Part 61 Changes

Wouldn’t you know it, I just found out about several changes to the FARs that might affect the endorsements, and will definitely affect the requirements for the PPLH and CPLH certificates. That’s supposed to be part of the power of a wiki though–that user communities keep the content evergreen. The rules go into effect late in October, and are summarized here [FAR Changes] and in an AOPA article. The duration of student pilot certificate pilot certificates is now the same as a 3rd-class medical. There’s also a change in the definition of cross-country time, although it’s hard to tell from the AOPA write-up how it applies to helicopters. Looks like I’ll have to dig into the regs some to figure that out.

One thing that didn’t change was the requirement for maintaining instrument currency. The FAA had proposed adding a cross-country flight and specific procedures and approaches.