No BFR due to COVID

Hearing this today. Haven’t got the official link yet.


"The FAA finds, under the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, that extending the 24 calendar month requirement of §61.56(c) by up to three calendar months will not adversely affect safety, provided the extension applies to active pilots and certain risk mitigations are met. The three calendar month extension applies to pilots who were current to act as PIC of an aircraft in March 2020 and whose flight review was due in March 2020 through June 2020. To mitigate any safety risk, the pilot must have logged at least 10 hours of PIC time within the twelve calendar months preceding the month the flight review was due."
 
Going to take a bit to parse the doc, but so far I see:
The relief applies to any operation that requires the pilot to hold at least a commercial pilot certificate...
Additionally, this relief applies to some operations conducted by pilots exercising private pilot privileges, provided the pilot has at least 500 hours of total time as a pilot of which 400 hours is as PIC and 50 of the PIC hours were accrued in the last 12 calendar months. The kinds of operations permitted are those that are:
  • incidental to business or employment,
  • in support of family medical needs or to transport essential goods for personal use,
  • necessary to fly an aircraft to a location in order to meet a requirement of this chapter, or
  • a flight to transport essential goods and/or medical supplies to support public health needs.
 
asicer said:
Going to take a bit to parse the doc, but so far I see:
The relief applies to any operation that requires the pilot to hold at least a commercial pilot certificate...
Additionally, this relief applies to some operations conducted by pilots exercising private pilot privileges, provided the pilot has at least 500 hours of total time as a pilot of which 400 hours is as PIC and 50 of the PIC hours were accrued in the last 12 calendar months. The kinds of operations permitted are those that are:
  • incidental to business or employment,
  • in support of family medical needs or to transport essential goods for personal use,
  • necessary to fly an aircraft to a location in order to meet a requirement of this chapter, or
  • a flight to transport essential goods and/or medical supplies to support public health needs.
Click to expand...
Yep I saw that then it says this for the 3 month flight review extension….
"To mitigate any safety risk, the pilot must have logged at least 10 hours of PIC time
within the twelve calendar months preceding the month the flight review was due"

So not sure why the contradiction.
 
Whew, just in time...I was due end of this month and CFIs are not easily amenable to sitting in the cockpit with me now.
An incidental question....I recently completed the Mayo’s Basic Med course which they say does qualify for WINGS credit hours...anyone here know how many? I’ve emailed them to ask .... will report back when I hear.
 
wrbix said:
Whew, just in time...I was due end of this month and CFIs are not easily amenable to sitting in the cockpit with me now.
An incidental question....I recently completed the Mayo’s Basic Med course which they say does qualify for WINGS credit hours...anyone here know how many? I’ve emailed them to ask .... will report back when I hear.
Click to expand...

Log into your Wings account and see how many credits you have on your transcript.
 
This SFAR is so confusing ... but it does look like it only applies commercial pilots and private pilots with at least 500 hours.
 
Warmi said:
This SFAR is so confusing ... but it does look like it only applies commercial pilots and private pilots with at least 500 hours.
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Not how I read it at all.
 
denverpilot said:
Thanks. I saw it was the longer URL tracking version but was a fast cut and paste from someone else, while multitasking, so folks could do their own research. :)
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Teamwork... :D

Whereas I can appreciate links directly to reference documents (in this case the actual PDF), sometimes it lends more credibility (and context) to be able to share the page from which the document is sourced...
 
So, this excludes private pilots with less than 500 hours?
 
simtech said:
Yep I saw that then it says this for the 3 month flight review extension….
"To mitigate any safety risk, the pilot must have logged at least 10 hours of PIC time
within the twelve calendar months preceding the month the flight review was due"

So not sure why the contradiction.
Click to expand...
Sounds to me like the 10 hours is for commercial or higher-certificated pilots, but private pilots need to meet the 500/400/50-hour requirement to get the relief.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
My insurance co requires type-specific (with a specified syllabus) every year ( I have a bfr which is current til 2022).
So even if we get the FAA on board, some of us will still have that detail to iron out.
My last ride was 5/4/2019.
My insurance renews May 31.
Click to expand...

Ins Co just extended me 2 more months.
 
Just did two wings courses, just my luck airplane just went out of annual.
 
Walboy said:
I don't think it says that at all. This is the part that applies to pleasure pilots (from the AOPA article):

Flight reviews. The FAA is offering a three-calendar-month “grace period” for those whose flight review may expire between March 1 and June 30. A condition of eligibility for the extension is that the pilot must have logged at least 10 hours of pilot in command time within the 12 calendar months preceding the month the flight review was due, in an aircraft for which that pilot is rated. Also, eligible pilots must complete FAA Safety Team online courses totaling at least three Wings credits. The courses must have been completed in January or later to meet this requirement, according to the rule.
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excerpts from pages 14 & 15 quoted earlier atate that this relief applies to operations requiring a commercial certificate and “some” operations conducted by private pilots that are basically business, medical transport and relief.

it’s only relief for those operations that are deemed necessary.

what you quoted are the requirements a Pilot has to fulfill in order to be eligible to fly those necessary operations.
 
Walboy said:
There are two different sections being quoted. The part I cited seems pretty clear.
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So you’re saying that the part you quoted doesn’t apply to the operations I mentioned?

the first sentence in the AOPA article also indicates that the relief is to allow pilots to fly “to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic”. It doesn’t mention pleasure flying, either.
 
