Jay Honeck wrote:

Mary is off doing her BFR as I write this, which got me to wondering about
the history of the biennial flight review.

The measure was put into place in the late 70s. The first issue of the advisory
circular (61-98A) was dated 1976. It was revised in 1987 and 1991.

As I understand it, BFRs were not required until fairly recently (like, in
the last 30 years?). Given the current uproar over the creation of
relatively simple new requirements (like foreign pilots having to register,
etc.), I can barely imagine the howls of protest that must have ensued
during and after the creation of a rule that required every pilot to "prove
himself" with a CFI every 2 years!

According to Bill Cox (writing for Plane&Pilot), "There was a certain contingent of
pilots who objected vehemently to the new requirement."

(Although, I suspect, CFIs at the time must have thought they had died and
gone to heaven! Talk about a guaranteed money-maker! :-)

According to Howard Fried, the FAA tried to sell it to CFIs on those grounds, but it
has not proven to be a big moneymaker.

Was there a rash of incidents caused by rusty pilots before this rule was
proposed? What happened to bring about such a radical change?

I haven't seen anything in print to indicate that, but Rod Machado states that the
FAA hasn’t been able to quantify any direct safety benefits from the BFR. There’s
been no dramatic reduction of accidents attributable to the flight reviews.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.