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3 Answers

CFI currency to provide night training

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Flight Instructor

This question involves landing currency for flight instructors providing flight training. 

Sec. 61.57 (a) and (b) (night) state the currency requirements for carrying passengers day and night. It is clear that as a flight instructor providing flight training we cannot log take offs and landings (for the sake of currency) if not the sole manipulator of flight controls. This can reasonably result in, even full time instructors, failing to meet the requirements for 3 full stop take offs and landings within the preceding 90 days.

Now let's assume you are a CFI about to conduct night flight training with a student pilot and you do not meet the night currency requirements to carry passengers. Could this training flight still be conducted? The regulations clearly state the currency is for "passengers" and technically in this scenario this flight would be with a "student pilot". Furthermore, what if this student has not yet received a student pilot certificate but has clear intentions to obtain the cert in the future and is using this flight training with the intentions of becoming a private pilot? Without the student pilot cert would the instructor then need become night current before this flight? 

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3 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Kris Kortokrax on Apr 08, 2016

    This is a question I posed to the Office of Legal Counsel in 2003. It took them until 2006 to answer it. They ended up agreeing with my thoughts on the subject.

    Here is the link to that interpretation.

    http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/pol_adjudication/agc200/interpretations/data/interps/2006/kortokrax%20-%20(2006)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf

    +5 Votes Thumb up 6 Votes Thumb down 1 Votes



  2. Marshall on Apr 09, 2016

    Thank you very much Kris! This was an excellent answer.
    Glad to have a reliable source to reference.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Don Lawton on Jun 04, 2018

    Updated link:

    https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/practice_areas/regulations/interpretations/data/interps/2006/kortokrax%20-%20(2006)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf

    +5 Votes Thumb up 7 Votes Thumb down 2 Votes


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