FAA Rescinds Legal Rulings On Obsolete IFR Training Requirement

On Feb. 28, the FAA issued Notice No: NOTC2305, which concludes that previous legal interpretations of the requirements of FAR 61.65(d)(2)(ii)(C) are “overly restrictive.” The regulation deals with the requirements for completing the cross-country portion of training for the instrument rating and says in “plain language” (words from the FAA statement) that the applicant must complete three different types of instrument approaches as part of the flight. But two “legal interpretations,” one from 2008 and the second reached in 2012, concluded that the three approaches must involve three separate navigation systems, for example VOR, ADF and ILS.

Apparently taking to heart that while modern GPS-based navigators often include VOR/LOC capability for non-precision VOR approaches and ILS precision approaches, fewer and fewer aircraft are equipped with automatic direction finding (ADF) receivers to access non-directional beacons (NDBs). And further, most instrument approaches in the system are now satellite-based. Many legacy approaches now use the original procedure as an overlay, using GPS navigation and position data.

NOTC2305 rescinds both interpretations and clarifies that the regulation simply requires three different types of approaches, not the use of three different navigation sources. The FAA wrote, “Certificated flight instructors (CFI) and designated pilot examiners (DPEs) should be aware that the requirements for an instrument rating may be met by performing three different approaches, regardless of the source of navigation.”