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Instrument Proficiency Checks: What to Expect and How to Stay Current

If you hold an instrument rating and have gone more than six calendar months without meeting FAR 61.57(c)'s currency requirements, an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) is what stands between you and legal IFR flight. More importantly, it's what stands between you and safe IFR flight.

Here's a complete guide to what an IPC is, what it covers, and how to approach it.

What Is an IPC?

An Instrument Proficiency Check is a structured evaluation, given by an authorized instructor (CFII) or an examiner, that restores IFR currency. Once currency has lapsed for more than six calendar months, it is the only way back. It is defined by the Instrument Rating Airman Certification Standards (ACS) and must cover all specified task areas to be completed.

Unlike the flight review, the IPC has a defined scope — it's not up to the instructor's discretion what to include. The ACS specifies the areas of operation and tasks that must be satisfactorily demonstrated.

When Do You Need One?

You need an IPC when:

1. You have not logged the required 6 instrument approaches, holding procedures, and intercepting/tracking in the preceding 6 calendar months (FAR 61.57(c)), AND
2. The additional 6-month grace period has also passed without restoration of currency through logged tasks

If you're within the grace period (between 6 and 12 months since your last currency-qualifying tasks), you cannot legally fly IFR as PIC but you can still restore currency by logging the required approaches and holding with a safety pilot or CFII — you don't necessarily need a full IPC. Once the grace period expires, a full IPC is required.

Worth noting: Many instrument pilots choose to get an IPC more frequently than required — treating it as a biannual proficiency check even when technically current. This is good practice. The structured review with a CFII is one of the most efficient ways to identify and correct skill drift.

What the IPC Must Cover

Per the Instrument Rating ACS, an IPC in a single-engine airplane must include these tasks:

• Holding procedures
• Recovery from unusual flight attitudes
• Intercepting and tracking navigational systems and DME arcs
• A nonprecision approach, such as an RNAV (GPS) approach to LNAV minimums, a VOR or a localizer approach
• A precision approach, such as an ILS
• A missed approach
• A circling approach
• Landing from an instrument approach
• An approach with loss of primary flight instrument indicators — partial panel, and often where pilots discover how much skill has eroded
• Checking instruments and equipment after the flight

The Partial Panel Requirement: Where Most Pilots Struggle

Partial panel operations — flying without the attitude indicator and directional gyro — are a required IPC component that regularly reveals proficiency gaps. In a vacuum-system failure, these are the instruments you lose. Flying on partial panel requires a fundamentally different scan and different control reference instruments.

If you haven't practiced partial panel in your recent instrument flying, plan to spend time on it before your IPC. A CFII can help you identify whether your partial panel scan is reliable or whether it needs work before the formal evaluation.

How to Prepare for an IPC

1. Know Where Your Currency Lapsed

Before meeting with the CFII, know your logbook. When were your last 6 qualifying approaches? When did you last log holding? How long has it been? The CFII will ask, and knowing the answer precisely sets the tone for an honest assessment.

2. Review the Instrument ACS

Download the Instrument Rating ACS from the FAA website and read through the task areas. Know what's required. Arrive with an understanding of what you'll be evaluated on rather than walking in cold.

3. Brief Yourself on Recent Approach Procedure Changes

RNAV approach procedures have evolved significantly in recent years — LPV, LNAV/VNAV, LP, and LNAV minima each have different requirements and considerations. If you're not current on these distinctions, review them before your IPC.

4. Fly Before You Show Up

If it's been a significant time since your last IFR flight, consider flying a dual instrument flight to shake off rust before the formal IPC. Arriving at an IPC after a long gap without any recent instrument time makes the session less efficient — you may spend valuable time reestablishing basic scan before getting to the required tasks.

5. Know Your Aircraft's Avionics

IFR operations in a glass cockpit or GPS-equipped aircraft require familiarity with the specific avionics installed. Know how to load and activate an approach, execute a missed approach, and select alternate navigation sources on the specific equipment in the aircraft you'll be flying for the IPC.

After the IPC: Building a Currency Strategy

The IPC restores your currency, but staying current requires an ongoing strategy. Here's a simple approach:

Track your currency monthly. Note when your 6-month window started and mark your calendar 4 months out as a check-in point. If you haven't logged sufficient approaches by the 4-month mark, schedule currency flights proactively rather than scrambling at the end.

Vary your approaches. Log approaches at different airports, on different approach types, in different conditions. This builds genuine proficiency rather than just satisfying the currency numbers.

Use a CFII quarterly. Even when currency is maintained, a quarterly dual IFR flight with a CFII provides structured feedback that solo currency flying can't replicate.

Consider a simulator. FAA-approved simulators and training devices can be used for all of the instrument currency tasks in FAR 61.57(c), in any combination with flying the airplane, and allow approach practice without weather dependency.

IPC at Cornerstone Flight Academy

Cornerstone Flight Academy offers IPCs in our aircraft with an instrument instructor (CFII). To act as pilot in command under IFR in one of our aircraft, you need current instrument experience under FAR 61.57(c), or an IPC that restored it.

If your currency has lapsed or is approaching the 6-month mark, don't wait until you're out of the grace period. Schedule time with a Cornerstone Flight Academy CFII and get back current.

Check availability here.

Cornerstone Flight Academy offers IPCs, instrument currency flights and IFR instruction with an instrument instructor (CFII). Contact info@flycornerstone.com to get started.

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