Obtaining your private pilot’s license is no small task and requires a significant amount of time and financial investment. If you’re going to put in the work (and the money) you really want to know how long it will last. So it’s a very common question to ask how long does a private pilot’s license last?
A private pilot’s license technically never expires, although to be legally current you need a flight review (every 24 calendar months), current medical exam certificate, and if carrying passengers, three takeoffs and landings within the last 90 days (daytime and nighttime currency are tracked separately).
In other words, once you have your pilot’s license, you will forever be a pilot. If you plan to exercise your privileges as a pilot (i.e. fly), there are certain things you’ll need to do on a periodic basis to maintain the currency of license to where you are compliant with the law. It’s kind of like your pilot’s license being active or inactive, in a sense. But if you have lapsed these currency requirements they are not all that difficult to re-gain (depending on how long it’s been since your last flight).
Let’s dive into each of these requirements and show in more detail what exactly you need to have your pilot’s license be current in the eyes of the FAA.
Also, for those of you starting your journey as a pilot, I put together a mini-library of 23 different resources and answers that I wish I could have consumed before I started flying or early in my training. You can grab that (for free) here:
Pilot’s License Expiration Date: None
If you look on any pilot’s license, you’ll notice that is has a “date of issue” but NO “date of expiration” anywhere. It’s kind of a club of sorts, where once you’re a member, you’re always a member. You put in the work to become a pilot and pass some intensive testing by the FAA, and so once you’re in, you’re in. That license and pilot status does not end.
But what happens if you got your pilot’s license at 25 years old and haven’t flown in 20 years since then? Is it safe for you to just hop in the cockpit and get back to flying? Well, no. The FAA decided that instead of placing an expiration date on the pilot’s license, it would instead have certain recency requirements to be able to legally fly. Let’s go through those next.
Currency Requirement #1: Flight Review
The first requirement to maintain in order to remain legal is to have received a flight review, historically called a biennial flight review, or BFR. This occurs every 24 calendar months, as the “biennial” name suggests. Flight reviews can be conducted by an instructor and so it’s not like taking your FAA check ride all over again with an examiner.
Flight reviews are somewhat subjective in nature and its purpose as explained by the FAA is to provide a “regular evaluation of pilot skills and aeronautical knowledge.” In other words, it’s a bit up to the instructor as to what to ask and review with you to evaluate the sufficiency of your pilot skills and aeronautical knowledge. Because it’s a little subjective, the FAA put out an advisory circular (AC 61-98B) that offers some guidelines and ideas of how to conduct an effective flight review.
If you’re wondering what your instructor is going to cover in a flight review, just ask ahead of time. The point isn’t to be a pass or fail exam but to evaluate and provide some continued education to keep your proficiency and knowledge retention at a healthy level. Once the instructor feels the review is sufficient (this entails both ground and air work) you will receive an endorsement in your logbook indicating when the flight review took place. It is good for 24 calendar months.
Bonus: If you get a new license or rating, such as your instrument, commercial, multi-engine, seaplane, CFI, etc. this counts as a flight review! That makes sense because those ratings and licenses are much more intense than a flight review so the FAA lets you double dip here.
Currency Requirement #2: Medical Certificate
You’ll remember that the three documents you have in your possession when acting as a pilot are your pilot’s license, valid government issued ID, and a current FAA medical certificate. We know that your pilot’s license can’t expire, and that your driver’s license (ID) does, but what about that medical certificate? To no surprise, yes your medical certificate has an expiration date. It wouldn’t make sense for your medical exam at age 25 to also be valid at age 50 without any re-evaluation in between. So how long is that medical good for?
Medical certifications are broken into three different classes: first, second, and third-class. First class is the most medically intensive and stringent, whereas third class is the least. Let’s go through the expiration date for each, starting at the bottom.
Third Class Medical Duration
Most private pilots only have a third class medical as that’s all you need to exercise the privileges of a private pilot and is valid for the longest amount of time compared to second and first class medicals.
If you are under the age of 40, the third class medical is good for 5 years (technically 60 months). After the age of 40, it is only good for 2 years (24 months). Ouch! That’s a big drop off when you hit the big 4-0.
Note that it isn’t valid down the actual day anniversary, but the end of that month. So for instance if you’re under 40 and have a third class medical date of 4/9/2015, it wouldn’t expire until the end of April 2020 (not the 9th).
What happens if you turn 40 years old in the middle of your 60-month duration? Luckily the FAA sort of “grandfathers you in” and allows you to still have that medical for all 60 months. So if you get your third class medical when you’re 39, it’s still good for 60 months until you’re 44. After that, it switches to every 24 months.
