I just did my FI revalidation test a couple of days ago, and was told something very useful. Apparently, the 25 solo sign-offs an FI(R) needs to get rid of the restriction are not 25 flights but 25
exercises. And you can have two exercises per flight. This was mentioned in respect of rotary flying, where it's quite easy to send someone off to practice hovering, then do some circuits, which is two exercises. But the rules concerning restricted FIs are the same for rotary and f/w, so it ought to be possible for f/w flying too. This brings the 25 down to 13 or thereabouts, which makes a lot of difference. I was told all of this by the examiner; I'd never heard of it before, and I suspect a lot of other people hadn't either.
I immediately started working out ways to manage 3-4 exercises per flight - quite easy in helicopter flying, where hovering, hovering sideways and backwards, and spot turns, are all separate exercises. But apparently the CAA won't allow more than two, for some reason best known to them. Still, two is better than one, isn't it.
Just thought some of you might like to know.
