A member books the club's PA-28 for Saturday, with a friend in the right-hand seat. Their medical is fine and their rating is fine, but they haven't flown since August. If nobody spots that until they're signing out, it's an awkward conversation at the desk and a disappointed passenger in the car park.
A booking system can spot some of that weeks earlier. It's good at anything with a date on it or a name on a list: licence, rating, medical, membership, checkouts. It can't count landings, though, and it has no idea who's in the right-hand seat. So the passenger recency rule stays with the pilot, and clubs cover recent flying with a club rule measured in hours instead.
Most clubs already have rules like these somewhere. They're in the flying orders, in committee minutes, or in the head of whoever runs the desk, and they get checked when somebody remembers. Below we set out the national rules country by country, what a booking can and can't test, and a worked example. Then we finish with the six rules we'd follow when writing your own.
Legal requirements and club rules#
Regulatory requirements belong to the pilot. They need a valid licence, a rating for the class of aircraft, a valid medical, the periodic check their country requires, and recent take-offs and landings before they carry passengers. Meeting them is the pilot's responsibility. The club checks anyway, because it owns the aircraft, and its insurance policy usually requires the pilot to be properly licensed and current.
Club rules are the ones you add on top. A checkout before flying a particular aircraft, say, or a minimum number of recent hours on type before solo hire, a dual flight after a long break, membership paid up. Nobody outside the club requires them, so you can set them wherever you like, as long as members know which kind of rule is which.
And that's where most clubs come unstuck, because the two get mixed up all the time. "You must be current" means something different to every member who reads it. "The national 90-day passenger rule, plus our own requirement of one hour on type in the last 42 days for solo hire" is much better. A booking can check it, and you can explain it to the member it stops.
How the national rules differ#
Here's the passenger recency rule and the periodic check for a private pilot in a single-engine piston aeroplane, in each country. We checked every rule against the published text on 9 November 2026.
| Region | To carry passengers | Periodic check |
|---|---|---|
| UK (UK Part-FCL) | 3 take-offs, approaches and landings in the preceding 90 days in an aircraft of the same type or class (FCL.060(b)(1)). As PIC at night, at least 1 take-off, approach and landing at night in that period, unless the pilot holds an IR (FCL.060(b)(2)). | Single-engine piston class rating valid for 2 years (FCL.740(a)), revalidated by proficiency check or by experience (FCL.740.A(b)) |
| Ireland (EU Part-FCL) | 3 take-offs, approaches and landings as pilot flying in the preceding 90 days in an aircraft of the same type or class (FCL.060(b)(1)). As PIC at night, at least 1 at night unless the pilot holds an IR (FCL.060(b)(2)). | Single-engine piston class rating valid for 2 years (FCL.740(a)), revalidated by proficiency check in the 3 months before expiry, or by 12 hours in the class in the 12 months before expiry, including 6 hours as PIC, 12 take-offs and 12 landings and a 1-hour refresher flight with an FI or CRI (FCL.740.A(b)(1)) |
| Australia (CASR Part 61) | 3 take-offs and 3 landings within the previous 90 days in an aircraft of that category, each take-off followed by a climb to at least 500 ft AGL (61.395(1) and (3)). At night, 3 of each at night (61.395(2)). | Flight review for the class rating, valid to the end of the 24th month after the month it is completed (61.745) |
| New Zealand (CAR Part 61) | 3 take-offs and 3 landings by day as pilot in command in the 90 days immediately preceding the flight, in an aircraft of the same type, or competence shown to a Category A or B instructor (61.37(b)). Night has its own 3 and 3 (61.37(c)). | Biennial flight review within the previous 24 months (61.39) |
| Canada (CARs) | 5 take-offs and 5 landings within the six months preceding the flight in the same category and class; if any of the flight is at night, 5 night take-offs and 5 night landings (401.05(2)(b)) | Recurrent training within 24 months (401.05(2)(a)), and having acted as PIC or co-pilot within five years or met one of the alternatives in 401.05(1) |
The passenger rule is where they part company. New Zealand counts landings on the same type. The UK and Ireland count the same type or class, and Australia the same category. Canada goes its own way and wants 5 of each in six months rather than 3 in 90 days.
The two columns also lapse differently. A lapsed passenger rule still lets the pilot fly solo to get current. A lapsed periodic check doesn't. In every country in the table, it stops all flying as pilot in command until it's renewed.
Medicals are messier still. Take the UK. A Class 2 medical certificate is valid for 60 months until the holder reaches 40, 24 months between 40 and 50, and 12 months above 50. A certificate issued before 40 stops being valid once the holder reaches 42, and one issued before 50 once they reach 51 (UK Part-MED, MED.A.045(a)(3); the EU text used in Ireland is the same). So the expiry depends on the member's date of birth as well as the date of the examination. A medical can end earlier than a quick sum from the issue date would suggest, and that's the one we'd double-check on any member in their early forties or about to turn 51.
Not every medical is a dated certificate, either. Many UK private pilots fly on a pilot medical declaration instead. The CAA issues no certificate for it, and it runs until the pilot reaches 70, after which a new declaration is due every three years. Record which kind each member holds before you write a rule that needs an expiry date.
