6-6-6 rule currency
Moderators: lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, I WAS Birddog
6-6-6 rule currency
Hello aviators
My 6-6-6 ifr currency is not current!
Asked to teach a single IFR rating at my school but without it can’t teach it.
Do I go somewhere else that has a red bird and knock it off quick as my school doesn’t have an ifr sim.
Suggestions and/or advice
Thanks
My 6-6-6 ifr currency is not current!
Asked to teach a single IFR rating at my school but without it can’t teach it.
Do I go somewhere else that has a red bird and knock it off quick as my school doesn’t have an ifr sim.
Suggestions and/or advice
Thanks
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Probably cheaper to do an IPC and be good again for 12 months.
As an AvCanada discussion grows longer:
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
if i just do the 6 hours instrument and 6 approaches and not the full IPC do I still need to do a test at the end of the 6 approaches? Trying to find it on TC
thanks
thanks
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
No test. But seriously though, if you're going to be teaching IFR you should really know these things.... Or know where to find them...
As an AvCanada discussion grows longer:
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
You are 100% correct, I've had the instructor rating for a while now but now it's my first time in many years that I can do the instructing job full time and I am dedicated to being the best instructor that I can be for the future. I am still learning a lot and now I can fully concentrate on it. I will do my best to learn as much on the IFR as possible.
thanks
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
This is a good place to start: https://tc.canada.ca/en/corporate-servi ... sor-96-433
As an AvCanada discussion grows longer:
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
I'm actually a bit surprised you need current to instruct IFR. It's not like we ever went in actual IMC in training.
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Is it that much different than flying IFR in VMC on an autopilot the majority of the time in other commercial ops?
As an AvCanada discussion grows longer:
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Yes, because in commercial ops we are going almost regardless of the potential weather. In flight school we are sitting on the ground until it's perfect weather
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
I did quite a bit of actual IMC on my initial IFR…
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goldeneagle
- Rank (9)

- Posts: 1309
- Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:28 pm
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
When I taught IFR back in the 80's, thru the winter, the majority of the flights were in IMC. I especially enjoyed a few trips where the destination airport was w0x0f, tell the student while joining localizer, go ahead and land. then sit back and watch the look on their face as they reach ILS minimums and there is nothing to see out front but a faint glow in the fog. Had a number of evenings like that where students were forced to go miss, for real, at YXX, then head off back to YVR. The tricky part on those days was finding the legal alternate, but YQQ almost always fit the bill. Only a couple times where we had to look out over the other side of the coast range for a legal alternate, and on those times I said no, not even gonna contemplate heading over the coast range in a duchess at night. If we didn't have a legal alternate at either YYJ or YQQ, we sat in the office drinking coffee.
My opinion, a school that wont teach IFR in IMC is probably a school one shouldn't use for an instrument rating, quite likely to have an instructor that's never see the inside of a cloud. And as an instructor, I can say with absolute certainty, nothing makes you sharper on the guages than sitting in the right seat, scanning guages on the left side in a duchess, headed down to minimums at night, knowing that the reported ceiling and vis are such you likely wont get ground contact when it's time to go miss on the ILS, and the silly approach ban doesn't apply because it's a training flight with the miss in the plan.
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
You sound like one heck of an instructor! I had to learn to fly in IMC with passengers onboard.
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philaviate
- Rank 1

- Posts: 44
- Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2024 2:47 pm
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Good luck finding an instructor who's even seen a cloud.goldeneagle wrote: ↑Fri Nov 07, 2025 11:36 amWhen I taught IFR back in the 80's, thru the winter, the majority of the flights were in IMC. I especially enjoyed a few trips where the destination airport was w0x0f, tell the student while joining localizer, go ahead and land. then sit back and watch the look on their face as they reach ILS minimums and there is nothing to see out front but a faint glow in the fog. Had a number of evenings like that where students were forced to go miss, for real, at YXX, then head off back to YVR. The tricky part on those days was finding the legal alternate, but YQQ almost always fit the bill. Only a couple times where we had to look out over the other side of the coast range for a legal alternate, and on those times I said no, not even gonna contemplate heading over the coast range in a duchess at night. If we didn't have a legal alternate at either YYJ or YQQ, we sat in the office drinking coffee.
My opinion, a school that wont teach IFR in IMC is probably a school one shouldn't use for an instrument rating, quite likely to have an instructor that's never see the inside of a cloud. And as an instructor, I can say with absolute certainty, nothing makes you sharper on the guages than sitting in the right seat, scanning guages on the left side in a duchess, headed down to minimums at night, knowing that the reported ceiling and vis are such you likely wont get ground contact when it's time to go miss on the ILS, and the silly approach ban doesn't apply because it's a training flight with the miss in the plan.
Or a flight school with a plane that's even safe to fly imc in most of Canada.
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Blackdog0301
- Rank 3

- Posts: 178
- Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 3:15 pm
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Flying IFR in VMC does not cut it. I trained many new pilots at an entry 703 job where many FO's were a fresh group 1 pilot that had never seen the inside of a cloud. We trained our pilots in the actual aircraft, in actual IMC if that's the weather that day presented, and sometimes in a plane with no autopilot. A good chunk of them had an incredibly tough time with it. A few were let go. A few quit. Why? Just because you can fly under the hood doesn't mean you can fly in the clouds. Under the hood, you still have visual cues. Cheap goggles, the student can easily peak out the bottom corner and see the grounding moving beneath them. Moving shadows across the panel indicate you are turning. You'll never truly experience the sensation of spacial disorientation and how tough it can be to overcome at first.
All this to say... If a flight school won't let an IFR student experience what it's like to fly in actual IMC, that's incredibly poor training and something that a student should consider before getting too deep into their training. The difference between good IFR training and "good enough" training could be the difference between life and death.
All this to say... If a flight school won't let an IFR student experience what it's like to fly in actual IMC, that's incredibly poor training and something that a student should consider before getting too deep into their training. The difference between good IFR training and "good enough" training could be the difference between life and death.
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goingnowherefast
- Rank 10

- Posts: 2433
- Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:24 am
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Pretty sure the IFR cross country portion of the training has to be done on an IFR flight plan. Thus, the PIC needs to be IFR current.
I also agree that IFR training should involve some actual. However, experience levels of instructors are pretty far from where they need to be to comfortably and effectively teach in IMC.
I also agree that IFR training should involve some actual. However, experience levels of instructors are pretty far from where they need to be to comfortably and effectively teach in IMC.
Re: 6-6-6 rule currency
Guess I got lucky with my group 3 in a 172 before our 185 was ready to go.I requested that my training include in cloud experience & told them that I hated wearing the hood.
Instructors actually commented that I flew much better in the soup than under the hood on pretty days.
Got my group 3 & first flight with the wife went into the soup by Abbotsford & came out by Lethbridge - all hand flown.
The proper training gave me the knowledge to weigh the information & go from there.
I have friends that will turn back if they’re going to spend 2-3 hours in the soup because they don’t like it.
I believe that if you’re going to be certified to fly ifr you should at least experience some of your training in cloud.
Daryl
Instructors actually commented that I flew much better in the soup than under the hood on pretty days.
Got my group 3 & first flight with the wife went into the soup by Abbotsford & came out by Lethbridge - all hand flown.
The proper training gave me the knowledge to weigh the information & go from there.
I have friends that will turn back if they’re going to spend 2-3 hours in the soup because they don’t like it.
I believe that if you’re going to be certified to fly ifr you should at least experience some of your training in cloud.
Daryl



