No FAR/AIM handy....IFR currency ?

[legaleagle]

My safety pilot is not instrument current, but can fly the required approaches and holds before Bed 28th. What again is the most recent requirement? 6 approaches, 6 holds, and 6?????.

I completely forgot and can't seem to pull up info on the FAA website quickly. Thanks for your help!

CMB

 

[legaleagle]

This should answer it...

The old regulations made it a certainty that instrument-rated pilots who failed to meet currency requirements (and that was most of us) would head for the local flight school and ante up for what is now called an instrument proficiency check. It was a lot less expensive than finding a safety pilot and cruising around under the hood to meet the requirement for not only six approaches, but six hours of actual or simulated instrument time.

Last year, the FAA changed that picture dramatically. Now, pilots have a shot at keeping current on their own — and doing it less expensively. Six hours of simulated or actual instrument time are no longer a part of the currency requirement. At first glance, the new currency requirements in FAR 61.57(c)(1) seem simple: Every six months you need to perform at least six instrument approaches, holding procedures, and intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigation systems. Failing that, you have, as was the case with the old regs, another six months to get current before having to take an instrument proficiency check. During that six months you may not file IFR.

But wait. First of all, there is an s on holding procedures; and does tracking courses mean those other than used for an approach?

To find out, AOPA Technical Services personnel asked the author of 61.57, FAA official John D. Lynch. Here's his answer:

"When paragraph 61.57(c)(1)(ii) [i.e., "Holding procedures"] was written it was not intended to mean multiple holdings. The emphasis is on the word procedures. There is more to holding than just flying circles in the sky. There is the planning for holding, slowing the aircraft down prior to entry, entering the holding pattern correctly, correcting for winds, establishing the one-minute inbound leg, etc. That is why I wrote it as 'Holding procedures.' So no, I never intended it to be multiple holdings."




Bottom line six approaches in six months, with at least one holding procedure.....
I am not going to pretend that this makes someone truly "Current" or "proficient" however.

CMB