PPL CURRENCY

[eagle-listic]

Hello all

I am an aviation law student and could really do with some help with regards licencing issues.

If a pilot has not flown for 10 months ... is his licence still valid to fly. I appreciate that a PPL needs to be revalidated every two years and the question does not state when the pilot last did this.

After looking at Lasors.. (what fun) it would seem that it is valid ....

If your flying privately is it thus legal to fly.. despite not flying for 10 months...??

Furthermore what defines "current".. is a pilot current if he has a valid licence...

Some clarity would be much appreciated.. Thank you all :8

[Whopity]

Firstly, don't uses LASORs as a source of legal information, its a guidance document with lots of inaccuracies. Use only the ANO contained within CAP 393 (http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP393.pdf) This document is being eroded by EU Laws, but for the time being will suffice. Definitions used within the ANO are listed in Article 255. There is no definition for "current".

There have been different licences with different validation systems however; if you are studying for a JAA licence, that's all you need to be concerned about. All licence privileges are in Schedule 7 of the ANO and are worth reading.

If a licence is valid for two years then legally it can be exercised at any time within that two year period but not beyond the validity date in the Licence, The Aircraft Rating and the Medical Certificate; all 3 must be valid. Beyond that clubs will have recency requirements, but that has nothing to do with Air Law.

[The500man]

It's a bit silly isn't it. You need 12 hours every two years to keep the license but you could do it all in the last week having not flown for 23 months. You could also do three circuits first and then take passengers with you for the other 11.5 hours.

If you are renting though like Whopity said, all clubs and schools will want you to fly with an instructor if you have not flown one of their aircraft in the preceeding month or so.

[Whopity]

Flying has always required pilots to exercise good judgement and common sense. These cannot be replaced by rules and legislation.

In reality you don't need any hours experience at all. So long as you pass a proficiency check every two years the clock is reset.

[mad_jock]

You don't need 12 hours every 2 years to keep your license vaild. That keeps your SEP rating valid by experence.

For the OP if you think of things in two streams.

You have the license side of things which govens in what capacity you can operate ie can you earn money doing it or not and fly as a Captain of a multicrewed aircraft.

And you have ratings which each have there own time valid for and method of renewing/revalidating.

As for whats safe for one might not be safe for another on the currency side of things. There are some that can go a year without flying and you would never know sitting next to them and there are others there is a marked drop in competency after only 2 weeks.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I'm curious - is this a specific course on aviation law going on at a university somewhere, or are you just a student pilot trying to pass PPL air law?

G

[mad_jock]

I agree Silvaire.

The there is the safe operation then there is upper levels of perfection.

Your friend as well needs to keep his body up to strength as well which for us 1 g types isn't such an issue.

There is also levels of competence at various things. eg night landings and none precision approaches. Then total experence becomes a factor as well as when you last did one.