Pilot Currency Requirements: Flight Review, Passenger Carrying, IFR, and More

Nathan Hodell
Jul 31, 2025
5 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

Currency is one of those things that feels administrative until it isn't. Most pilots know the rules in general — "three takeoffs and landings, right?" — but the details matter more than people realize. A pilot who hasn't flown at night in four months can't legally carry passengers after dark. A pilot who hasn't shot six approaches in the last six months can't file IFR. A pilot who missed their flight review by two months can't act as PIC at all.

This guide covers every currency requirement a general aviation pilot needs to track — flight reviews, passenger-carrying currency, IFR currency, and the rules for special situations like tailwheel and type ratings.

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Flight Review: The Foundation of All PIC Currency

Before anything else — if your flight review is expired, you can't act as PIC, period. No exceptions, no grace period.

Under 14 CFR 61.56, every pilot must complete a flight review within the preceding 24 calendar months to act as Pilot-in-Command. The review consists of at minimum:

1 hour of ground instruction
1 hour of flight instruction

The CFI conducting the review has discretion to require more if they feel it's necessary. There's no pass/fail — the CFI either endorses your logbook or doesn't. If they don't feel you're proficient, they can decline to sign off and you'll need additional training before they will.

What satisfies the flight review requirement:

A completed flight review with endorsement
A checkride for any certificate or rating within the preceding 24 months — this resets the clock
Completion of certain FAA-approved pilot proficiency programs (like the FAA WINGS program)

One common misconception: The flight review doesn't have an expiration date on a certificate — it's a logbook entry. If your logbook is lost or you can't produce the endorsement, you need another review. Keep your logbook records.

Passenger-Carrying Currency: The 90-Day Rule

To carry passengers as PIC, you need recent takeoff and landing experience in the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required) of aircraft. The rule under 14 CFR 61.57 is:

Day passenger currency: Within the preceding 90 days, 3 takeoffs and 3 landings in the same category, class, and type. Touch-and-go landings count for daytime currency.
Night passenger currency: Within the preceding 90 days, 3 takeoffs and 3 landings to a full stop at night — defined as the period from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise — in the same category, class, and type. Touch-and-goes do not count. Full stop only.
- A few details pilots often get wrong:
  - Category, class, and type all matter. If you've been flying a Cessna 172 (single-engine land) and want to carry passengers in a Piper Seminole (multi-engine land), your single-engine currency doesn't transfer. You need three takeoffs and landings in a multi-engine aircraft within the preceding 90 days.
  - Night currency is separate from day currency. Three night landings don't give you day currency, and three day landings don't give you night currency. You need both if you want to carry passengers at any time of day or night.
  - The 90-day window is calendar days, not flight days. If your last qualifying landing was on January 1st, your currency expires at the end of April 1st — 90 days later — regardless of how many hours you flew in between.

Tailwheel Currency

If you want to carry passengers in a tailwheel airplane — a Citabria, a Super Cub, a Decathlon — the standard 90-day rule applies but with one additional requirement: all three of those takeoffs and landings must be full-stop landings. Touch-and-goes in a tailwheel don't count for passenger-carrying currency regardless of time of day.

Type Rating Currency

If the aircraft requires a type rating, your three takeoffs and landings must be conducted in that specific type. You can't maintain currency in a Citation by flying a King Air, even if they're both turbine aircraft. Type-specific currency requires type-specific flights.

IFR Currency: The Six-Month Rule

To file and fly IFR as PIC, you need to have logged the following within the preceding 6 calendar months under 14 CFR 61.57(c):

6 instrument approaches
Holding procedures and entries
Intercepting and tracking courses using navigation systems

These can be logged in actual IMC, under the hood with a safety pilot, or in an FAA-approved flight training device or simulator.

What happens if you go out of currency:

The IFR currency rules have a built-in grace period that confuses a lot of pilots. Here's how it actually works:

0–6 months: Current. You can file and fly IFR as PIC.
6–12 months: Not current, but in a grace period. You cannot file or fly IFR as PIC, but you can regain currency by logging the required approaches and procedures with a safety pilot, in a simulator, or in actual IMC with someone qualified to act as PIC. Once you've logged what's required, you're current again — no IPC needed.
Beyond 12 months: The grace period is gone. You must complete an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) with a CFII, examiner, or other authorized instructor before you can act as PIC on an IFR flight. The IPC is not a checkride — there's no pass/fail in the traditional sense — but the CFII must be satisfied that you've demonstrated instrument proficiency across the required tasks before endorsing your logbook.

Currency vs. Proficiency: The Distinction That Actually Matters

Currency is a legal standard. Proficiency is a safety standard. Meeting currency requirements means you're legal — it doesn't necessarily mean you're ready.

A pilot who shot six approaches in a simulator six months ago is technically current. Whether they're actually prepared to shoot a real ILS to minimums in actual IMC in turbulence with an icing report on the PIREP is a different question entirely.

The FAA's flight review requirement is a minimum. Most experienced CFIs and safety-conscious pilots treat currency as the floor, not the ceiling. If you've been out of the cockpit for two months, the right move before carrying passengers isn't to check the logbook and confirm you're technically legal — it's to go fly a few landings first and make sure the feel is back.

Currency tells you what you're allowed to do. Judgment tells you what you should do.

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Author: Nathan Hodell

CFI, CFII, MEI, ATP, Creator and CEO

Nathan is an aviation enthusiast with thousands of hours of flying and dual instruction over the past 15+ years. Through his aviation career he has been able to earn his ATP, fly as an airline pilot, own/operate flight schools, and create and host wifiCFI.