DLR test and pilot selection: process, cost and preparation

Before you sit in a simulator, before you taxi a Cessna for the first time and long before you hold a type rating on the Airbus, many aspiring airline pilots face an appointment at a computer: the DLR test. A long test day, in Hamburg from 8 a.m. to about 5 p.m., and at the end a certificate that helps decide the next application round. This guide explains who is behind the test, what the DLR’s pilot selection assesses, what you pay for it and how to prepare so that on test day you show what you can really do.

The DLR test: the short answer

The DLR test is the psychological aptitude assessment of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR). For pilots, the DLR offers the DLR Certificate Cockpit: a computer-based test in four areas that you book and pay for yourself. The certificate rates your results against EASA’s psychological requirements for cockpit crew but makes no selection decision itself. Flight schools and airlines use it as a ticket into their further selection stages – at the Lufthansa Group’s European Flight Academy, for example, it is mandatory before you can even apply.

Who is behind the DLR test?

The German Aerospace Center is Germany’s large research center for aviation, space, energy and transport. The DLR includes the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, and within this institute the Department of Aviation and Space Psychology. It is exactly this department that develops and runs the selection procedures for flying and air-traffic-control professions.

The tradition is long: according to the DLR, the working group for pilot selection has been carrying out aptitude assessments since the 1950s. In the 1980s, the selection of air traffic controllers and of astronauts was added. The department develops the test procedures itself, and the entire selection process is certified to ISO 9001:2015.

The central location is the Test Center for Aviation and Space Psychology in Hamburg. It is in the Groß Borstel district, just a stone’s throw from Hamburg Airport. According to the DLR, there are 110 computer workstations there, and one test hall alone holds 48 of them. Besides Hamburg, the DLR names partner test centers in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and Indonesia; from October 2026 a location in Vienna is added. According to the DLR, clients include airlines and government organizations such as the Bundespolizei (Germany’s federal police).

Why the test exists: the EASA requirement

For a long time the DLR test was known mainly as the selection tool of individual airlines, above all Lufthansa. Since February 2021 it has carried additional weight: EASA has since required commercial operators to carry out a psychological assessment of their cockpit crew before they fly scheduled operations. The background included, among other things, the investigation of the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in 2015, after which Europe’s rules on pilots’ mental health were revised.

The DLR Certificate Cockpit is designed to cover these psychological requirements. That has a practical advantage for you: you no longer take the test only for one particular airline but receive a document you can submit to various flight schools and employers. Which schools and airlines recognize the certificate and which results they require, however, is set by each organization itself – ask before you book.

What is assessed: the four areas

The DLR divides the certificate into four areas. The names are in English because they follow the international criteria:

Area	What it is about
Basic Cognitive Abilities	basic mental performance
Operational and Professional Competencies	skills directly needed in everyday cockpit work
Personality Traits	personality characteristics
Social Competencies	cooperation and behavior in a team

All parts run at the computer. According to the DLR, the certificate involves no online option, assessment center or interview. As a result you receive a description of your performance in the four areas in plain language.

What exactly is in the individual tasks is not published in detail by the DLR – for good reason, because a test you can memorize no longer measures anything. In aptitude diagnostics, “cognitive abilities” typically cover things like attention, memory, spatial visualization and numerical reasoning. English also plays a role: the European Flight Academy accepts a DLR certificate with a rating of A or B as proof of its minimum English level of B2.

The social competence area sounds unfamiliar at a computer, but has a clear background. In a multi-crew cockpit, safety depends on two people communicating cleanly, sharing tasks and speaking up about mistakes. How much this has shaped aviation is shown by the article on the Tenerife disaster of 1977, after which crew training and radio discipline were fundamentally revised.

Process: from appointment to certificate

What comes next: the European Flight Academy as an example

The DLR test is usually only the first hurdle. What a complete selection procedure looks like is shown by the European Flight Academy (EFA), the flight school of the Lufthansa Group. For the training path in Germany, it names the following sequence (as of October 2026):

1. DLR test with certificate – according to the EFA, dates are available in Hamburg, Milan and Zurich.
2. Application to the EFA – only with the certificate and the required rating.
3. Lufthansa Group assessment center – with interviews, a group exercise and a psychomotor test.
4. Medical – the aeromedical examination including drug screening, ending with the Class 1 medical certificate.
5. Training admission – registration for an available training place.
6. Airline Fit – after training, a conversation with the airline before a possible employment contract.

