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7 Answers

Can a CFI give a BFR if they are not 61.57 current?

Asked by: 6794 views ,
FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor

Greetings, I fly the ERJ for a living and keep my CFI current but I have recently let my ASEL landing currency lapse.  Can I legally give someone a BFR in an ASEL without being current if their BFR hasn't lapsed and they are ASEL current?  I'm pretty sure I can but I just want to make sure. Thanks.

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7 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 14, 2013

    61.57 states that no one may act as pilot in command unless ….

    If your friend can act as PIC and your CFI is current, I see nothing in 61.57 that would prevent you from performing the flight review.

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  2. Wes Beard on Sep 14, 2013

    Landing currency is for passenger carrying. Neither need to be landing current if the flight is a training flight. The FAA doesn’t consider either pilot a passenger in this situation.

    Insurance may require landing currency though.

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  3. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 14, 2013

    Wes,

    In the answer the FAA gave me in my interpretation, they limited it to 61.57(b) and SFAR73.

    I had asked them in my letter for the meaning of the word passenger as it related to 61.57 in general. I gave them two scenarios (61.57(b) and SFAR73), which they answered.

    I had spoken to Michael Chase at Oshkosh a couple of years after I got the interpretation and he indicated that they had not really wanted to answer my question. I nagged them for three years before I was successful in procuring an answer.

    While I agree with your statement that for the purposes of 61.57(a), that an instructor and another pilot should not be considered as passengers with respect to each other, I would take it a step further and say that two pilots who may have fallen out of currency should be able to fly together to regain currency. There is no more safety benefit realized by having each pilot go up solo to regain currency and then fly together, as opposed to two pilots flying together , each performing three takeoffs and landings.

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  4. UnlimitedAviation on Sep 15, 2013

    Good info, thanks for the replies.

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  5. Mark Kolber on Sep 15, 2013

    Kris, you may be willing to take it a step further to two private pilots 3 months after they got their certificates during which time neither flew at all. I would not.

    Especially with the second opinion — that the lack of need for landing currency applied even in the case of a student piot (about which the FAA said the exact opposite in 1985) — my take is that this is a CFI-specific interpretation of landing currency requirements that applies solely to instructional flights.

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  6. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 15, 2013

    “Kris, you may be willing to take it a step further to two private pilots 3 months after they got their certificates during which time neither flew at all. I would not. ”

    Yes, I am just as willing to allow 2 private pilots to go up together as I am for the same 2 private pilots to go up individually, perform 3 takeoffs and landings and then go fly together.

    I am as willing to allow it as I am to allow the same 2 private pilots to go fly together 89 days after they got their certificates to maintain currency.

    I am as willing to allow it as I am to allow the same two pilots to individually reacquire landing currency 729 days after their last flight review and then go fly together (although they would be legal to fly for only one day without another flight review).

    For me the distinction lies between the use of the word passenger and person. In regulations such as 91.11 and 91.107, the FAA uses the word “person”. In 61.57, they use the word “passenger”. To me, there is a difference between a person and a passenger. I believe that a passenger is a non certificated member of the public who might not understand the risks.

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  7. Mark Kolber on Sep 15, 2013

    I know you’re wiling to do that. I only said that I’m not and I don’t think the FAA would agree with you that a non-required person on board is not a “passenger” except in the instructional situation. As the Chief Counsel said in Olshock, “The Kortokrax opinion was based on the instructor-student relationship, and was not limited by specific rating of the particular student.”

    For the time being, I choose to take that statement at face value. OTOH, the Olshock letter itself (CFI not required to be current with a non-rated student pilot) took me completely by surprise.

    Neither of our opinions ultimately count. We simply disagree. Nothing more.

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