FAA IFR 6 Months grace period

See this article on BoldMethod.

That article sums everything up quite nicely. @Peter it would be a nice feature on Euroga to have a directory of fellow pilots to pair with to do these currency flights, wouldn’t it?

Another interesting constellation is if you also have a current EASA IR you could fly the approaches under IFR.
Do they count for the US currency in the grace period ?

if you also have a current EASA IR

or an IMCR.

Do they count for the US currency in the grace period ?

Yes; you can maintain an FAA IR valid by flying procedures on an EASA IR or the IMCR privileges. That is a slightly unusual case, because when will you have a valid EASA IR / IMCR but an about-to-expire FAA IR? I suppose the cases might be

• not been flying IAPs (so the FAA IR is going to lapse but the EASA IR / IMCR won’t because they require no currency)
• no BFR on your FAA PPL
• no FAA medical (and no 61.75 which allows you to fly an N-reg on an EASA medical) but have an EASA medical (and EASA or UK national PPL)

AFAIK you don’t need a valid FAA PPL or an FAA medical, in order to maintain the 6/6 FAA IR rolling currency by flying IAPs on the privileges of some other papers. Or by flying with an instructor, in which case you don’t need any license or medical whatsoever

The above is a key consideration for someone who lost their FAA medical for some months, who can reval their FAA PPL with a BFR (with an FAA CFI and they are fairly common) and who wants to avoid an IPC (because FAA CFIIs are not common at all). Just fly around with some instructor, shoot some IAPs, in any reg aircraft, until you get your medical back, then do a BFR (if your BFR expired) and you are back with a valid FAA IR.

It’s a “look back” compliance (I will ignore the intercept/tracking as that happens automatically as part of almost all approaches). Here’s a compliance example:

Month 1: You flew no approaches.
Month 2: You flew 1 approach and 1 hold
Month 3: You flew 1 approach.
Month 4: You flew no approaches.
Month 5: You flew 3 approaches.
Month 6: You flew no approaches.
Month 7: You flew 1 approaches.

Can you in month 7 fly that 1 approach? No, because you were out of approaches by end of 6 when you looked back. So let’s say you went to a sim and got that approach. Month 8, can you fly? No, because you were out of a hold when you looked back. So, logic would suggest, you’ll need to do a hold each month to be able to always be sure you can look back 6 months at any given time and be compliant. At least that’s how I approach it, but I don’t live what I preach – always a mad scramble to get compliance in in the sim each 6 month period!

prob99 30th of Jun, 2019

AdamFrisch wrote:

Can you in month 7 fly that 1 approach? No, because you were out of approaches by end of 6 when you looked back.

Once you have completed the 6th approach in the 7th month, you are good to go for the 7th month to act as PIC under IFR for subsequent flights, because the look back period includes any approaches in the 7th month plus any approaches in the 6 prior calendar months (the look back). The approach in the 7th month would have to be with a safety pilot or another pilot acting as PIC, because you are not authorized to act as PIC until you have accumulated the 6 approaches.

I have an EASA CBIR and piggy back FAA IR (“Based on”). does my yearly EASA Instrument Proficiency Check (EASA Examiner, EASA Plane) automatically reset my 6 months window for FAA proficiency requirements? Example: EASA IPC is on 1st May, zero approaches and zero holdings in previous 6 months. Am I good to go to fly solo IFR in FAA world or will they not acknowledge the EASA IPC?