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4 Answers

maintaining night currency with a passenger on board (and the passenger holds a PPL)

Asked by: 4954 views FAA Regulations, Private Pilot

I see three combinations.

  1. Both pilots are already current and perform 3 t/o & landings each - both get another 90 days of currency - no problem
  2. One pilot is current, he can perform 3 t/o & landings and extend his currency - but can the other? Can a pilot not current in night flying becomes sole manipulator of the controls with another pilot that is current in the aircraft with him, or is the other pilot considered to be a passenger?
  3. Neither pilot is current - This is pretty much the same as question 2, part b, but since neither pilot is current, I think it's more obviously not legal.
 

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4 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Nov 14, 2015

    2. As long as the pilot who is night current acts as PIC for the flight, then either pilot may be the sole manipulator of the controls to extend or maintain their night currency.

    3. Neither pilot may act as PIC, so the flight would be illegal. There is an exception for a CFI who is one of the pilots and assuming both the CFI is providing instruction to the other pilot, neither are considered a passenger to the other, so in a quirk of the rules, the non CFI pilot could extend or maintain their night currency.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Nov 15, 2015

    It sounds like you may be making a common error leading to your confusion about #2 – perhaps thinking that the role of “acting as PIC” changes with a transfer of the controls. If you just think about an airline flight in which the First Officer is doing the flying, you’ll realize that isn’t so (unless, of course, you =do= think the Captain stops being the Captain.when he hands the controls to his FO).

    So, as John said, in scenario #2, so long as the “current” pilot is acting as PIC, he can agree to have anyone, even a non-pilot, be the manipulator of the controls. The current pilot remains the “pilot in command” of the flight. He’s not a passenger..He’s still the “captain.”

    Actually, the passenger in that scenario is the non-current pilot now doing the landings to regain his currency.

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  3. Greg Taylor on Nov 16, 2015

    Mark, that’s exactly what I was thinking, but didn’t express it properly. Scenario three doesn’t work because neither pilot can legally act as pic with the other as a passenger. Scenario two works because the pilot that is current can act as pic while the other is sole manipulator of the controls.

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  4. Mark Kolber on Nov 16, 2015

    Sounds like you got it, Greg. 🙂

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