Currency Question/Landings

[HPNFlyGirl]

When doing your 3 take offs and landings as sole manipulator of the flight controls as in FAR 61.57, do your take offs and landings have to be consecutive or can you do at a another time?

Say if the winds kick up and you only get 1 take off and landing finished and you have to stop for the day/night, the next time you flew would 2 more take offs and landings count or would you have to start from number 1 again?

 

[MauleSkinner]

When doing your 3 take offs and landings as sole manipulator of the flight controls as in FAR 61.57, do your take offs and landings have to be consecutive or can you do at a another time?

Say if the winds kick up and you only get 1 take off and landing finished and you have to stop for the day/night, the next time you flew would 2 more take offs and landings count or would you have to start from number 1 again?

They can be done at any time...to find out if you're current today, you simply look back in your logbook and make sure that you've got your 3 in the last 90 days.

Going the other direction, if you do one today, one next week, and one 2 months from now, you're current til 90 days from today.

Hope that helps

David

 

[ScottM]

I think it best that if you have done a take off to make sure you have also done a landing as well.

But to really answer your question

Sec. 61.57 - Recent flight experience: Pilot in command.
(a) General experience. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section, no person may act as a pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers or of an aircraft certificated for more than one pilot flight crewmember unless that person has made at least three takeoffs and three landings within the preceding 90 days, and...

No just get 'em done with in 90 days. You should be able to look at your logbook and if you have the 3 in the past 90 days, even if spread out they count.

 

[Skip Miller]

I think it best that if you have done a take off to make sure you have also done a landing as well. :yes

I know you are just kidding around but I thought it would be worth reminding everyone that night currency requires 3 takeoffs and landings, not just three landings, at night. If you leave at noon, fly to the beach, have dinner, then fly home and land at night, then do two laps around the pattern, you have three landings at night but only two takeoffs. Barring anything else in your log book your night currency is not re-set.

-Skip

 

[midlifeflyer]

When doing your 3 take offs and landings as sole manipulator of the flight controls as in FAR 61.57, do your take offs and landings have to be consecutive or can you do at a another time?

Say if the winds kick up and you only get 1 take off and landing finished and you have to stop for the day/night, the next time you flew would 2 more take offs and landings count or would you have to start from number 1 again?

Your question suggests a misunderstanding of the rule (either that or I really don't understand your question). The way the rule works is this:

I am flying today with passengers. Have I taken off and landed as sole manipulator of the controls at least 3 times within the last 90 days?"

Does that help you answer your own question?

 

[EdFred]

Just count backwards in your log book until you get a sum of 3. Then go forward 90 days from there - that's when you are current until. Doesn't matter if they are 3 on one day, 100 on one day, 1 on one day 2 on another, or 1 on three separate days, or if they are 5 , 10, or 20 days apart.

 

[gismo]

I know you are just kidding around but I thought it would be worth reminding everyone that night currency requires 3 takeoffs and landings, not just three landings, at night. If you leave at noon, fly to the beach, have dinner, then fly home and land at night, then do two laps around the pattern, you have three landings at night but only two takeoffs. Barring anything else in your log book your night currency is not re-set.

-Skip

What you said is entirely true even though it makes no sense whatsoever (typical FAA). I can see why it would be prudent to have recent night landing experience on any night flight, but what good is night takeoff experience on a flight that begins before dark and is terminated at night? In the summer it's pretty darn rare that I would make a night takeoff for reasons other than meeting the night currency rule.

 

[SCCutler]

What you said is entirely true even though it makes no sense whatsoever (typical FAA). I can see why it would be prudent to have recent night landing experience on any night flight, but what good is night takeoff experience on a flight that begins before dark and is terminated at night? In the summer it's pretty darn rare that I would make a night takeoff for reasons other than meeting the night currency rule.

Quite right with me; during summertime, with the long days, I have to plan a night-time flight for maintaining night currency. Usually a pleasant round-robin to a couple of different airports with a few times around at each, and I leave the GPS out of the picture, get a little night visual nav experience (of which I seem to get so little these days...).

 

[Matthew]

In my limited hours, that first night takeoff in a long while is a little disorienting. At my airport, on a moonless night, using R18 means a black-hole type of experience just after leaving the runway. R36 takes me over city lights and give me a horizon in my peripheral vision, but I don't get much of that leaving R18.

 

[midlifeflyer]

What you said is entirely true even though it makes no sense whatsoever (typical FAA). I can see why it would be prudent to have recent night landing experience on any night flight, but what good is night takeoff experience on a flight that begins before dark and is terminated at night? In the summer it's pretty darn rare that I would make a night takeoff for reasons other than meeting the night currency rule.

Okay. here's your chance to rewrite the rule so that it makes "sense." Rewrite 61.57 so that you need 3 night landings if you are going to land at night but 3 night takeoffs only if you are going to take off at night.

Then we can have a brief comment period so folks can comment on your choice of language in particular and how the currrent FAR makes more, less, or as much sense as your proposal.

 

[gismo]

Okay. here's your chance to rewrite the rule so that it makes "sense." Rewrite 61.57 so that you need 3 night landings if you are going to land at night but 3 night takeoffs only if you are going to take off at night.

Then we can have a brief comment period so folks can comment on your choice of language in particular and how the currrent FAR makes more, less, or as much sense as your proposal.

Easy. Replace 61.57(b) with this (comment away):

(b) Night takeoff and landing experience.


(1) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section, no person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, unless within the preceding 90 days that person has made at least three landings to a full stop during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, and—
(i) That person acted as sole manipulator of the flight controls; and
(ii) The required takeoffs and landings were performed in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required).


(2) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section, no person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft during takeoff, carrying passengers during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, unless within the preceding 90 days that person has made at least three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, and—
(i) That person acted as sole manipulator of the flight controls; and
(ii) The required takeoffs and landings were performed in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required).


(3) The takeoffs and landings required by paragraph (b)(1) and (b)(2) of this section may be accomplished in a flight simulator that is—
(i) Approved by the Administrator for takeoffs and landings, if the visual system is adjusted to represent the period described in paragraph (b)(1) of this section; and
(ii) Used in accordance with an approved course conducted by a training center certificated under part 142 of this chapter.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I think it's a silly rule. If you accept the idea that there is something more inherently dangerous about the limited visual references at night, and that passenger carrying at night should be regulated in some way to begin with, I think it's a wise idea to allow for the potential of a pilot needing to do the go-around that should be expected in every landing. You're welcome to do it yourself, but I don;t think you should be allowed to expose passengers to that extra danger posed by a last-moment go-around into a black hole unless you're taken off at night.

Arguably even what is required isn't enough!