FAA pilot currency requirements: §61.57 explained

FAA pilot currency comes from 14 CFR §61.57 recency. To carry persons — the rule says persons, which reaches any occupant, not only passengers — you need 3 takeoffs and 3 landings within the preceding 90 days in the same category, class, and type; at night those 3 landings must be to a full stop. For IFR you need 6 instrument approaches plus holding and course intercepting/tracking within 6 calendar months. Separately, §61.56 requires a flight review every 24 calendar months to act as pilot in command at all.

"Currency" (also called recency of experience) is a set of rolling look-back windows. Unlike a certificate or rating, currency is never permanent — it decays with time and is refreshed by flying. Each privilege has its own rule, its own window, and its own way of resetting. The sections below break each one down, and the matrix near the end is a one-glance summary. None of this replaces §61.57 itself: the pilot in command is solely responsible for determining currency and the legality of a given flight.

Under §61.57(a), to act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying persons — the rule says persons, not only passengers — you must have made 3 takeoffs and 3 landings within the preceding 90 days as the sole manipulator of the flight controls, in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required).

Key points that trip pilots up:

• The 90 days is a rollinglook-back, not a calendar quarter. Each takeoff/landing "expires" exactly 90 days after it was flown.
• The requirement has two triggers, not one: §61.57(a)(1) binds you when carrying persons or when the aircraft is certificated for more than one pilot flight crewmember. In a two-crew type it bites with the cabin empty. And the recovery flight is not unrestricted: §61.57(a)(2) allows it under day VFR or day IFR only, and only if no persons or property are carried other than those necessary for the conduct of the flight.
• For day currency in a nosewheel airplane, touch-and-goes count: a takeoff and a landing is a takeoff and a landing. Not in a taildragger. §61.57(a)(1)(ii) requires that, if the aircraft to be flown is an airplane with a tailwheel, the takeoffs and landings be made to a full stop in an airplane with a tailwheel — and that condition sits inside the day paragraph, with no twin in (b), because night already demands full stop. Three touch-and-goes in a Citabria on Saturday do not let you carry a passenger on Sunday. (Night is stricter for every airplane — see below.)
• You must be the sole manipulator of the controls for the takeoffs and landings to count toward your own currency.

Each takeoff and landing must be logged in accordance with §61.51 so you can prove recency on request.

Night passenger currency is a stricter overlay on §61.57(a). To carry persons at night — the rule says persons, not only passengers — §61.57(b) requires 3 takeoffs and 3 landings within the preceding 90 days where each landing is to a full stop, and those takeoffs and landings are flown during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise.

• Full-stop landings only. Touch-and-goes do not count for night currency — you must come to a complete stop each time.
• The night window is a §61.57(b) definition(1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise) — note this is a narrower window than the "night" used for logging night flight time (end of evening civil twilight to beginning of morning civil twilight, §1.1). Do not conflate the two.
• Same category, class, and type rule as day currency.

Because full-stop night landings satisfy the day requirement too, 3 full-stop landings in the night window make you current for both day and night passenger operations.

To act as pilot in command under IFR or in weather below VFR minimums, §61.57(c) requires that within the preceding 6 calendar months you have performed and logged, in the appropriate category of aircraft (or an approved simulator/ATD):

• Six instrument approaches;
• Holding procedures and tasks; and
• Intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigation systems.

The grace period. If you let those 6 calendar months lapse, you are not immediately grounded from all instrument flying: §61.57(d)(1) requires an IPC only once you have failed to meet the §61.57(c) experience requirements for more than six calendar months, so you have an additional 6 calendar months during which you may regain currency on your own by flying the required approaches, holding, and tracking — in actual IMC with another qualified pilot serving as pilot in command, under simulated instrument conditions with a safety pilot, or in an approved simulator or flight training device. The distinction matters: a safety pilot covers the simulated case; you may not act as PIC in actual IMC while your instrument currency has lapsed. And read §61.57(c) closely on what the lapse costs — it bars acting as pilot in command under IFR OR in weather below VFR minimums. Those are two alternatives, and the first says nothing about the weather: with lapsed currency you may not accept an IFR clearance on a severe-clear day either. Only when both the currency window and the grace period have lapsed — a total of 12 calendar months without the required experience — must you complete an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) under §61.57(d) to regain instrument privileges. An IPC is administered by an examiner, an authorized instructor, or another authorized evaluator and covers the areas of operation in the instrument rating ACS.

This is the summary. For the full walkthrough — what counts as an approach, safety-pilot rules, simulator/ATD credit, and worked timeline examples — see our dedicated IFR currency requirements guide.

The flight review is often confused with currency, but it is a separate requirement. Under §61.56, no person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft unless, within the preceding 24 calendar months, they have completed a flight review and received a logbook endorsement from an authorized instructor.

• A flight review is a minimum of 1 hour of ground and 1 hour of flighttraining, reviewing §91 operating rules and maneuvers at the instructor's discretion (§61.56(a)). The rule qualifies both halves: a glider pilot may substitute three instructional flights, each to traffic pattern altitude, for the hour of flight (§61.56(b)), and a pilot holding a flight instructor certificate need not do the hour of ground if they meet §61.56(f).
• It is not a checkride and is not a pass/fail practical test — it is a training event. You either receive the endorsement or continue training until you do.
• Certain events substitute for a flight review — passing a practical test (checkride) for a new certificate or rating (§61.56(d)), or completing a phase of an FAA-sponsored proficiency program (WINGS, §61.56(e)).
• Student pilots do not need one at all. Under §61.56(g), a student pilot training for a certificate who holds a current solo endorsement under §61.87 is exempt — if that is you, the flight review is not something you are behind on.

The flight review keeps your PIC privileges alive; currency keeps specific privileges (passengers, night, IFR) alive. You need both. See our flight review (BFR) guide for how to prepare.

Currency under §61.57 is tied to the specific category (e.g. airplane, rotorcraft), class (e.g. single-engine land, multi-engine land), and, where a type rating is required, type of aircraft. This has hard consequences:

• Three landings in an airplane do not make you current to carry passengers in a helicopter — different category.
• Currency in a single-engine airplane does not carry to a multi-engine airplane — different class.
• For type-rated aircraft, currency is tracked per type.

The IFR recency of §61.57(c) is tracked by category of aircraft (e.g. airplane vs. rotorcraft) rather than by class. If you fly more than one category or class, track each one separately — a single logbook total does not tell you whether you are current in the specific machine you are about to fly.

A one-glance summary of the recency rules on this page. The regulation is always controlling — this table is an aid, not a substitute for reading §61.56 and §61.57.

Currency is only useful if you can demonstrate it. Under §61.51 you must log the flight time and recency experience used to meet these requirements, and be able to present those records to an FAA inspector, examiner, or authorized instructor on request. In practice that means keeping every takeoff, landing, approach, and endorsement in a logbook you trust.

AeroCopilot computes each of these windows for you from your logged flights. The currency proof tool shows, at a glance, whether you are current for day passengers, night passengers, and IFR — with the exact date each requirement lapses — and the electronic logbook keeps the underlying entries organized and §61.51-compliant. If you already keep records in MyFlightbook, AeroCopilot supports a one-way import so you do not have to re-enter your history.

These tools are decision support, not a legal determination. The pilot in command remains solely responsible for determining currency and the legality of every flight under §61.57.