the collective and cyclic do.

Which composite uses Aviation Information?

The Pilot composite, with Math Knowledge, Table Reading and Instrument Comprehension.

What is the best book for Aviation Information?

The FAA's Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge is free and covers almost everything the subtest asks.

Is Aviation Information hard?

Not for people who have read the basics. It is recall, so a week of study moves it more than most subtests.

Know the airplane before you fly it

Four Aviation Information drills, eight full AFOQT-style mocks and every answer explained, in one payment.