Currency (recency) rules require pilots to have completed defined recent experience — such as takeoffs and landings within 90 days — before exercising certain privileges. Schools and clubs must verify currency at booking time, because an out-of-currency pilot cannot legally act as PIC with passengers.
Currency — recency requirements — is the rule family requiring recent experience before exercising specific privileges. The canonical examples: the 90-day rule (three takeoffs and landings within the preceding 90 days before carrying passengers, with night-specific variants), and instrument recency (defined approaches and procedures within a rolling window, or a proficiency check to restore). Currency sits alongside — and separate from — rating validity and medical validity.
Currency is self-expiring by design: a pilot does nothing wrong and still loses privileges through the calendar alone, which is why it must be verified at every dispatch rather than assumed from the last check.
Why it matters for flight schools
For rental and club operations, currency is the dispatch gate most often missed by manual systems: the renter's licence and medical look fine, but the 90-day passenger clock quietly expired last week. The exposure lands on the operator too — dispatching a non-current pilot with passengers is an organisational failure, not just the pilot's.
How FlightLogger handles it
FlightLogger computes currency automatically from each pilot's actual logged flights and enforces it at booking — a lapsed 90-day clock blocks the passenger flight before it becomes an event.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 90-day passenger rule?
Three takeoffs and landings within the preceding 90 days (full-stop at night for night passenger carriage) before acting as PIC with passengers — a rolling requirement in both FAA and EASA systems, verified per flight.
What is the difference between currency and rating validity?
Rating validity is the rating's own expiry (revalidated by check or experience); currency is short-cycle recent experience for specific privileges. A pilot can hold a valid rating and still be non-current for passengers — both gates must be green.