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Get a flight review every year, problem solved. IPC too.
 
I guess it's a good thing I got my flight review yesterday rather than waiting for this hot mess. Will be interesting to see if there's an FAA in 24 months...
 
As usual, the SFAR is not clearly written. All I know is my insurance company will recognize whatever the heck the SFAR says. I think the intent is that part 61 ops require 10 hours in the past 12 months and 3 credits of wings safety courses, but it's not clear that's completely right the way it was written. Hopefully the legal team at AOPA will weigh in. There is almost zero chance of getting a FR now in my region.
 
I would hope the alphabets would come out with a clarification in the next day or two. Not sure the insurance companies totally understand it yet.
 
GrummanBear said:
If anyone in wants to come to TX and get it taken care of, dm me and I can get you in touch with someone here. I fly several times a month with an ATP/CFII who is absolutely excellent, professional, and unfortunately has a lot of available time due to canceled commercial flights. It is a bit dangerous around here though...0.000016 of the city has died from the Thing.
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About the same % that will commit suicide after they lose everything during this crap show!!
 
N747JB said:
About the same % that will commit suicide after they lose everything during this crap show!!
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No kidding, we are watching an experiment on the social and health outcomes of economic eugenics. On the strongest, fittest and most essential businesses will survive. The rest are being culled for the good of the masses.

Edit: @MauleSkinner Yes, obviously can’t speak for elsewhere, but my wife has been hit really hard emotionally with an influx of particularly brutal domestic violence cases ending up in her trauma bays
 
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GrummanBear said:
No kidding, we are watching an experiment on the social and health outcomes of economic eugenics. On the strongest, fittest and most essential businesses will survive. The rest are being culled for the good of the masses.
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We’re also bringing as many domestic abusers and alcoholics to the surface as possible.
 
I guess being proper bureaucrats they could not have just extended for everyone , they had to wrap it in all sorts of conditionals matching your typical “essential only” bs you see in various Covid related state closures.
 
Warmi said:
I guess being proper bureaucrats they could not have just extended for everyone , they had to wrap it in all sorts of conditionals matching your typical “essential only” bs you see in various Covid related state closures.
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The SFAR says "necessary to fly an aircraft to a location in order to meet a requirement of this chapter" satisfies one of the essential-only conditions. I suppose one could get the prescribed WINGS credit, fly to a state that isn't locked down and get a BFR from a CFI that is willing to give one.
 
asicer said:
The SFAR says "necessary to fly an aircraft to a location in order to meet a requirement of this chapter" satisfies one of the essential-only conditions. I suppose one could get the prescribed WINGS credit, fly to a state that isn't locked down and get a BFR from a CFI that is willing to give one.
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I am not a commercial pilot nor I have 500 hours - I am just gonna find somebody here locally who is willing and do the BFR the old fashioned way.
 
Beech Talk

The FAA finds, under the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, that extending the 24 calendar month requirement of §61.56(c) by up to three calendar months will not adversely affect safety, provided the extension applies to active pilots and certain risk mitigations are met. The three calendar month extension applies to pilots who were current to act as PIC of an aircraft in March 2020 and whose flight review was due in March 2020 through June 2020. To mitigate any safety risk, the pilot must have logged at least 10 hours of PIC time within the twelve calendar months preceding the month the flight review was due. This flight time must be obtained in an aircraft for which that pilot is rated.31 In addition, eligible pilots will need to complete FAA Safety Team online courses totaling at least three WINGS credits. The courses must have been completed in January 2020 or later to meet this requirement. Completion of the safety courses demonstrates continued learning and pilot professional development.
 
Walboy said:
I don't think it says that at all. This is the part that applies to pleasure pilots (from the AOPA article):
Click to expand...
AOPA updated the article.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media...-extends-many-operating-privileges-to-june-30

First of all, the SFAR takes effect Monday May 4, so hopefully nobody with an expired BFR went flying yesterday.

Second, AOPA seems to acknowledge that some provisions in their words "limit flight operations to flights associated with fighting the coronavirus epidemic.". BFR is listed as one of those provisions tied to specific flight operations.
 
Some provisions of the SFAR will no doubt be helpful. But it is difficult to see the BFR extension as anything but misguided. Look, if you’ve had to deal with any branch of the federal government lately, you might’ve noticed that most operations have been cut back to minimum, mission-critical type things. The purpose for that is to minimize unnecessary contact between people, and therefore reduce spread of the virus. Which makes sense.

This ridiculous SFAR seems to have been written from the point of view of a total GA shutdown, like we had post-911, because it provides to get pilots “back in the air to support the fight against the virus.” Are you kidding me? We’re not out of the air!

If you meet the stringent requirements of the SFAR, then great. Go flying. But what if you’re a PP who doesn’t? No impact - you can still go flying, you just contact a CFI and go do a BFR as usual.

And therein is the failure of the SFAR. Because those pilots whose BFRs have lapsed now have to climb into a small cockpit with another individual, during a pandemic, and thereby facilitate the continued spread of disease.

With respect to BFRs, this SFAR encourages actions that are favorable to disease transmission. The Feds - they’re here to help us. Yeah, right.
 
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