It amuses me even more when someone uses the term BFR and some FAA fanboy chimes in and tries to correct them that is is no longer called BFR.
I have no problem saying “flight review” vs BFR. It uses the words that remind you that review is required rather than a slightly awkward acronym. It also isn’t really re-defining anything.
I don't care if people call it a FR or a BFR, it's the same thing and I'm glad they're coming to me to get it done (well, I'm glad when "most" of them come to me...)
However, it does amuse me when I see articles (they're all over the place) saying "it's no longer called a BFR". Because, as far as I can determine, it has NEVER been officially called a BFR in the regulations. I went back to 1974 when it was implemented, and it was called a "Flight Review" in 61.57 back then, and could find no reference in subsequent years in either 61.57 or 61.56 (when it was moved to there) calling it a Biennial Flight Review. I've been flying for over 30 years, and called it a BFR myself. So was it just a colloqialism? Like "lower case b" FR? A biennial Flight Review (which is fairly accurate), a bFR?
Sort of. But an official colloquialism, too. And the B was capitalized.
AC 61-98 from 1987 was apparently named "Scope and Content of Biennial Flight Reviews". I have been unable to find this AC, but AC 61-98A refers to it on page 1 (and canceled it).
AC 61-98A also refers to (and cancels) AC 60-12, from 1976 (so, shortly after the FR was implemented), which has BFR all over it!
But AC 61-98A, dated 1991, cancels these two documents that reference the BFR and instead uses the current wording of "flight review".
I'd be curious about other more recent FAA publications that use the term BFR, if anybody has access to them. But from what I can determine from the pertinent CFRs and ACs:
- BFR was never a term in the regulations
- Since 1991 it has not been used in the applicable ACs
That's 33 years ago, yet most of the articles you read that mention a "change" imply it was recently.
Anybody have examples of more recent FAA publications with the term "BFR"?