Night Currency for Airline Pilots
Posted by 152Warrior26@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 37 comments
As I am thinking about getting night current again, it made me think of a question for Airline pilots. Have you ever been in a situation where you weren't night current and had to go on a night flight, or does the airlines' scheduling team make sure you are never not night current?
I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS@reddit
Night currency isn't a thing. Once you've got the night rating on your licence after training it just stays there. Carrying passengers requires 3 takeoffs and landings in the past 90 days (either day or night), which happens without even thinking about it in short-haul ops. Maybe the long-haul guys have to think a bit more about who needs the landing that day. If you go out of currency (from illness or whatever), the company will get you to do the 3 takeoffs and landings (and probably some refresher training) in a sim before going back on the line.
Baystate411@reddit
As long as we pass recurrent and have 3 landings in the proceeding 90 days then we are good for everything.
We actually carry currency requirements for specific airports too. Example: Mexico City required a qual for our shop. I think once every 36 months
BandicootNo4431@reddit
That must be a scheduling nightmare if it isn't automated.
Necessary_Topic_1656@reddit
we expend zero brain cells thinking about night currency.
just 3 landings within the previous 90 days. i shoot for 1 landing a month. and the month where i don't get my landing, i just go back to the sim to get 3 landings.
lsthrowaway69@reddit
Pardon my ignorance but how are you only doing one landing a month? I would think it’s more like 1-6 a day depending on the routes you fly.
Jmann356@reddit
Probably a wide body FO who is the third pilot often. You don’t get any landings unless you’re the flying FO
druuuval@reddit
I had a buddy at a regional who was stuck on reserve. He made it long enough without a landing that he had to go back to MSP to do his 3. Woulda been a much better deal if he wasn’t commuting half way across the country to a crash pad near EWR.
Necessary_Topic_1656@reddit
fly 6 or 7 flights on a 777 a month. i usually bid IRP, so i just ask the captain if i need a landing to see if i can fly as FO for one leg. usually most people are pretty chill and the leg goes to whoever needs a landing, but if i don't get a landing its no big deal, just go to the simulator and get the 3 landings.
wayofaway@reddit
Dude does super long haul /s
spitfire5181@reddit
US airline pilots just need 3 takeoffs and landings within the previous 90 days. The type of landing doesn't matter it just needs to be in type(?) and the landings can be completed in the simulator.
More random information; you literally just need the 3 landings and there are operations where the landings requal sim takes all of 5 minutes. But some airlines have made an entire landing requalification sim that's almost like a mini-Maneuvers Validation. Including single engine operations and non-ils stuff.
Fun_Supermarket1235@reddit
My regional did that to encourage the super senior guys to pick up a turn or proffer for a trip once every 3 months. One the landing sim became a “checkride” with v1 cuts and stuff it’s funny how fast people started flying to get landings
Baystate411@reddit
I personally think it's a great use of sim time. If they gunna ship your ass all the way to training and tie up a sim you mind as well hit a little v1 cut action.
KJ3040@reddit
At every property I’ve worked at, there are 2 separate landing sims. The simple one with three landings if you havent dequaled yet, and the mini MV one you described to re-establish currency.
Nyaos@reddit
At my airline where we don’t have AQP it’s basically a whole-ass checkride if you dequal from landings. It sucks ass.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
Under EASA, as long as you hold an IR, you don’t need any night currency at all. 3 takeoffs and landings in 90 days (can be 120 days, but terms and conditions apply) is all you need, regardless of whether day were day or night time.
graphical_molerat@reddit
But you still need to be IR current, of course
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
Well, if IR is not valid, then you technically don't hold an IR :)
BravoCharlieZulu@reddit
Not being current is not the same thing as not being valid.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
There's no such thing as IR currency under EASA. Either you have a valid IR or not.
Prefect_99@reddit
IR removes the need for one night take off and landing for passenger currency.
Diligent_Digiridoo@reddit
I recently flew with a captain from Australia that didn’t even know IFR currency was a thing in the US.
The only currency my company tracks is landings
legimpster@reddit
Airline pilots (US 121 pilots) don’t follow the same currency rules as GA part 91 pilots in order to operate in the 121 environment.
Swimming_Way_7372@reddit
GA offers Alternate night currency if you attend a part 142 training program annually. So there is an equivalent for us in that regard.
Flimsy-Ad-858@reddit
I think that commenter's definition of GA was more geared towards pistons than 142 guys. But yes.
Swimming_Way_7372@reddit
Perhaps, but since we do operate part 91 thats puts us smack in the middle of GA. When we crash up a plane it also goes in to the GA stat column.
Flimsy-Ad-858@reddit
Since nobody has actually quoted this yet that I can see, it's 121.436(b)(1)
ma33a@reddit
I don't even notice the difference in landing from night and day. I did back in GA, because the airports were dark and the optical illusions were there, but when you fly into major cities its like daytime by the time you get below 100ft.
Being night current is really only useful if you fly to dark places.
Fancy_o_lucas@reddit
Night currency don’t exist in Part 121 ops, it’s just currency. If you lose currency for all landings, scheduling will either get you on a trip ASAP or just send you down to the sims.
John_EightThirtyTwo@reddit
Keeping the pilots current is definitely worth a few simoleons.
z0mbeh8r@reddit
As others have said, there is no night specific currency requirement for 121 ops. Keep in mind there is also a significant difference between a transport category aircraft night landing vs a small piston. The amount of lights on an airliner illuminates the runway far more than what any GA aircraft could ever hope for. Plus the RA/ GPWS callouts coming into the flare means it doesn’t really look or feel all that different at day vs night.
nl_Kapparrian@reddit
Annual training makes you current for the whole year.
hawker1172@reddit
Negative
hawker1172@reddit
FAR Part 121 does not require night currency
Crusoebear@reddit
"What is this night time currency you speak of? You merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!".
-CA Bane, Freight Dog
swakid8@reddit
Not a thing for Part 121 currency
BagOfMoneyNoChange@reddit
There is no such thing as night currency for airline pilots (in the US).
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
As I am thinking about getting night current again, it made me think of a question for Airline pilots. Have you ever been in a situation where you weren't night current and had to go on a night flight, or does the airlines' scheduling team make sure you are never not night current?
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