FAA Ground School Practice Test

A third-class medical certificate for a pilot, when issued, has a specific validity period that can depend on the pilot’s age at the time of issuance. For a pilot under 40 years old, the third-class medical certificate is valid for 60 months, which means it would expire on August 31, five years later. This follows FAA regulations that require medical certificates to expire at the end of the month in which the five-year period concludes, making the correct expiration date August 31 of the year five years later.

For a pilot who is 40 years of age or older, the third-class medical certificate is valid for 24 months, with the expiration date also following the end of the month in which it was issued. However, in this scenario, since the question does not specify the age of the pilot, we assume they are under 40 unless stated otherwise.

Thus, the answer regarding the expiration of a third-class medical certificate being August 31, five years later, reflects an understanding of the FAA's structure for medical certification.