[low&slow]

Currency refers to whether or not you are in practice.

I'm not entirely sure that that is the case. You are referring to proficiency which has little, if anything, to do with currency and rather more to do with recency and length of experience.

Proficiency is about how competent you are, hence proficiency check. You can be current but not proficient, or you can be very uncurrent but still proficient.

[GAFlyer4Fun]

... and if it is a single seater you cant exactly fly with an instructor in that aircraft to regain recency/proficiency on type if you have not flown it for a while.

[Crash one]

Without currency you can’t fly solo.
Without recency you can fly solo.

[low&slow]

You can legally fly whilst out of recency. As long as you are current.

If you are an LAPL(A) holder & you don't meet the requirements laid out in "FCL.140.A - Recency requirements" it is illegal for you to fly solo, unless under the supervision of an instructor, ie as a solo student. Recency & recent experience are phrases used in the law about pilot licensing, it is reasonable to assume that recency refers to those sections of the law.

Currency derives from the phrase current practice. You may not be current but it may still be legal for you to fly, whether you choose to regain currency by flying solo or dual is up to you (or the owner of the aircraft.) There is no law requiring pilots to be current to fly solo. My last powered flight before lockdown p1 was 6th March, the next one was 15th September. I wouldn't have called myself current after a 6 month gap but I was at least legal & chose to regain currency by flying solo.

[Kemble Pitts]

As an LAA Coach I received this clarifiaction from LAA earlier this week (my bold):

Dear Coaches

During the period of 'lockdown' announced by the UK Government, the LAA's Pilot Coaching Scheme has suspended its operations. However, in certain circumstances the DfT and CAA - and in the case of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the relevant devolved government within the UK - may be prepared to allow some specific training and testing to take place and this will be supported by the PCS.

Currently, according to the CAA, training and testing for already qualified private pilots may be carried out in England, but only to retain a rating or certificate which is about to expire. Coaches may provide the instruction necessary for a pilot to retain such a rating or certificate under the Scheme.


In situations where a devolved government permits training or testing of private pilots, any flying in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales must be carried out in a way that ensures that all applicable isolation rules and physical distancing guidance are complied with. Although the available guidance for flying instructors is limited, the DfT has previously advised that the rules and guidance for driving instructors would be applicable.


Coaches are advised to assess and minimise the risk of COVID contamination in accordance with their Government guidelines for training and flying instructors as published, and are reminded that the Scheme requires them to provide details to LAA HQ before commencing any training under the Scheme.


Regards
David Cockburn
PCS Head of Training

Assuming that this has been agreed with CAA (and I doubt very much if David would have promulgated it if it hadn't), it means you can conduct a 1 hour flight with an instructor if that is needed to revalidate a rating that would otherwise expire prior to the end of lock-down.

[Crash one]

Low&slow.
Sorry but I think the definition of currency and recency are being confused.
Currency (validity of the rating) is worth two years.
Recency (carriage of passengers) is worth 90 days.
Proficiency (whether you are any good at it) is nothing to do with either of the above.
If you are out of currency you need an examiner/mini flying test, plus the appropriate hours.
If you are out of recency you can recover that by three solo circuits with no supervision.
Whether one or both of us have the words currency and recency back to front doesn’t really matter.
In order to be Pilot in command, my rating must be valid, (current) whether I fly solo or with passengers.
In order to carry passengers, obviously my rating has to be valid, and I need to have flown three circuits in the last 90 days. (Recently)

[JAFO]

@low&slow seems to be confusing the fact that retaining currency for an LAPL is by recency of sorts. That does not mean that currency in the guidance or any regulation means the same as recent practice.

Currency refers to the legal aspects of a licence or rating. Recency is what @low&slow was talking about. It just so happens that you maintain currency of your LAPL by having completed aspects within a certain amount of time, which may be confusing.

As I said, my interpretation of the guidance is that you may fly if you urgently need to do so to retain a licence or rating. That appears to be AOPA's and the LAA's take on it, too.

As @Crash one says, privileges such as taking passengers may be linked to a recency requirement.

[low&slow]

Sorry to bang on but I'm not confused about anything. You chaps need to go and read Part FCL, at least the bits to do with LAPL and PPL flying. The word currency is not mentioned at all, anywhere in the entire document. There are two sections with the words recency or recent in their titles. FCL.060 refers to carrying passengers, if you do not meet the recent experience requirements it is illegal for you to carry passengers. FCL.140 refers to LAPL holders, if they do not meet the recency requirements it is illegal for them to fly unsupervised. Those two sections are what is meant by recency.

The ratings on a PPL, CPL, MPL or ATPL are either valid or not. They are never current or uncurrent. None of the ratings laid out in Subparts G,H,I,J and K are ever referred to as current, they are either valid or need to be renewed.

The word current is mentioned four times in Part FCL, three times it is irrelevant for our purposes, the other time it's in the phrase "is in current flying practice". There is no legal requirement to have a proficiency check just because you are not current. There is a requirement for a proficiency check if your SEP rating has lapsed, ie is no longer valid, but that is not the same as currency. FCL.740 does not require your rating to be current, it requires it to be valid.

Currency refers to how much flying you have done recently ( ). Referring to the two flights mentioned above, I was not current on the second flight because I hadn't flown it for six months, I was legal because my TMG rating was still valid.

[JAFO]

We're talking about the recent guidance and within that currency clearly means what it has meant for many years (before EASA was even a twinkle) and that is that ratings and licences are current.

The guidance clearly means that you should not fly simply to be in recent practice and only to keep licences, ratings and so on current.

[low&slow]

Sorry, but currency has never been a synonym for rating validity. Here's an example of the correct use of currency & it dates from the last century, well before EASA or even JAR.

[Charles Hunt]

I thought currency was how much you had to pay to go flying.

[skydriller]

I thought currency was how much you had to pay to go flying.

Well yes...Having currency means having currency....

[JAFO]

Sorry, but currency has never been a synonym for rating validity. Here's an example of the correct use of currency & it dates from the last century, well before EASA or even JAR.

Thanks for that, as I said way back, I'm no expert but your link is to a gliding document created by someone in 2015 which suggests that currency amounts to a check flight if you haven't done 3 take-offs and landings in the last 90 days so I really don't see how it's relevant to the current discussion.

We were talking about the DfT guidance for flying during lockdown.

I said that the allowable flight for currency only related to if you needed to fly urgently to stop a rating or licence expiring.

AOPA said that the allowable flight for currency only related to if you needed to fly urgently to stop a rating or licence expiring.

The LAA said that the allowable flight for currency only related to if you needed to fly urgently to stop a rating or licence expiring.

The fact that that has been my understanding of currency for the last 34 years is not really important, what is important is that that is also quite clearly their understanding of currency right now.

It's not worth falling out over, you do what you think is right, I'll do what I think is right and our difference of opinion over the meaning of a word doesn't really amount to a whole hill of beans.

Safe flying (whenever that may be allowed )

[skydriller]

Getting back to the effects of C19...

Chap on TV right now sat doing an online chat from the empty terminal at Southampton airport talking about the 165m runway extension. He just said they have between 30-50pax a day now....

Are any of those GA?

[Iceman]

GA is certainly taking advantage of the £30 for 30 minutes of approaches offer at Southampton but I’m not sure that any are actually landing. You normally arrange over the phone, paying by card.

Iceman