Let’s assume a pilot (N-reg) does not fly any instrument approaches at all, ever, but wants to be legal if he wanted to fly one.
But he has a JAA/EASA IR and the examiner he uses for his annual revalidation is dual rated i.e. both EASA IRE (or CRE/IRR etc) and an FAA CFII, and the examiner signs both his annual EASA IR revalidation and his FAA IPC at the same time.
Is this pilot legal to fly the N-reg IFR worldwide (i.e. ignoring any privileges of his EASA IR which are well known to be valid only in the country which issued his EASA IR) on this basis?
The FAA rules have changed recently.
There is one answer here but I can’t quite get my head around it for this scenario. It does seem to me that an annual IPC is actually OK for the whole 12 months (itself good for 6 months but your IR remains valid for the next 6?) but I am not sure.
Let’s ignore the obvious pilot currency issue, and ignore the fact that the EASA IR revalidation must contain at least one instrument approach… It may have two but it certainly won’t have six.
Your hypothetical pilot will only be able to exercise the privileges of his FAA IR until the end of the 7th month following his IPC…eg if he does the IPC on 1st Jan he will meet the “preceding 6 calendar months” until 31 July….from 1 Aug until 31 Jan (ie the next 6 calendar months after he loses his currency) he can regain his privileges with a safety pilot…after that he needs another IPC….
There was some confusion surrounding the rewrite of 61.57d but the FAA Chief Counsel clarified that the intent of the original regulation was not changed….I was quizzed on this by my DPE during my Instrument checkride…
It does seem to me that an annual IPC is actually OK for the whole 12 months (itself good for 6 months but your IR remains valid for the next 6?) but I am not sure.
I’m not sure what you are actually getting at….Your IR remains valid for life….it is only your currency that matters…
An IPC is only required if ones currency has lapsed for six calendar months. Otherwise you have up to six calendar months to have completed the required 6 approaches, holds, and Intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems. If you do one approach per month, one hold, and log that you intercepted and tracked courses through the use of navigational means, you will remain continuously current. If you are not current, then you may complete the specified tasks with a safety pilot or as the sole manipulator of the controls in IMC of these same tasks while another pilot who is qualified to act as PIC for the IFR flight. Having completed an IPC and not have completed the other tasks, you are permitted to act as PIC for 6 additional calendar months. So you finish your IPC on Jan 1, 2015, you may act as PIC until July 31, 2015.
Exactly as I said….with Peter’s assumption that the hypothetical pilot does no approaches (holds or track intercepts)…and therefore loses currency as of 01 Aug….and then still does not regain wih a safety pilot in the next 6 CM….he will require the IPC from 01 Feb the next year… The concept of “the IPC is actually OK for the whole 12 months” is incorrect…
I actually don’t know who ever said that an IPC gave currency for 12 months…
