AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2013 - 24

PILOT COUNSEL

Staying current

BY JOHN S. YODICE

Instrument proficiency check clarified

JOHN S. YODICE

heads Yodice
Associates, a
Washington,
D.C.-area firm
specializing in
aviation law.

24 | AOPA PILOT April 2013

THE FAA’S CHIEF COUNSEL has issued a legal interpretation on when an instrument pilot must pass an
instrument proficiency check in order to meet the
instrument experience required to act as pilot in
command of an instrument flight. Because of some
apparent confusion in the rule’s language, this issue
has commanded attention a number of times in the
past several years. The language was changed in 2007,
again in 2009, and in 2011 when the FAA again acted to
amend the rule. This most recent chief counsel’s interpretation, issued in February 2012, is worth noting.
As stated in this interpretation, “a pilot must perform the instrument recent flight experience required
by FAR 91.57(c) within 12 calendar months of the last
date that the pilot was able to act as PIC under IFR or
weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed
for VFR. If a pilot fails to meet the recent flight experience within this 12-calendar-month period, then the
pilot must pass an IPC in order to act as PIC under IFR
or in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR.”
Let’s start with the parts of the rules that are most
commonly understood by all instrument pilots—
although we all can benefit from refreshing from time
to time. Under the rules, a pilot (except an airline pilot
under certain circumstances) may not command an
aircraft operating under instrument flight rules, or in
weather conditions less than VFR, unless within the
preceding six calendar months the pilot has performed
and logged at least six instrument approaches, holding
procedures, and tasks, and intercepting and tracking
courses through the use of electronic navigational systems. There is no requirement for a certain or specified
amount of recent instrument time. The old requirement for at least six hours of instrument flight every
six months was eliminated years ago. But there still is
an implicit time requirement. The current version of
the regulation—obviously, but not explicitly—requires
the minimum time necessary to perform these specified procedures.
As for the number of procedures required, only the
number of instrument approaches is specified—that
is, six. There is no specific number of holding procedures required, although the plural implies more than
one procedure. So, too, there is no specific number of
intercepting and tracking procedures required, but the
plural indicates that more than one is required.

These maneuvers may be performed in flight
under actual or simulated conditions. If the maneuvers are performed in flight, they must be performed
in the appropriate category of aircraft; they need not
have been performed in a specific class of aircraft. For
example, if the maneuvers were performed in a single-engine land airplane, the pilot also would meet
the requirement for all other classes of airplane,
whether multiengine or sea. The pilot would not meet
the currency requirement for rotorcraft, which is a
different category. These recent-experience requirements, including the instrument proficiency check,
may be accomplished in an approved flight simulator
or an approved flight training device, under certain
conditions.
More important, these experience requirements
have associated logbook entry requirements. Even if
you actually have flown the required procedures, as
frequently happens, but you didn’t log them, your failure to log them just invites FAA skepticism. It is after
an incident or an accident that the FAA will ask to see
your logbooks, and then it becomes problematic. Also,
pilots sometimes miss the requirement that the logbook entry for the instrument approaches needs some
specificity—a pilot must record the location and type
of each instrument approach accomplished. If a safety
pilot is required, the pilot must record the name of the
safety pilot.
For many pilots, staying current with recent experience and training is a lot more practical. In the past
I have suggested that a pilot should first look back,
and review the preceding six calendar months from
the date of a proposed flight, to see if he or she has
performed and logged the instrument recent flight
experience. If the pilot has not, the pilot will have
an additional six calendar months to perform and
log the required instrument recent flight experience.
However, during this six-month period, the pilot may
not act as PIC under IFR, or in weather conditions
less than the minimums prescribed for VFR, until the
pilot performs and logs the required instrument recent
flight experience of FAR 61.57(c). If the pilot loses currency for a year, it is then that the pilot must perform
an instrument proficiency check to regain his or her
instrument currency.
AOPA
WEB

www.aopa.org/yodiceassociates

http://www.aopa.org/yodiceassociates

AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2013