Legal Vs. Safe

Good for you if you have an ICC; congrats if you’re real-world current. But got ’em both?

I was struck by the number of seemingly active pilots I’ve talked to in the days leading up to press time in early April who profess to be out of currency for instrument flying.

In some ways, this can be expected, since low freezing levels keep many pilots out of the clouds during the winter. Recently I’ve had the same kind of problem. Through a combination of circumstances and an unusual winter, I didn’t do much flying in IMC simply because there wasn’t much around on those times when I’ve used an airplane for travel.

I try to get an instrument proficiency check every six months, regardless of how much instrument flying I’ve been doing. It’s a strategy I adopted years ago for a rather...