The annual 1hr prof check for the IR will cost a LOT more than the 25 month check for the IR(R) as well as happening twice as often.
The EASA IR (and PPL) reval costs about £500, plus the cost of flying the plane.
I can’t see an FAA IPC (which implicitly gives you a BFR also, I think) costing less, and there are certainly a lot fewer FAA CFIIs around than EASA IR examiners. To maintain a CFII you need to either do an IPC yourself or maintain the 6/6 rolling currency which more or less implies owning a plane, and very few instructors own a plane.
Does the FAA distinguish a ME IR and SE IR? All the FAA CFII’s I know fly for the airlines.
All the FAA CFII’s I know fly for the airlines.
Me too, every one I have ever met, except one who had it years ago (from years of instructing in the US) and then it lapsed.
Is it because Irish are, on average, not very wealthy?
I’ve been visiting Ireland sporadically since the early 1980s and it was really poor. Once you got outside Dublin, you could drive for hours and see cattle, wooden sheds, carts pulled by horses. Similar to portraits of the UK in the 1920s, and probably very similar to e.g. Spain before the EU money started to flow in (my earliest visit was 1983). Then Dublin got rich, some parts very rich, but – like with Spain – a brief influx of EU money doesn’t produce a growth in GA. You need sustained prosperity for many years. On this 2014 trip almost no GA was heard on the radio all day.
I can’t see an FAA IPC (which implicitly gives you a BFR also, I think) costing less
Although I usually keep my FAA IR current under the 6/6 Rule, the one time I did an FAA IPC it cost me £150 – a lot less I suspect than an EASA reval.
Charlie’s posting about the relative advantages/costs of an IR(R) v. an EASA IR are very pertinent.
One of the reasons I have always argued (and still do) as to why an FAA IR – even under the present circumstances – still has a lot going for it.
tmo wrote:
Does the FAA distinguish a ME IR and SE IR?
Not for instrument proficiency however certificates that include or will include a multi-engine class rating are endorsed with a multi-engine VFR-only limitation when the instrument rating practical test has been completed in a single-engine class. Removal of the limitation requires a once-off demonstration of multi-engine instrument competency by completing tasks C and D in the appropriate airman certification standards. For type ratings see 14 CFR 61.63(d)(4) and (e)(2).
That suggests that an airline pilot is able to keep a CFII current using the rolling currency option, just by flying airliners.
As some may have read in another thread I have recently revalidated my MEP, MEIR and SEIR ratings. Cost €754 including examiner, da42 for 1.5hrs, landing fees and VAT. This revalidation also means I do not have to have my SEP control flight this year. If I still had my own aircraft I would pay for examiner plus vat, landing fees and fuel for the test (the last time fuel cost was around €190 (Seneca) and landing fees €35).
Peter wrote:
… an airline pilot is able to keep a CFII current using the rolling currency option, just by flying airliners.
Sure but instrument currency is not necessary to exercise CFI-IA privileges because it is neither necessary to use a US pilot certificate nor to act as pilot-in-command when exercising the privileges of a US flight instructor certificate. Recent instrument flight experience is required when exercising the privileges of a US pilot certificate to act as pilot-in-command under the IFR or in conditions below VFR minima notwithstanding exceptions applicable in some US commercial operations. Nevertheless instrument currency could also be maintained by a CFI-IA who gives instrument flight instruction, to the extent that the instructed person completes the activities required by 14 CFR 61.57(c)(1), in actual instrument flight conditions: see interpretation in final para of post 4 in the thread Logging PIC and actual IMC time.
Does that mean that a CFII whose instrument currency has lapsed and whose BFR has also lapsed can still perform an IPC if the LHS is legally capable of being PIC?
If so, then a LHS with a valid BFR can get the IPC done if the actual flight conditions are VFR.
