Another ******n IFR currency question..

stratobee

stratobee

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stratobee
I understand the currency requirements in general, but am a little fuzzy on one part.

I got my IR the 8th of Aug 2014. Provided I've done 6 app, holds and navigation by the end of Feb 2015, I'm current for another 6 months from the day I meet the:

1. Currency requirements? Meaning, it would behoove me to meet the currency as late as possible.

2. Or the last day of Feb (which is 6 calendar months from when I passed checkride?), meaning I could do all my approaches the day after my IR and then sit and kick back for 6 months and not fly?
 
stratobee said:
I understand the currency requirements in general, but am a little fuzzy on one part.

I got my IR the 8th of Aug 2014. Provided I've done 6 app, holds and navigation by the end of Feb 2015, I'm current for another 6 months from the day I meet the:

1. Currency requirements? Meaning, it would behoove me to meet the currency as late as possible.

2. Or the last day of Feb (which is 6 calendar months from when I passed checkride?), meaning I could do all my approaches the day after my IR and then sit and kick back for 6 months and not fly?
Click to expand...

A perfect WWRD question......:yes:
 
The rule is from the date you want to fly IFR you need to have had the required tasks in the previous six months.

Can you stay current legally by doing six approaches all at one time every six months? Sure, legally. Is that keeping you sufficiently current in case you need to fly IFR five months later...possibly not.

This reminds me of the movie Zorro the Gay Blade:

Florinda: [regarding Esteban] Do you know he only makes love to me 12 times a year?
Don Diego: Well, once a month is not so bad.
Florinda: No, he makes love to me 12 times in one night and then, zip, nothing!
 
I can’t reconcile this with the actual FARs 61.57(c) and (d), but based on the knowledge test questions, I believe you are only IFR current through February 8, not the last day of Feb, or February 28. The questions tells me that for you to be current to fly on February 17, you must have completed your currency requirements no earlier than August 17. In other words, August 8 would be too long ago to be current for a flight on February 17.

On the other hand, If you go out of currency on February 8, you have six FAT months to get recurrent before you have to take a proficiency check, i.e. as late as August 30.


My memory device is:

Six skinny months looking back to determine if you’re current on any particular day.

Six fat months looking forward to determine your deadline for getting recurrent if you missed the initial currency requirement.
 
Well in that case I'm laughing. I have 5 instrument approaches, no holds and am coming up on the time limit. But since the regs say Within the 6 calendar months preceding the month of the flight that means I can count the hold and the 3 approaches I did on my checkride as well, taking it to 8 in total.
 
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Yes, you can count anything in the checkride or even in your IFR training leading up to it is within six months of today.
 
The issues with this rule arise when you think of it as "currency" (i.e., do something one day and you're good for X time thereafter) as opposed to "lookback" (i.e., if I want to do something today, I have to look back through my logbook and find all the squares filled within X time back). IOW, it doesn't matter when you did the last of your 6HIT's, but rather when you did the first of them.

So, today is January 31st. The six preceding calendar months are:

  1. December
  2. November
  3. October
  4. September
  5. August
  6. July
That means to be IFR-current today, I have to look back in my logbook and find the 6HIT items (or an IPC or IR practical test) within that period, i.e., since July 1st. When the clock strikes midnight tonight, and it becomes February, then the six preceding calendar months will be:

  1. January
  2. December
  3. November
  4. October
  5. September
  6. August
...so to be IFR-current tomorrow, I'll only be able to look back to August 1st to find my 6HIT's.

Now, as to the proficiency side of this issue (which is not covered by the regulations), if you got your IR on August 8th, you'll be legal to fly IFR all the way through to the end of February without any instrument practice at all, since you'd be able to look back to August 1st to find your currency events. However, in that case, the odds of you being instrument proficient at that point are pretty slim. For proficiency (rather than just legality), you'd do best to get at least one approach a month, and probably more if you're only recently instrument rated. If you haven't done any instrument work since that ride, you'd probably be wise to avoid any actual IFR flying until you get some practice under VFR with at least a safety pilot and preferably an instrument instructor even though you are still legal to fly as PIC under IFR until February 28th.
 
stratobee said:
Well in that case I'm laughing. I have 5 instrument approaches, no holds and am coming up on the time limit. But since the regs say Within the 6 calendar months preceding the month of the flight that means I can count the hold and the 3 approaches I did on my checkride as well, taking it to 8 in total.
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You can, but it doesn't matter. You're IFR-legal as long as the practical test is still in your 6-month lookback window regardless of what you've done since, but once that test falls out of that window on March 1st, so will the approaches you flew on that ride.
 
So, logic tells me that holds, being the unicorns of IR, should be done each month to be able to "at all times be able to legally perform an IFR flight at a moments notice". If you don't do that, then you'll not meet the requirements very easily. The other stuff you can't help but meet if you fly each month.
 
