Revalidation of EASA rating
By the definition by Part FCL - the revalidation (of, e.g. a rating or certificate) means the administrative action taken within the period of validity of a rating or certificate which allows the holder to continue to exercise the privileges of a rating or certificate for a further specified period consequent upon the fulfilment of specified requirements.
Most of the EASA ratings have specific validity period and need to be revalidated to keep them current. Some of the EASA ratings - e.g. aerobatic rating or VFR Night rating have infinite period of validity. However most of the rating needs to be revalidated in either once in a 2 yeas or once a year. It is important to mention the flight crew license itself do not require any revalidation and stays valid together with medical certificate and its privileges are limited by the validity of the associated ratings.
For some ratings - e.g. SEP(land) or TMG EASA established revalidation procedure on competency-based basis called revalidation by experience. For holders with recent experience, the revalidation can be done without neccessity to fly the proficiency check with examiner.
However for most of the ratings - e.g. instrument rating, type ratings, etc the checkride with an EASA examiner is required in order to keep the rating current. When it comes to EASA ratings such checkride is called proficiency check. The name and scope remains the same for both - revalidation of ratings and renewal of the ratings.
To attend the revalidation by proficiency check you legally do not need to attend any additional training.
As an example, following are the ratings endorsed in EASA license requiring revalidation by proficiency check:
- type rating - allows you to fly on particular type of an aircraft
- instrument rating - allows you to fly as a pilot under IFR
Revalidation of EASA instructor certificate
Besides the ratings, an EASA establishes also certificate as an flight crew license endorsement. Talking about certificates it always refers to instructor or examiner privileges.
Same like an EASA ratings also EASA certificates are subject of competency-based approach to revalidation. EASA established revalidation procedure which in most cases requires meeting at least two out of three requirements:
- minimum experience as instructor within validity period and within 12 months
- attending the assessment of competence
- attending the refresh seminar
That means if you have recent required certificate-related experience as instructor and you have attended the refresh seminar, you do not need to attend assessment of competence. However in most of the cases, assessment of competence is required for each alternate revalidation of instructor certificate.
If you do not meet the minimum experience, you have to mandatorily attend assessment of competence with FIE(A).
So unlike the proficiency check - name required for the checkride to revalidate particular rating, revalidation of instructor certificate is called assessment of competence.
It is also important to mention, there is no difference between initial assessment of competence, revalidation assessment of competence, nor the renewal assessment of competence.
So unlike the ratings where there is different content and scope for skill test and proficiency check, the scope and content of instructor assessment of competence remains the same for all three occasions.