Pilot Currency Requirements: Passenger, Night and IFR

Holding a pilot certificate does not, by itself, mean you can go fly with friends this weekend. Part 61 layers several recency requirements on top of the certificate: landings for passengers, night landings, instrument tasks and a flight review. Each runs on its own clock, and two of those clocks count in days while the others count in calendar months. Mixing them up is an easy way to fly when you are not legal.

The rules below are the ones most general aviation pilots meet. Gliders and night vision goggle operations have their own provisions in the same sections.

Currency at a glance

Lookback periods are from the current text of 14 CFR 61.57 and 61.56. Medical certification is a separate requirement with its own clock, covered at the end.

Passenger currency is three takeoffs and landings in 90 days

Under 14 CFR 61.57(a), you may not act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying persons (or one certificated for more than one pilot) unless, in the preceding 90 days, you made at least three takeoffs and three landings:

• as the sole manipulator of the flight controls,
• in an aircraft of the same category, class and type (if a class or type rating is required), and
• if the aircraft is a tailwheel airplane, to a full stop in a tailwheel airplane.

Category and class matter. Landings in a single-engine land airplane do not make you current to carry passengers in a multiengine airplane or a seaplane; each class needs its own three. Touch-and-goes count, except in a tailwheel airplane, because the full-stop requirement in paragraph (a) applies only to tailwheel airplanes. Paragraph (b), below, requires full stops for night currency regardless of landing gear.

You can get current solo. Paragraph (a)(2) lets you act as PIC under day VFR or day IFR to regain currency, as long as nobody is aboard except those necessary for the flight. Paragraph (e)(5) also lets you fly with an authorized instructor for the purpose, provided you and the instructor are the only occupants.

The window is counted in days, not months, and it rolls every day. Suppose you made two landings on January 10 and one on February 20. You lose passenger currency roughly 90 days after January 10, around April 10, even though the February landing is still in the window. Your currency is only as fresh as the oldest of the three landings you need.

Night currency needs three landings to a full stop

14 CFR 61.57(b) applies when you carry persons during the period from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise. Within the preceding 90 days you need three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop, during that same period, as sole manipulator, in the same category, class and type (if required). Touch-and-goes do not count.

The period in 61.57(b) is not the definition of night in 14 CFR 1.1, which runs from the end of evening civil twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight. The 1.1 definition is what you use to log night time. So a landing after the end of civil twilight, but less than an hour after sunset, can go in the night column of your logbook and still not count toward night passenger currency. When you go out to get night current, check the sunset time. Wait the full hour.

Paragraph (a) does not limit itself to daytime, so night takeoffs and landings also count toward the 90-day requirement in (a), in the same category, class and type. One exception: (b) has no tailwheel rule, so night full-stops in a nosewheel airplane do not make you current to carry passengers in a tailwheel airplane.

Instrument currency is six approaches, holding and course tracking

To act as PIC under IFR, or in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR, 14 CFR 61.57(c) requires that within the 6 calendar months preceding the month of the flight, you performed and logged:

• six instrument approaches,
• holding procedures and tasks, and
• intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems.

These can be flown in actual conditions or under simulated conditions with a view-limiting device, which is where a safety pilot comes in. Paragraph (c)(2) also allows a full flight simulator, flight training device or aviation training device that represents the right aircraft category, in any combination with flying; logging simulator time has its own rules.

How the calendar-month window works

"Calendar months" means the window runs to the end of a month. If you finished all the required tasks in January 2026, a flight in July 2026 looks back to January through June, so you are current through July 31, 2026. On August 1, January drops out of the window and you are no longer current to act as PIC under IFR.

The tasks do not have to happen on one flight. They accumulate across the window, and the window slides forward one month at a time, so a steady trickle of approaches keeps you current indefinitely.

The grace period and the IPC

Once you lapse, you cannot act as PIC under IFR, but you can still regain currency by completing the tasks in simulated conditions with a safety pilot, an instructor, or an approved device. Under 14 CFR 61.57(d), if you have failed to meet the instrument experience requirements for more than six calendar months, the only way back is an instrument proficiency check given by an examiner, an authorized instructor, or another person the regulation lists.

