Airplane Flying Handbook (2025)

The FAA's Airplane Flying Handbook has been required reading for all pilots for more than 40 years and introduces the basic pilot skills and knowledge essential for piloting airplanes. It benefits student pilots just beginning their aviation endeavors as well as pilots who are preparing for additional certificates and ratings or who want to improve their flying proficiency, and it is useful for flight instructors engaged in teaching pilots of all skill levels.

This handbook provides information and guidance on the procedures and maneuvers required for pilot certification. Chapters are dedicated to ground operations, basic flight maneuvers, slow flight, stalls, spins, takeoff and departure climbs, performance and ground reference maneuvers, airport traffic patterns, approaches and landings, night operations, emergency procedures, and transitions to different types of aircraft including complex, multi-engine, tailwheel, turboprop, and jets. The latest edition expands and updates the material that is a key reference in FAA testing and Airman Certification Standards (ACS), and it incorporates new areas of safety concerns and technical information, such as loss-of-control upset prevention and recovery training and energy management.

The Airplane Flying Handbook is the official FAA source for learning to fly and for many of the test questions in the FAA Knowledge Exams for pilots. Complete with chapter summaries and illustrated throughout with detailed, full-color drawings and photographs, it also includes a glossary and index.