What a booking can check#
A booking records who's flying, which aircraft, when, and sometimes whether an instructor is on board. That's enough to test some requirements properly and others only by proxy.
| Requirement | What the club records | How well a booking can check it |
|---|---|---|
| Licence held | Licence type and number, issuing authority, a copy of the licence | Well: it either exists on the record or it does not |
| Class or type rating | Rating and its expiry date, taken from the licence | Well, provided the expiry is kept up to date |
| Medical | Kind of medical, class and expiry date, taken from the certificate or declaration | Well, with the same proviso |
| Periodic check (revalidation, flight review) | Date completed and the date it ceases to be valid | Well if recorded as a date, badly if left in a logbook |
| Passenger recency | Dates of recent take-offs and landings, by day and night | Only by proxy: a booking records the aircraft and the time, not landings, and does not know who is on board |
| Club checkout on an aircraft | Who has been checked out on which aircraft | Well: it is a list of names |
| Recent hours on type | Hours flown recently, from the club's own flight records | Well for flying done in club aircraft; flying elsewhere needs adding by hand |
Anything with an expiry date, or a list of names, is easy. Recent flying is the awkward one. The regulation counts landings and passengers, and the booking usually knows neither. That's why most clubs enforce recent flying with a club rule measured in hours, and leave the passenger rule to the pilot and their logbook.
Worked example: a UK member with a passenger#
Back to that Saturday booking. A UK member books the club's PA-28 for Saturday 21 November 2026, taking a friend as passenger and back well before dark. Here's their record.
| Check | Their record | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | UK PPL(A), copy on file | Held |
| Single-engine piston class rating | Expires 31 December 2026 | Valid on the day of the flight |
| Medical | Class 2, expires 14 January 2027 | Valid on the day of the flight |
| Passenger recency, FCL.060(b)(1) | Last three take-offs, approaches and landings in a single-engine piston aeroplane on 9 August 2026 | Lapsed: 104 days before the flight; the 90 days ran out on 7 November |
| Club rule: one hour on type in the last 42 days | Last club flight 9 August | Not met |
As things stand on 9 November, the member can't take their friend on Saturday, and the club rule would stop them flying the PA-28 solo as well. Disappointing, but easy to fix with nearly two weeks to go. One dual flight of at least an hour on type before Saturday, with three take-offs, approaches and landings flown by the member, sorts out both.
So your booking rules have to let that dual flight through. A blanket "no booking without recent flying" rule would block it, which is exactly the flight the member needs.
Then there's the rating, which is easy to forget because it's fine for Saturday. A booking for 2 January 2027 falls after it expires. The member can revalidate by a proficiency check in the three months before expiry, or by experience under FCL.740.A(b)(1), which includes a one-hour refresher flight with an instructor. Under the EU text used in Ireland, the 12 hours must all fall in the 12 months before expiry. A member who has 10 hours in December needs to know now, not on New Year's Eve.
Six rules for writing booking rules#
- Check the date of the flight, not the date of the booking. Members book weeks ahead. A medical that's valid today but expires before the flight should stop that booking, and the sooner the member finds out, the more time they have to sort it. Check which date your system tests against before you rely on it.
- Record what the document says. For licences, ratings and medicals, enter the expiry printed on the document rather than working one out. For flight reviews and revalidations, record the date completed and the date it lapses, as the instructor's logbook entry states it.
- Leave a way back to currency. Every recent flying rule needs an exception for the flight that restores currency, usually a dual flight. Our self-fly hire guide covers how to set a club currency rule renters can meet.
- Give each record one owner. Someone has to enter the new medical, the revalidation and the hours a member flew elsewhere. Make it everyone's job and the record goes stale. Then the rule starts blocking members who are perfectly current, and you'll hear about it.
- Put the club rule next to the national rule. Publish both in one place, aircraft by aircraft, so a member can see exactly what they need and why.
- Decide who can override, and log it. Some cases won't fit the rule. Name the people who can make an exception and keep a record of when they did.
Booking restrictions in Volanti#
Volanti checks booking restrictions when the booking is made, so currency is enforced at the point of booking rather than at the desk. There are at least 16 restriction rule types. They cover licence held, ratings held, valid medical, active membership, course enrolment and graduation, minimum recent hours, user groups, instructor licence, aircraft hours, staff only, flight type and tags. If a booking doesn't meet the rules on the aircraft, it's blocked.
Licences and ratings sit on the member record with their expiry dates and a photo of the licence, next to medical certificates and their expiry. Medical classes can be set as expiring or non-expiring. Club staff enter them; pilots uploading their own licences and medicals Coming soon will follow.
Here's how that maps to the tables above.
- Licence, rating, medical and membership are direct rules, so a member whose medical has lapsed can't book an aircraft that requires a valid one.
- Checkouts and flight reviews work as user groups. Put the members who are checked out on an aircraft, or whose review is current, in a group and restrict the aircraft to it. Moving people in and out of the group is a manual step, so give it to one named person.
- Recent flying is a minimum recent hours rule, which is a club rule on top of the national one. The pilot's logbook stays the record of take-offs and landings.
- Students can be restricted by course enrolment, so an aircraft used only for training is booked by people on the course.
Booking and scheduling shows the restriction types, and member management covers how licences and medicals are kept on the member record.