As basic requirements, the EFA names, among others, a minimum age of 17, citizenship of an EU or EFTA state or Switzerland, a university or university of applied sciences entrance qualification and English at B2 level or higher. The medical does not yet have to be in hand when you start applying. At the end, ideally, a place in the cockpit at Lufthansa, Swiss or Eurowings beckons – depending on the needs of the individual operators.

What the various training paths look like in detail is explained in the article Becoming a pilot: the routes into the cockpit. What training costs is in ATPL training and cost, and what the medical involves is in Aeromedical fitness Class 1 and 2.

Not just pilots: air traffic controllers and the Bundeswehr

The DLR doesn’t only test for the cockpit. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung also sends its applicants to Hamburg: anyone who wants to become an air traffic controller completes a preliminary and a main assessment there. The procedure differs markedly from the Certificate Cockpit – there are team tasks and interviews, and at DFS there is no second chance. You will find all the details in the article Becoming an air traffic controller, and background on the organization in DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung explained.

The Bundeswehr (German armed forces) has a selection procedure of its own for its pilots. What the path looks like there is in Becoming a Bundeswehr pilot. If you dream more of rotor blades, you will find the specifics in the article Becoming a helicopter pilot.

Preparation: what really helps

Hardly any topic is as present in pilot forums as preparation for the DLR test. There are books, apps, online trainers and expensive courses. A few principles help you keep an overview:

• Start with the official materials. The DLR sends you preparation material and login details with the invitation. That is the most reliable source for what to expect.
• Practice spread out instead of cramming. The DLR expressly recommends stretching the training over about three weeks, because spaced learning works better than a crash course the weekend before.
• Firm up school knowledge. Mental arithmetic, fractions, rule of three, basic physics and solid English come up again and again throughout a pilot career – in the test, in ATPL theory and later in the cockpit.
• English in an aviation context. If you already listen to radio regularly at the spot, you know the structure and vocabulary. The articles Radiotelephony phraseology and ICAO spelling alphabet help you place it cleanly.
• View commercial trainers critically. Practice programs can help you get used to working under time pressure. But they don’t reproduce the real DLR tasks, and no provider can guarantee you a result.
• Stay honest. Personality questionnaires are built so that answering tactically gets you little. Answer as you are.

Retaking: a second chance with risk

If the first attempt doesn’t go as hoped, you can take the certificate again. The DLR recommends a gap of about six months. You then take all areas again; combining the best partial results from different dates is not possible. The retake is not noted on the certificate, and if you hold two valid certificates, you decide yourself which one you submit.

Important: your scores can also turn out worse the second time. So use the six months deliberately – for English, math, concentration training and above all for an honest analysis of what went wrong. And check beforehand how your preferred flight school handles retakes, because here too the rules of the respective organization apply.

What spotters bring – and what they don’t

As a plane spotter you have a real head start in understanding aviation. You know why runway directions in use change, can read METAR and TAF and recognize aircraft types at a glance. If you are also active on a flight simulator or in networks such as VATSIM and IVAO, you even know procedures and radio discipline from practice.

For the DLR test, though, this knowledge is only marginally relevant. What is assessed are abilities and traits, not type knowledge. Enthusiasm helps you mainly later – in the assessment center, when you explain why you want this profession, and in the long months of training, when motivation makes the difference.

Conclusion

For many, the DLR test is the first serious step toward the airline cockpit. Behind it stands one of the most experienced institutions for aptitude diagnostics in aviation, and since 2021 it maps EASA’s psychological requirements. The certificate costs a fair amount, is valid for two years and does not alone decide your future – but it opens the door to the assessment center, medical and training. If you prepare in a structured way with the official materials, answer honestly and arrive rested, you have done everything within your control.