History of the BFR?

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

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!

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

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

For those who were flying back then, can you give us a brief history of what
happened?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I logged my first biennial in 1981. That was just after I sold the
tail-less Stinson to an IA as a project (internal corrosion in the
horizontal stab.), and the previous flight in the logbook was in the
Stinson in '79. So the requirement came up circa 1980.

From the dejanews records on Google, it appears that net.aviation was
only chartered in late 1981, so there wasnt the same kind of forum for
flogging a topic like biennials that we have here -- just the letters
columns in the magazines.

My recollection was that pretty much everybody but dyed-in-the-wool
libertarians thought it was a pretty good idea.

Don

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.

The requirement must have started sometime around 1972. I got my licnese in
1970, and shortly thereafter I had to go take the BFR. I still remember the
instructor that gave it to me. I do remember there was some outcry. Just about
the same time transponders were mandated.

Ross

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.

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!

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

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

For those who were flying back then, can you give us a brief history of what
happened?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Ross Richardson wrote:
The requirement must have started sometime around 1972. I got my licnese in
1970, and shortly thereafter I had to go take the BFR. I still remember the
instructor that gave it to me. I do remember there was some outcry. Just about
the same time transponders were mandated.

There was also an attempt to make it annual for low experience pilots.
This came in with the addition of the Recreational Pilot certificate
as (oddly enough) a bone thrown to the flight instructor lobby over
the lost revenue. They kept rolling forward the effective date until
they finally ditched the concept in the 95 FAR rewrite.

Ron Natalie wrote in message om...

There was also an attempt to make it annual for low experience pilots.
This came in with the addition of the Recreational Pilot certificate
as (oddly enough) a bone thrown to the flight instructor lobby over
the lost revenue. They kept rolling forward the effective date until
they finally ditched the concept in the 95 FAR rewrite.

That came about in '88 or '89. As I recall, the rule was that
pilots with less than 300 hrs. were required to have an Annual Flight
Review. I have 2 of those in my logbook. There was much confusion
about the effective dates (FAA would push the date at the last
minute), so I would get a BFR every year just to be on the safe side.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Ross Richardson wrote in message ...
snip
I do remember there was some outcry. Just about
the same time transponders were mandated.


Ross,

Where were transponders mandated in the 70's? I remember that the
expanded number of TCAs (Class B) and Mode/C requirements showed up in
the late 80's / early 90s as a result of the Cerritos mid-air crash in
'86. Before that, most planes that I flew weren't equipped with
transponders.

Just Curious.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

John Galban wrote:
Ross Richardson wrote in message ...
snip

I do remember there was some outcry. Just about
the same time transponders were mandated.



Ross,

Where were transponders mandated in the 70's? I remember that the
expanded number of TCAs (Class B) and Mode/C requirements showed up in
the late 80's / early 90s as a result of the Cerritos mid-air crash in
'86. Before that, most planes that I flew weren't equipped with
transponders.

Just Curious.

Originally, there were Group I, Group II, and Group III TCA's (actually
they defined Group III, but there were no actual Group III TCA's established).
Group I required Mode C, Group II required just a transponder. I learned
outside of DEN, so we had transponders, but no mode C (Group II TCA) in
the late 70's/early eighties. Everything else was a TRSA and voluntary.

Cerritos was 1986, and of course the aircraft involved:
1. Was in the TCA illegally
2. The TCA bust was due to the pilot being incapacitated.

Of course, the FAA solution was to make the TCA's bigger and add ARSA's.
They also mandated mode C for many more locations (All TCA's, 30 miles
of TCA's, ARSA's, above 10,000 etc...)

I was a CFII circa 1970-1975 and I think it started in that time frame. I
never had a BFR before 1975 so maybe it was after 1973. I didn't fly from
1975 to 1998. Sold my Arrow and moved to Southern California. I don't
recall any rash of accidents calling for the change and there was no
significant improvement in accident rate after implementation.

Rod

"

The BFR history is all in this advisory circular:

http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/acs/61-98a.txt

"Curator"
N185KG



"Rod Madsen" wrote in message
...
I was a CFII circa 1970-1975 and I think it started in that time frame. I
never had a BFR before 1975 so maybe it was after 1973. I didn't fly from
1975 to 1998. Sold my Arrow and moved to Southern California. I don't
recall any rash of accidents calling for the change and there was no
significant improvement in accident rate after implementation.

Rod

"