FAR 61.57 day, night, and IFR recency — the rules, the worked examples, and the three different “night” definitions that trip up almost every pilot.
Currency — recency of experience under FAR 61.57 — is what you need to carry passengers or fly IFR. It is separate from being legal to act as pilot in command at all, which takes a valid medical and a flight review every 24 calendar months (61.56). You can legally fly solo without being current; currency is specifically about passengers and instrument flight. And currency is a legal floor, not proof of proficiency — being legal and being sharp are not the same thing.
3 takeoffs and 3 landings within the preceding 90 days, as sole manipulator, in the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required). Landings can be touch-and-go — unless it’s a tailwheel airplane, where they must be to a full stop.
3 takeoffs and 3 landings to a full stop within the preceding 90 days, made during the night window (1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise), same category/class/type. Because night is stricter, full-stop night landings also satisfy day currency.
Within the preceding 6 calendar months: six instrument approaches, holding procedures, and intercepting and tracking courses — the “6 HITS” (6 approaches, Holding, Intercepting, Tracking, in 6 months). Lapse it and you get a 6-month grace period to regain it under a safety pilot or sim; more than 6 months out and you need an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC).
This is the single most confusing thing about currency: “night” means three different things depending on which rule you’re applying.
End of evening civil twilight → beginning of morning civil twilight
1 hour after sunset → 1 hour before sunrise
Sunset → sunrise
Your last three landings were full-stop, at 9 pm, 40 days ago, in the same make and model. Sunset tonight is 8:15 pm.
Within 90 days? Yes (40 days ago).
Full-stop, after 9:15 pm (1 hr past sunset)? Yes → night-current.
Night currency also covers day → day-current too.
Verdict: current for day and night passengers.
FlightKit reads your logbook and tracks 61.57 day, night, and IFR currency — plus your 61.56 flight review — automatically, so you always know the answer to “am I current?” before you walk to the airplane.
Currency (recency of experience) is what FAR 61.57 requires before you can carry passengers — or fly IFR. It is separate from being legal to fly at all: that takes a valid medical and a flight review within the preceding 24 calendar months (61.56). You can legally fly solo without being current; currency is specifically about carrying passengers and flying under instrument rules.
To carry passengers, you need 3 takeoffs and 3 landings within the preceding 90 days in the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required). For day, the landings can be touch-and-go. For night — and in a tailwheel airplane any time — the landings must be to a full stop.
Yes. A full-stop night landing satisfies both night and day passenger currency, because night is the more restrictive requirement. The reverse is not true: day (touch-and-go) landings do not count toward night currency. So three full-stop landings in the night window keep you current for both.
They use different clocks. You log night flight time from the end of evening civil twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight (14 CFR 1.1). Night takeoffs and landings for passenger currency only count from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise (61.57(b)). And position lights are required from sunset to sunrise (91.209). Three different definitions, three different times.
Within the preceding 6 calendar months you must have performed and logged, in the appropriate category: six instrument approaches, holding procedures, and intercepting and tracking courses using navigation systems. Pilots remember it as "6 HITS" — 6 approaches, Holding, Intercepting, Tracking, within 6 months.
You get a 6-month grace period after the 6-month window to regain currency by flying the required tasks — but past the initial 6 months you must do so with a safety pilot or in an approved simulator. If you are more than 6 months out of currency, you must pass an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) with an instructor or examiner before flying IFR again.