goose2111

Hello everyone, couple of the guys were having a discussion on faa atp and the ways to keep them current if you aren't flying in the US. Was hoping some of you could shed some light on it here.
If the individual is employed outside of US but flying based on the faa licence do they need to come to US every year to maintain currency ?
Or does the the sim checks done by the operator suffice to satisfy all the requirements.
Thanks in advance

LTCTerry

From an FAA perspective, 90-day currency and instrument currency can be met in an airplane registered in any country. The flight review required every 24 months under FAR 61.56 must be done by an instructor with an FAA certificate, though the airplane need not have an N-registration.

goose2111

Thank your for the reply LTCterry.
the understanding was if not flying an N reg aircraft. The ir/ppc and and line checks done by the airline would suffice to keep the faa licence current as long as faa class one medical is maintained.

Check-Ride/Line-Check Exemption. FAR §61.56(d) states that a flight review is unnecessary if within the preceding twenty-four months a pilot has passed a pilot proficiency check conducted by an examiner, an approved pilot check airman, or a U.S. Armed Force, for a pilot certificate, rating, or operating privilege. This means that a pilot who has passed a check-ride or line-check need not accomplish a flight review for another twenty-four months following the successful completion of that check-ride or line-check.

MarkerInbound

Like most things, it depends. The FAA definition of 'approved' is found in FAR 1.1 -

"Approved, unless used with reference to another person, means approved by the FAA or any person to whom the FAA has delegated its authority in the matter concerned, or approved under the provisions of a bilateral agreement between the United States and a foreign country or jurisdiction."

So just because the check airman is authorized by XYZ CAA to do pilot checks doesn't necessarily the check would count. But if they hold a FAA instructor rating or the training center also holds FAA authorization they would. Or if there is an agreement between the FAA and XYZ CAA.

pedrothepilot

I had the same question and I emailed the FAA about it to which the replied that only an FAA Certified Instructor/examiner, check airman etc. is approved to sign off anything to do with your FAA licence. But try email them yourself, who knows if you will get a different answer. I believe I emailed the New York FSDO

So if you are flying at a non-FAA airline your currency/proficiency checks unfortunately do not satisfy either a flight review nor an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC)

Depending on your location you could probably find an FAA instructor to knock out an IPC and a Flight Review in a Single Engine Piston, this will satisfy your Flight Review (required every 24 months) and the IPC. There are some in the UK, Netherlands and Germany for example. As stated before you can do this in any registration of aircraft.

My understanding is that the instrument currency can be maintained by your airline flying, as long as you fly and log the 6 approaches/holding/intercepting and tracking etc.. within the previous 6 months. If you can manage to do that for example with airline flying then the only thing you should need to do is a Flight Review every 24 months. If your IR privileges lapsed at any time ie 6/12 months since last proficiency check/IR checkride without any IR flying then you will need an IPC as well.

Best off finding an FAA instructor and resetting your Flight Review and IPC, then you just need to do a Flight Review every 24 months, and keep your IR current with recency (you can do this indefinitely if you don't allow the 6(12)months to lapse)

goose2111

Thank you MarkerInbound and pedrothepilot .
I will email faa as well for more clarification.
have a good day