An IPC calculation

F

Fitz376

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Mar 16, 2023
Messages
15
Display Name
Display name:
Fitz
Hi all, I had to stop flying for a while after getting my IFR ticket and am running into the end of the period after which I will be due for an IPC. But the way the dates work out is for some reason creating some confusion for me on when exactly I need my 6HITS completed.

I know, it's a basic question but my brain tends to overcomplicate things sometimes and I want to figure out why this is confusing.

Anyway, got my ticket on April 2, 2022. Assuming no approaches are flown after that date, what's the latest date I can log those 6HITS for currency sake before I need an IPC? Does the receipt of the IFR rating count as essentially a hard date that everything starts from or do the approaches leading into the checkride count toward any calculations? If the former is the case then I would have been legal to fly IFR through October 2022. I would then have through either March or April before an IPC is required. Which is it?

If the checkride does not start the clock then I'm pushed back into March 2022 to start the calculations.

Also, yes I completely agree with anyone who points out the difference between currency and proficiency. I fully intend to fly until I am sharp on IFR (likely some with a CFII) prior to re-entering the IFR system.

Thanks for any replies.

edit: I have still maintained VFR proficiency
 
§ 125.291 Pilot in command: Instrument proficiency check requirements.
6HITS expired Oct 31, 2022. Six more calendar months to complete or an IPC is required.


Having said that an IPC may be more efficient unless the plan is to hop in an ATD.
 
The instrument checkride resets the clock. So yes, you would have been legal through October 2022. If none of your currency requirements were accomplished before then, you have an additional six months to the end of April 2023 to get yourself current before an IPC would be required.

As to the “legal” vs “proficient” discussion, I always recommend an IPC with a good instructor at least annually, whether you need it or not.

And for what it’s worth, I prefer **** as the mnemonic…Six approaches, Holding, Intercepting, and Tracking. If you haven’t done your **** in the last six months, you’re not legal. :p
 
Ok, that is the conclusion my math brought me to. I just couldn't find the reference that specified if the checkride date was when it would all be calculated from - since a couple approaches would be needed from March 2022 if not. Sounds like that is not the case.

And then the month AFTER the currency lapse becomes month ONE for the countdown to the IPC. So I technically have until the end of April.

Regardless, I don't intend to run it this close in the future. I do actually have three approaches logged in actual flight now, and will finish in an AATD before the end of March - one month ahead of schedule by the regs.

Anyway, thanks for the help.
 
MauleSkinner said:
The instrument checkride resets the clock. So yes, you would have been legal through October 2022. If none of your currency requirements were accomplished before then, you have an additional six months to the end of April 2023 to get yourself current before an IPC would be required.

As to the “legal” vs “proficient” discussion, I always recommend an IPC with a good instructor at least annually, whether you need it or not.

And for what it’s worth, I prefer **** as the mnemonic…Six approaches, Holding, Intercepting, and Tracking. If you haven’t done your **** in the last six months, you’re not legal. :p
Click to expand...
Haha! I like it. :D
 
Fitz376 said:
I just couldn't find the reference that specified if the checkride date was when it would all be calculated from
Click to expand...
An IPC is a subset of tasks from the ACS. An instrument checkride is that subset and more, so the checkride replaces an IPC.
 
Great thanks. Hadn't thought to look there yet.
 
TCABM said:
§ 125.291 Pilot in command: Instrument proficiency check requirements.
6HITS expired Oct 31, 2022. Six more calendar months to complete or an IPC is required.


Having said that an IPC may be more efficient unless the plan is to hop in an ATD.
Click to expand...
I didn't realize he was flying "airplanes which have a seating configuration of 20 or more passengers or a maximum payload capacity of 6,000 pounds or more when common carriage is not involved."
 
MauleSkinner said:
The instrument checkride resets the clock. So yes, you would have been legal through October 2022. If none of your currency requirements were accomplished before then, you have an additional six months to the end of April 2023 to get yourself current before an IPC would be required.
Click to expand...
This. Straightforward and correct.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I didn't realize he was flying "airplanes which have a seating configuration of 20 or more passengers or a maximum payload capacity of 6,000 pounds or more when common carriage is not involved."
Click to expand...