Second Class Medical Duration
You’ll need at least a second class medical for most paid aviation jobs such as being a flight instructor. For the airlines, they almost always require a first class medical but we’ll get to that in a moment. The second class medical is valid for 12 calendar months after the date of issue, but then if not renewed it will “downgrade” to a third class medical for the remaining duration of the medical.
If you were under 40 when the exam took place, then the second class medical would be good for 12 months, followed by 48 more months of it being a third class medical.
If you were 40 or older at the time of the exam, the second class medical would be good for 12 months, followed by 12 more months of it being a third class medical. Said another way, here’s the breakdown:
If you’re under 40 when you get your second class medical:
- Second class medical privileges last for 12 months; plus
- Third class medical privileges last for 48 more months thereafter (a total of 60 months for all)
If you’re over 40 when you get your second class medical:
- Second class medical privileges last for 12 calendar months; plus
- Third class medical privileges last for 12 more months thereafter (a total of 24 months for all)
First Class Medical Duration
If you are going to fly for the airlines you’ll need a first class medical. This is the most stringent of the three and is valid for a much shorter time period. It’s ultimately to the benefit of the passengers though that your pilots up front are being medically evaluated every six months to ensure that they are safe.
The first class medical is valid for 6 months if you are over the age of 40 when you take the exam (are you picking up on this older/younger than 40 trend? It impacts all medical certifications) or 12 months if you are under the age of 40 when you take the exam. After that it gets a little more complicated because it sort of waterfalls down into a second class and third class medical certification if not renewed.
If you’re under 40 when you get your first class medical:
- First class medical privileges last for 6 calendar months; plus
- Second class medical privileges last for 6 more months thereafter; plus
- Third class medical privileges last for 48 more months thereafter (a total of 60 months for all)
If you’re over 40 when you get your first class medical:
- First class medical privileges last for 6 calendar months; plus
- Second class medical privileges last for 6 more months thereafter; plus
- Third class medical privileges last for 12 more months thereafter (a total of 24 months for all)
Medical Certification – Class Hierarchy
Medical certifications follow a hierarchy where the higher class medicals satisfy the requirements for all other medical certifications below them. For example if you have a first class medical, it also satisfies all requirements of a second and third class medical. So if you only need a second class medical for a particular role, but have a current first class, that first class medical counts. A second class medical counts also as a third class but NOT as a first class medical. The third class medical is only good as a third class medical.
Currency Requirement #3: Takeoffs and Landings
If you have your flight review requirement fulfilled and possess a current medical certificate (appropriate to the type of flying you will be doing), you are legal to fly solo with your private pilot’s license. If you want to carry passengers you will need to meet one last recency requirement, and that is 3 takeoffs and landings within the preceding 90 days in that category (airplane, rotorcraft, glider, lighter than air, etc.) class (single engine land, single engine sea, multi-engine land, multi-engine sea), and type (if a type rating is required, i.e. jets) of aircraft.
Note that daytime and nighttime takeoff and landing currency are viewed as separate currencies per the FAA. You can be current to carry passengers during the day but not during the night and vice versa.
For daytime landing currency, these 3 landings and can be touch-and-go’s (except tailwheel aircraft must be full-stop landings).
For nighttime landing currency, these 3 landings must be made at night. The tricky part about this is that the FAA has a few different regulations that pertain to night. Night is actually broken into a few different categories and has a few different implications within each. Here are the three main differences (I promise they relate to currency):
- Sunset to sunrise: Position and anti-collision lights required. As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, to the moment it crests the horizon the next day, these lights are required. The moment the sun dips beneath the horizon though is not immediately “night flight” as defined by the FAA though. There are two more steps.
- End of evening civil twilight to beginning of morning twilight: You can log night time and night landings. But what exactly defines civil twilight? Technically it isn’t a time but rather a moment in time when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. The Navy’s Air Almanac calculates it for you if you’re interested based on your exact location and date, but a good rule of thumb is that evening civil twilight ends approximately 30 minutes after the sun sets. Starting at this time you can log night time and night landings. However, for night currency, those 3 landings actually have to occur between the hours of 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise. Check out CFR 61.57 for the verbatim regulation on this.
- 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise: This is when you must be nighttime current to carry passengers. So if you are only current during the day, you can carry passengers for up to 1 hour after sunset. At 59 minutes after sunset, it will likely be dark, but technically this still falls under daytime currency requirements. This is a good example of when you might be legally proficient but not always practically proficient. Use good judgement to prioritize safety!
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Conclusion
While your private pilot’s license does not expire, now you can see that there are other recency requirements that do expire and need to be maintained. There are definitely some nuances to those currency requirements but at the end of the day it is navigable. If you are flying regularly then you’ll really only need to think about a flight review every two years and a medical exam every two or five years depending on your age. Very doable!