I saw it again on social media: someone posted that he/she is scheduled for a flight review and asked, “What should I study to prepare?” Generally well-meaning responses run the gamut from recommendations for classes or online courses, to a list of the available FAA manuals and advisory circulars (ACs), to statements like, “You can’t fail a flight review, so just show up without special preparation.” As is usually the case, the reality is some combination of these suggestions. What should (and can) you do to prepare yourself for a flight review? The answer: It depends on what you want to get out of it.
THE RULE
The regulation requiring a flight review every two years—biennially—is FAR 61.56 (the word “biennial” was removed from the requirement in 1997), and it is very simple: To act as pilot-in-command, a pilot must complete and log at least one hour each of ground and flight instruction from an authorized instructor (generally, a CFI) within the previous 24 calendar months. Ground instruction must include “the current general operating and flight rules of Part 91,” while flight training must cover “a review of those maneuvers and procedures that, at the discretion of the person giving the review, are necessary for the pilot to demonstrate the safe exercise of the privileges of the pilot certificate.” At its most basic, the flight review is a minimum-standards quality control check.
