Recency requirements

Recency is having flown recently enough to keep your licence and its privileges valid. Three separate windows apply; the exam usually turns on the date math for the passenger one.

• General currency (401.05(1)): you may exercise your licence only if you acted as pilot-in-command or co-pilot within the past 5 years; if not, you need a flight review within the past 12 months, certified in your personal log by the instructor, plus the appropriate written examination (401.05(1)(b)).
• Recurrent-training recency (401.05(2)(a)): within the past 24 months you must have completed a recurrent training program. The 24-month window is in the CAR; the list of qualifying activities (a flight review, a written exam, the TC Self-Paced Study Program, a recognized safety seminar, or training toward a permit/licence/rating) lives in the personnel licensing standards (Std 421.05), not in CAR 401.05 itself.

Recurrent training vs general currency. Two different questions, and both must be answered yes:

• General currency asks have you flown at all lately. It is satisfied by flying (PIC or co-pilot in 5 years), and the 12-month flight review is only the fallback when you have not.
• Recurrent training asks have you refreshed your knowledge lately. It is satisfied by a ground activity every 24 months and is never waived by flying, no matter how current you are.

Recurrent training is not a commercial-only rule. CAR 401.05(2) binds every holder of a flight crew permit or licence (only the flight engineer licence is carved out), so a private pilot needs the 24-month recurrent training exactly like anyone else. One way a PPL meets it is the TC Self-Paced Study Program (Std 421.05).

• Passenger-carrying recency (401.05(2)(b)): to carry passengers you must have made 5 take-offs and 5 landings in the past 6 months; to carry them at night, those take-offs and landings must have been made at night.

For the passenger date math, count from the month you last made those take-offs and landings; the privilege runs through the end of the month 6 months later.

Trap: do not mix the windows, 6 months for passengers, 24 months for recurrent training, 12 months for a flight review.

Practice