MEP & IR Revalidation
 

Hi,
I will soon have to do the first revalidation of my MEP and IR ratings. My IR expires on 03 Nov 2021 and my MEP on 10 Oct 2021.

Would you recommend I do my first revalidation in a sim? And then if I need to revalidate next year I can renew my MEP while I revalidate my IR?
Or would it be better to revalidate both my MEP and IR in an aircraft now?

Lastly, I understand I can revalidate my ratings up to 3 months before, so does that mean I could have revalidated my IR from 03 Aug and my MEP from 10 Jul?
And do my ratings expire on their expiry date or on the last day of the month they expire in?

Thanks for your help!

Hi Wannabe
All of your ratings should indicate expiry at the end of the appropriate month...perhaps have a look at the ratings page of your licence..

You can re validate or renew both the MEP and the IR on the same flight which is generally how its done..
I would do both in an aeroplane and yes both can be done 3 months before expiry without any lose of validity...
Have a good LPC

Revalidating your IR in the sim is cheaper, but you must revalidate your MEP class rating as well and the MEP can only be done in the aircraft.

You can revalidate up to 90 days in advance of the expiry and preserve the existing expiry date. Your ratings expire at the end of the respective month, what date is entered on your licence against "valid until"?

If you are trying to save money, and you do not intend to fly an MEP, then the Sim is a viable option.

1) Complete the IR revalidation before the end of October. You will require a course completion (for MEP, and possibly a training flight) next year.
2) Complete the MEP/IR in the the 3 month period to keep the existing IR date. You may want refresher training anyway, if you haven’t flown MEP recently.
3) If you have an SEP, consider the SE-IR for revalidation for the next few years. You will need a course completion, and some training before renewal of both MEP & ME-IR.

Consider whichever route matches your expectations of what the future holds…

Good luck.

Just one important warning, if you let any of your ratings lapse don’t send your licence to the CAA for any reason until you’ve renewed them, as they will put them on the back of your licence as a previously held rating and it will be a lot more complicated and costly to get them back.

If I revalidate my ME-IR in the sim before my MEP expires then can I not let my MEP expire? Why must I revalidate my MEP class rating as well - I don't think I need a current MEP rating to hold an ME-IR?

Next year can I not renew my MEP rating and then revalidate my ME-IR in an aircraft at the same time?

Thanks for your help

If I revalidate in the sim will me IR date not stay the same? Is it not just my MEP date that would change as it would expire?

I have an SE-IR so if I revalidate my ME-IR in the sim does my SE-IR revalidate also? Or how do I revalidate both my SE-IR and ME-IR?

Thanks - sorry for all the questions.

To revalidate the ME-IR you must hold a valid MEP. Yes, you can revalidate the ME-IR then let the MEP lapse, but gone are the days where you could revalidate the ME-IR while the MEP was expired. That went in 2019.

Yes, next year you could revalidate the ME-IR and renew the MEP at the same time in the aircraft.

All expiry dates are to the end of the month, so your IR will be revalidated to the end of the month + 1 year. What is written against the expiry date now? It should always be the last day of the respective month.

You can revalidate the ME-IR and SE-IR at the same time, as long as you hold the SEP (land).

Thank you very much for your help!

I think everything makes sense now - cheers!

I have also another question.
I have not seen anywhere how many hours are needed for the revalidation.
I have done 2 hours (one for the class rating and one for the IR) but I have heard about 2,5 and 1,5.
Is there any minimum limitation?