Pilot currency tracking for flying clubs. BFR, 90-day rule, IPC, and medical, with booking-time enforcement so a lapsed member can't reserve an aircraft.
A recurring failure mode in flying clubs: members fly with lapsed currency. Not maliciously. The BFR drifts past 24 months, the spreadsheet hasn't been updated since the last quarterly meeting, the scheduler doesn't check it at booking time, and the member books a plane and flies. Nobody catches it until something goes wrong, at which point the gap is everywhere — insurance, FAA enforcement, club liability.
The fix is structural, not a personnel issue. This walks through what to track and how to make a lapsed member structurally unable to book.
Under FAR 61.56, a pilot has to complete a flight review within the preceding 24 calendar months to act as PIC. FAR 61.57 requires three takeoffs and landings within 90 days to carry passengers, with separate night currency (3 full-stop landings at night, in 90 days) and instrument currency (6 approaches plus holding in 6 months, or an IPC).
The full tracking matrix for a typical club:
| Check | Rule | Interval |
|---|---|---|
| Flight Review (BFR) | FAR 61.56 | 24 calendar months |
| Passenger-carrying currency | FAR 61.57(a) | 3 T&Ls in 90 days |
| Night currency | FAR 61.57(b) | 3 night T&Ls in 90 days |
| Instrument currency / IPC | FAR 61.57(c) | 6 approaches + holding in 6 months |
| Medical certificate | FAR 61.23 | 12, 24, or 60 months by class |
Add club-specific requirements (HP/complex checkouts, type-specific signoffs, club proficiency checks) and you have a real tracking matrix across potentially dozens of members.
Every club starts with a shared spreadsheet. The maintenance burden kills it. A member completes a BFR; somebody has to update the cell. The member doesn't always report it. The CFI who did the review isn't the one who updates the sheet. Three months later, the spreadsheet drifts out of sync with reality.
A stale spreadsheet is worse than no spreadsheet because it creates false confidence. The scheduler glances at it, sees green, and approves the booking. The member's actual BFR expired six weeks ago.
The deeper problem: even a perfectly current spreadsheet doesn't prevent a booking. The scheduler has to remember to check it for every reservation. That's not how human attention scales.
Every member has a record that captures the relevant dates: BFR with calculated expiry, medical class with expiry, instrument currency status (date of last IPC or 6-month lookback summary), and any club-specific checkout dates.
This data lives in the same system used for scheduling, not in a separate file. The first principle: there is no second source of truth.
The goal isn't catching expired currency after the flight. It's flagging the member 30–60 days before expiration so they have time to schedule a BFR or IPC before it becomes a problem. Color-coded states work — green (current), yellow (due within 60 days), red (lapsed) — and the alerts surface on the admin dashboard, not buried inside a member list page.
The biggest win. When a lapsed member opens the scheduling calendar, the system blocks the reservation and explains why. The member knows immediately what they need to do. The front desk doesn't have to remember to check anything. Compliance becomes structural.
This is the single feature that closes the most common currency failure mode.
Many clubs require a member to complete a checkout flight in each aircraft type before booking it solo. A Cessna-checked member shouldn't be able to book the Piper Arrow without an Arrow checkout. That's a separate problem from currency, but it lives in the same enforcement layer: the system has to know which types each member is approved for and block ineligible bookings.
Aloft360's member management handles both — currency dates and per-aircraft checkouts — and both checks happen at booking time. The free aircraft inspection due-date calculator handles the maintenance side; the currency side requires a system that knows your roster.
The pattern that eliminates most currency incidents:
When scheduling and currency tracking live in the same platform, enforcement is automatic. Nobody has to remember to check anything.
A practical question every club faces: do you take a member's word for their BFR date, or require documentation?
Most clubs accept member-entered dates on the honor system, relying on the alert pattern plus the member-portal visibility. The honor system works for the same reason it works in most clubs — the population is small, the cost of cheating is reputational, and the system makes it easy to do the right thing.
For higher-stakes items, many clubs add a verification step. Before instrument currency is marked current, the member uploads a logbook entry or CFI signoff. The dashboard distinguishes between member-claimed and CFI-verified currency.
Aloft360 supports both modes — admins can configure which currencies require CFI verification.
Use this as the floor for any club managing pilot currency:
If you're standing this up from scratch, Aloft360's free trial lets you add the member roster and configure currency tracking in an afternoon. For wider context: flying club scheduling software and aircraft maintenance tracking software.