Staying current

Instrument Currency and the IPC: What 61.57 Requires

✓ Reviewed against current FAA sources on October 11, 2026

Instrument currency is the requirement pilots most often get wrong by accident, because two different six-month clocks run one after the other and only the first one is widely known. Section 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(c) says what keeps you current. Section 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(d) says what happens when you are not, and it is stricter than most people expect.

What 61.57(c) requires

A person may act as pilot in command under IFR, or in weather below VFR minimums, only if within the 6 calendar months preceding the month of the flight that person has performed and logged, in actual instrument conditions or under simulated conditions using a view-limiting device:

• six instrument approaches;
• holding procedures and tasks; and
• intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems.

Three things about that list repay attention. It is six approaches, not six months of flying. Holding is a separate required item, not something you do if convenient. And the third item is one task, not two: intercepting and tracking, through navigational electronic systems.

The tasks must be appropriate to the category of aircraft for the instrument privileges being maintained. Instrument currency is tied to category, so currency earned in an airplane does not carry to a helicopter.

Where you may do them

Section 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(c)(2) is more generous than its reputation. The tasks may be accomplished in a full flight simulator, flight training device or aviation training device, provided the device represents the category of aircraft for the privileges being maintained and the tasks are performed in simulated instrument conditions.

And they may be mixed. The regulation states that a person may complete the instrument experience in any combination of an aircraft, a full flight simulator, a flight training device or an aviation training device. Four approaches in a qualified ATD and two in the airplane is a compliant six.

The second clock, which is the one that catches people

Here is the structure that the usual summary leaves out.

When your six calendar months lapse, you are not current, but nothing else has happened yet. You may regain currency by going out with a safety pilot and performing the 61.57(c) tasks, because the aircraft is in simulated instrument conditions and you are not acting under IFR to do it.

That option is time limited. Section 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(d)(1) provides that a person who has failed to meet the instrument experience requirements of paragraph (c) for more than six calendar months may reestablish instrument currency only by completing an instrument proficiency check.

So the practical shape is six months current, then six months during which you can fix it yourself, and after that an IPC. A pilot thirteen months past their last approach cannot simply fly six approaches with a friend.

What an instrument proficiency check is

An IPC is not a flight review and it is not a checkride. Section 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(d) requires it to include the areas of operation in the applicable Airman Certification Standards as listed in appendix A of Part 61, as appropriate to the rating held.

It must be conducted in an aircraft appropriate to the category, or for other than a glider in a full flight simulator or flight training device representative of the category. And it must be given by one of a closed list of people:

• an examiner;
• a person authorized by the U.S. Armed Forces to conduct instrument flight tests, where the person tested is a member of the Armed Forces;
• a company check pilot authorized under Part 121, 125 or 135, or Part 91 Subpart K, where both the check pilot and the pilot tested are employees of that operator or program manager;
• an authorized instructor; or
• a person approved by the Administrator to conduct instrument practical tests.

"An authorized instructor" is the entry that matters to most pilots: an instrument instructor can give an IPC, so this is not a trip to a designated examiner.

How this sits with everything else

Instrument currency is independent of the other clocks. It does not substitute for the flight review in 61.56, and it does not substitute for the 90-day passenger currency in 61.57(a). A pilot can be instrument current and not legal to carry a passenger, or the reverse. Each requirement is tracked separately, and the medical runs on a clock of its own as well.

Instrument currency also has nothing to do with the instrument rating itself, which does not expire. What lapses is the privilege to use it, which is the same structure as the Part 107 recency rule and the same structure as a pilot certificate with a lapsed flight review.

Sources: 14 CFR 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(a), 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(c), 61.57 (opens in a new tab)(d); 14 CFR 61.56 (opens in a new tab); 14 CFR Part 61 (opens in a new tab) appendix A.