Continuing the example: current through July 31, 2026, lapsed from August 2026, and six calendar months of lapse runs through January 2027. From February 2027, you need an IPC. Read the FAA's AC 61-98E (Currency Requirements and Guidance for the Flight Review and Instrument Proficiency Check) before you plan either one. Instrument currency and the IPC has a worked calendar.

The flight review comes every 24 calendar months

14 CFR 61.56(c) says you may not act as PIC of an aircraft unless, since the beginning of the 24th calendar month before the month in which you act as PIC, you have completed a flight review given by an authorized instructor, in an aircraft for which you are rated, and had your logbook endorsed.

The review is at least 1 hour of flight training and 1 hour of ground training, covering the Part 91 general operating and flight rules and whatever maneuvers and procedures the instructor decides you need to demonstrate (61.56(a)).

A flight review completed on March 10, 2025 is good through March 31, 2027. In April 2027, the 24th calendar month before is April 2025, so the March 2025 review no longer qualifies.

Some things substitute for it. Passing a practical test for a certificate, rating or operating privilege, or certain flight instructor practical tests, within that period means you do not need a separate flight review (61.56(d)). So does completing a phase of an FAA-sponsored pilot proficiency program (61.56(e)), which AC 61-98E identifies as the FAASTeam's WINGS program. Student pilots training for a certificate with a current solo endorsement are exempt (61.56(g)). The flight review requirements post covers what the hour in the airplane should contain.

How to track currency in your logbook

14 CFR 61.51(a) requires you to record the aeronautical experience you use to meet the recent flight experience requirements of Part 61. A logbook that answers the currency question at a glance has these things for every flight:

1. Day and night landings in separate columns, with night landings that are full-stop and within the 61.57(b) period clearly identifiable. A short remark such as "3 night full stop" removes any doubt later.
2. Aircraft category, class and type, plus a note when the airplane is a tailwheel. This is what tells you which landings count for which aircraft.
3. Approaches with their location and type. For instrument currency, 61.51(g)(3) requires the location and type of each approach, plus the name of the safety pilot if one was required. "RNAV 23 KXYZ" is far more useful than "2 app."
4. Holding and course tracking, logged explicitly: "Hold at XYZ VOR, tracked V123."
5. Training device sessions, recorded with the device, the time and the content, as 61.51(g)(5) requires when they count toward instrument recency.
6. Endorsements in one place, with your most recent flight review and any IPC where you can find them quickly.

Then, before any flight, do the math. Count back 90 days for passengers and night, and count calendar months for instruments and the flight review. A digital logbook does the counting for you if your entries are complete, but the result is only as good as the data you put in.

Try it in FlyFrenKeep your currency in one placeFlyFren's digital logbook stores your flights, landings, approaches and endorsements together, so your recent experience is easy to check before you fly.

Two mistakes the sections above do not cover

Treating 90 days as three months. The passenger and night requirements are counted in days, so they do not round to the end of the month. Instrument currency and the flight review use calendar months and do. A pilot who last landed on March 3 is not passenger-current on June 2, however the calendar page reads.

Thinking currency means proficiency. Meeting the minimum keeps you legal. It does not make you sharp. Six approaches in six months is one a month, and three landings in 90 days is one a month; a pilot who sets personal currency standards above those numbers, especially for night and instrument flying, is being honest about what the minimum buys.

A note on medical certificates

Your medical certificate is a separate requirement with its own clock. Under 14 CFR 61.23(d), how long it lasts depends on its class, your age on the date of the exam, and the privileges you are exercising. For private pilot privileges, a medical of any class lasts through the end of the 60th month after the month of the exam if you were under 40 when examined, and through the end of the 24th month if you were 40 or older. Commercial and airline transport privileges have shorter limits, and BasicMed is an alternative for some operations. Check the table in 61.23(d) for your situation.

This article is educational and is not a substitute for the current regulations, the AIM, or instruction from a CFI. Check the current text at the linked sources before you rely on any detail.