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stratobee said:
I understand the currency requirements in general, but am a little fuzzy on one part.

I got my IR the 8th of Aug 2014. Provided I've done 6 app, holds and navigation by the end of Feb 2015, I'm current for another 6 months from the day I meet the:

1. Currency requirements? Meaning, it would behoove me to meet the currency as late as possible.

2. Or the last day of Feb (which is 6 calendar months from when I passed checkride?), meaning I could do all my approaches the day after my IR and then sit and kick back for 6 months and not fly?
Click to expand...
It all depends on when you do the approaches. If you do them all in February 2015, you're legal until the end of August 2015. If you did some of them in January or even before, then it is a little more complicated.

The general rule is that on any day when you want to file, you ask whether you've done 6HITs within the last 6 calendar months. You count up the approaches and discard the ones that were more than 6 calendar months ago. So, say you want to file on August 1, 2015. The ones you flew this month no longer count because they were more than 6 calendar months ago. You count the ones you will fly from tomorrow onward.
 
use my flightbook keeps your currency for you.
 
stratobee said:
So, logic tells me that holds, being the unicorns of IR, should be done each month to be able to "at all times be able to legally perform an IFR flight at a moments notice".
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That is entirely possible. But you fulfil the requirement for "Holding procedures and tasks" every time you do a holding pattern in lieu of procedure turn, and I'll bet you do those regularly.
 
Ron Levy said:
That is entirely possible. But you fulfil the requirement for "Holding procedures and tasks" every time you do a holding pattern in lieu of procedure turn, and I'll bet you do those regularly.
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Depends a bit on where you are flying. When I was in SoCal, I used to get holds in lieu of procedure turns a lot. Just yesterday, I had to file IFR and climb up into the clouds over SFQ to ask for a hold to keep current. I had a bunch of approaches but no holds for almost 6 months.
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

stratobee said:
holds, being the unicorns of IR...
Click to expand...

I like the terminology, but holds do in fact exist. If you fly approaches in Center or other nonradar airpsace, where only one plane can be on an approach at a time, you will get issued holds.

Jon
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

4CornerFlyer said:
I like the terminology, but holds do in fact exist. If you fly approaches in Center or other nonradar airpsace, where only one plane can be on an approach at a time, you will get issued holds.

Jon
Click to expand...


Happens here alot...

A few days last week we had a nasty inversion and left a 100' and 1/8 mile all day... At one time they had 6 planes stacked up in the hold.... :redface:
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

fly what you want, log what you need?
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

stratobee said:
I understand the currency requirements in general, but am a little fuzzy on one part.

I got my IR the 8th of Aug 2014. Provided I've done 6 app, holds and navigation by the end of Feb 2015, I'm current for another 6 months from the day I meet the:

1. Currency requirements? Meaning, it would behoove me to meet the currency as late as possible.

2. Or the last day of Feb (which is 6 calendar months from when I passed checkride?), meaning I could do all my approaches the day after my IR and then sit and kick back for 6 months and not fly?
Click to expand...

Look at it the other way around. You have to look backwards from the day you are intending to fly. You need to see all the requirements in that period. Makes it a lot easier to understand that way.
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

I was away this past week and not posting much, But I can't help chuckling at
I understand the currency requirements in general, but am a little fuzzy on one part.
Click to expand...
when the "one part" is the "currency" part of the currency requirements.

Yep, as a number have advised, it's a lookback.

I want to fly this calendar month. Have I, in the past 6 calendar months, flown...

Or, if you want to look ahead... I want to fly in July. Looking back 6 calendar months from July, how many of the requirements am I missing and need to accomplish between now and then.

I never quite understood all the confusion over the term "Calendar month." All it means is that we forget about the day-date altogether.
Regular date: Today is February 5, 2015
"Calendar Month" date: Today is February, 2015.​
 
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Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

Shut up and get out there and fly!

I found another person who has an open day when I do and we fly 1 or 2 times a month. I am current every month.

We have a routine that we can get a hold, track, and 3 approaches in about an hour. We eat, then the other guy gets it done.

We stay current and we both get to log the time, one being safety pilot.

We also critique each other and we both learn a lot. Win-win.
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

It's a rolling currency for the six month's preceding each flight. If you are going to file and fly IFR, you must have logged, within the preceding six months the 66HIT requirement. If you knock out a couple of approaches and holding every month, then currency would never be an issue. The electronic "intercepting and tracking" requirement you meet every time you fly IFR. If you don't fly at least that often, I'd make friends with a CFII and get an IPC every 6 months.
 
Re: Another ******* IFR currency question..

SbestCFII said:
The electronic "intercepting and tracking" requirement you meet every time you fly IFR.
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That's not always true. The folks who wrote that reg inserted that language specifically because there are those who do nothing but radar vectors to a PAR/ASR, and a flight like that doesn't meet that requirement.
 
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