Me either. Must have been martini night while searching.
 
If you have to work that hard to figure out if you are current, you probably should get an IPC anyway.

As Dr. Bruce says, “Do not accept minimum standards”.
 
My school teaches the +6 magical months after you are expired to use a safety pilot or sim to get current before needing an IPC at 12 months. The DPEs aren't failing or questioning the applicants. I have asked 4 CFIIs at my school and no one can show me where it is written that we get an additional 6 months NOT to file IFR, but to use a sim or safety pilot to get current. Plenty of articles talking about it..
 
Tanille DeLair said:
My school teaches the +6 magical months after you are expired to use a safety pilot or sim to get current before needing an IPC at 12 months. The DPEs aren't failing or questioning the applicants. I have asked 4 CFIIs at my school and no one can show me where it is written that we get an additional 6 months NOT to file IFR, but to use a sim or safety pilot to get current. Plenty of articles talking about it..
Click to expand...
So are you looking for the applicable regs or merely lamenting the fact that your school has typical instructors?
 
Tanille DeLair said:
My school teaches the +6 magical months after you are expired to use a safety pilot or sim to get current before needing an IPC at 12 months. The DPEs aren't failing or questioning the applicants. I have asked 4 CFIIs at my school and no one can show me where it is written that we get an additional 6 months NOT to file IFR, but to use a sim or safety pilot to get current. Plenty of articles talking about it..
Click to expand...

??

It's the first sentence in 61.57d(1).
 
IPC,s are fun. I’d just do the ipc and be done with it.
 
Tanille DeLair said:
My school teaches the +6 magical months after you are expired to use a safety pilot or sim to get current before needing an IPC at 12 months. The DPEs aren't failing or questioning the applicants. I have asked 4 CFIIs at my school and no one can show me where it is written that we get an additional 6 months NOT to file IFR, but to use a sim or safety pilot to get current. Plenty of articles talking about it..
Click to expand...

They need to get some competent CFIIs.

Although it is written in a negative form. It does not say you have 6 months to get current, it says that after 6 months the only way to get current is to do an IPC

"a person who has failed to meet the instrument experience requirements of paragraph (c) of this section for more than six calendar months may reestablish instrument currency only by completing an instrument proficiency check."
 
Tanille DeLair said:
My school teaches the +6 magical months after you are expired to use a safety pilot or sim to get current before needing an IPC at 12 months. The DPEs aren't failing or questioning the applicants. I have asked 4 CFIIs at my school and no one can show me where it is written that we get an additional 6 months NOT to file IFR, but to use a sim or safety pilot to get current. Plenty of articles talking about it..
Click to expand...

Are there any other magical regulations we should know about?
 
Clip4 said:
Are there any other magical regulations we should know about?
Click to expand...
It always seems magical when you can't read.

Although, to be fair, every time the FAA rewrote this part of the reg "clarify" the rule everybody already knew, they ended up convincing people that it changed to remove the 6-month grace period. Even the last time, when they didn't change a single word!
 
midlifeflyer said:
It always seems magical when you can't read.

Although, to be fair, every time the FAA rewrote this part of the reg "clarify" the rule everybody already knew, they ended up convincing people that it changed to remove the 6-month grace period. Even the last time, when they didn't change a single word!
Click to expand...


I guess obtaining an pilot certificate in the US without being able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language must be another one of those magical regulations.
 
Good for you does not mean fun.

They are OK, but not fun.

:D :D
 
OP appears to not have exercised their IR in the six months after their check ride. IMHO they need an IPC regardless of the regs. Six weeks out of the clouds things get less smooth and that's with experience.
 
Steamflyer said:
OP appears to not have exercised their IR in the six months after their check ride. IMHO they need an IPC regardless of the regs. Six weeks out of the clouds things get less smooth and that's with experience.
Click to expand...
Good thing the OP agrees with you…
Fitz376 said:
Also, yes I completely agree with anyone who points out the difference between currency and proficiency. I fully intend to fly until I am sharp on IFR (likely some with a CFII) prior to re-entering the IFR system.
Click to expand...
 
Use a CFII as your "safety pilot". It's not an IPC, but you'll get some great coaching to kick the rust off. More "fun" than an IPC LOL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top