Pilot currency checker
Put in your dates and see what runs out when, under 61.56, 61.57 and 61.23. For reference only: your logbook and the regulations decide whether a flight is legal, not this page.
Against the dates you entered
Nothing entered yet
5 items with no date, reported as unknown rather than clear. Checked against 27 October 2026.
- No date
Flight review
FAR 61.56
Enter a date to work this one out.
Required to act as pilot in command at all. A check ride, a new rating or a phase of WINGS can stand in for it.
- No date
Day passengers
FAR 61.57(a)
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Three takeoffs and landings in the same category, class and type within 90 days, to carry passengers by day. Tailwheel landings must be to a full stop.
- No date
Night passengers
FAR 61.57(b)
Enter a date to work this one out.
Three takeoffs and landings to a full stop at night within 90 days, to carry passengers then. Night here runs from an hour after sunset to an hour before sunrise.
- No date
Instrument currency
FAR 61.57(c)
Enter a date to work this one out.
Six approaches, holding, and intercepting and tracking courses within six calendar months, to fly IFR. Lapse it and you get six more months to regain it with a safety pilot; past that it takes an instrument proficiency check.
- No date
Third class medical
FAR 61.23 · 24 calendar months
Enter your examination date to work this one out.
Why the dates surprise people
Part 61 runs two clocks, and they are next to each other
Calendar months ignore the day
A flight review on 15 March 2024 is good through 31 March 2026. The day of the month is discarded entirely, which is why 61.56 and the instrument window always expire on a month end, and why booking the review early in a month is quietly worth an extra few weeks.
The 90-day windows do not
Passenger currency under 61.57(a) and (b) is counted in plain days back from today, with no rounding at all. Two rules in the same section on two different clocks is the most common mix-up in Part 61 currency, and it is why this page labels each row with its clock.
Your age at the exam, not today
A third-class medical issued at 39 runs 60 calendar months even if you turn 40 the following week. The certificate keeps the duration it was issued with, which catches people who assume a birthday shortened it.
A lapsed medical is not always grounded
A first-class certificate steps down to second- and then third-class privileges rather than stopping. What lapses first is usually what you may be paid to do, not whether you may fly, and the page says which is which.
If you run the school
One pilot at a time does not scale
This page is fine for checking yourself. Checking forty renters and a dozen instructors by hand, every month, is how a lapsed flight review gets found by an insurer rather than by you.
SkyFSBookings holds each pilot's review, medical and currency dates against their record and flags what is about to run out, so the check happens when somebody books rather than when somebody remembers.
Track it for your pilotsFree for one aircraft, no card, no expiry.
- Read the rules themselves rather than this page: 14 CFR Part 61 on eCFR. It is the authority; this is arithmetic.
- Keeping renters legal is a scheduling problem as much as a records one: the fleet management guide covers where the two meet.
- Working out what to charge instead? The rental rate calculator prices the airframe by the hour.
- Already running on something else? See what moving across involves.
What pilots ask about this
Currency, answered plainly
- Can I rely on this to decide whether I am legal to fly?
- No. It does date arithmetic on dates you type, and that is all. Your logbook and 14 CFR Part 61 decide whether a flight is legal, and where this page and the regulations disagree, the regulations are right. Use it to spot what is about to lapse, then check the logbook. If anything matters, ask a CFI.
- Why does my flight review expire at the end of the month?
- Because 61.56 is written in calendar months, so the day of the month is discarded. A review flown on 15 March 2024 is good through 31 March 2026, not 15 March 2026. One useful consequence: a review flown early in a month is worth almost a full extra month over one flown at the end of it, which is worth knowing when you are booking the appointment.
- Why are the 90-day windows counted differently?
- Because 61.57(a) and (b) are written in days rather than calendar months, so they are counted straight back from today with no month rounding. This is the single most common mix-up in Part 61 currency: two rules that sit next to each other in the same section run on two different clocks. The page labels which clock each row uses for that reason.
- What does this not cover?
- A good deal. It does not handle type-specific or tailwheel landing requirements, the full-stop rule for night landings, light-sport or glider differences, the instrument grace period and when an IPC is needed instead of six more approaches, or the full ladder of medical step-down privileges. It cannot see a 709 ride, a certificate action, or a limitation your AME wrote onto your medical. It is a date calculator, not an assessment of you.
- How does the medical duration work out?
- From the class and your age on the day of the examination, not your age today. A third-class medical issued before you turned 40 runs 60 calendar months even if you turn 41 the following week. A first-class runs 12 calendar months under 40 and 6 at 40 and over, and when that lapses the certificate does not stop working: it steps down to second- and then third-class privileges, which changes what you may be paid to fly rather than whether you may fly at all.
- Does it store my dates?
- No. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is sent to us, and nothing is saved between visits, which is also why you have to type the dates again next time. Your logbook is your record and there is no reason for this page to keep a copy of it.