Instructor Lapsed Flight Review
Scenario: It is Saturday. Instructor Mike only has a commercial rating in gliders, and has a CFI certificate only for gliders. Instructor Mike just realized that his 61.56 flight review has lapsed, as his last flight review was more than 24 months ago (In the past, this was referred to as a "Biennial flight review", but the FAA thinks the term 61.56 flight review just rolls off the tongue so easily). Instructor Mike had no new ratings in the past 24 calendar months. Within the last 12 months, Instructor Mike hasn't done any FAA WINGS training to fill in his 3 knowledge areas. Instructor Mike wants to go fly by himself on Sunday, but can't do so until he is compliant with 61.56(c). How can we get Instructor Mike in the air on Sunday?
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Issue: Instructor Mike needs to be compliant with 61.56 before he can act as pilot in command of any aircraft.
Solution #1: Instructor Mike can go do one hour of flight instruction in a glider with a certified flight instructor. If the instructor believes that all of the maneuvers are completed for a 61.56 flight review, the instructor must sign off Instructor Mike's log book indicating that a 61.56 flight review is completed. Since Instructor Mike is a certified flight instructor, he does not need to accomplish 1 hour of ground instruction, according to 14 CFR 61.56(f). It does not matter if Instructor Mike renewed via a FIRC, or by assigned activities, or by issuing enough WINGS credits. Since Mike is an active instructor, he need not complete the ground portion. Upon completion, the instructor who flew with Mike should log into WINGS and give credit for the flight activity named "A130628-01 WINGS Proficiency Flight Review"
Advantage: The issuing instructor gets credit toward his CFI renewal by issuing 3 flight credits. Instructor Mike gets a head start on earning credit toward completing a phase of WINGS. Instructor Mike also can go fly on Sunday, since the flight instructor signed the log book. Another positive is that Instructor Mike need not complete that hour of flight instruction.
Disadvantage: Mike doesn't complete a phase of WINGS on Saturday. This flight review must be 1 hour of flight instruction, or 3 glider flights to pattern altitude.
Solution #2: Instructor Mike can go do WINGS credit flights with a certified instructor. The certified flight instructor can choose three different flight activities from the table above. Let's suppose that Mike did the activities covered in A070405-25, A00126-05, A100125-31 with this flight instructor. These are 3 activities with "Basic" level, for topics 1, 2, and 3, respectively. It is conceivable that these activities could be covered in less than an hour, and done in fewer than three flights. WINGS training has no requirement for a minimum number of hours for this activity, and there are no prohibitions on combining WINGS flight activities in the same flight.
Advantage: The issuing instructor gets WINGS credit for 3 flight topics. The issuing instructor need not sign Mike's log book indicating a successful completion of a flight review. Depending on how many of the activities were accomplished, this could have been done in two flights, or less than an hour of flight instruction
Disadvantage: After flying for the day, Mike must go home, log into WINGS, find and finish three different knowledge courses on WINGS. Only after completing 3 knowledge courses on WINGS, would Mike complete a phase of WINGS and become compliant with 61.56(e).