Currency rules
Currency is the IBA’s “is this member up to date” status. Every enforcement gate on the platform — logbook accrual, skill approval, level assessment, partner validation — flows through it.
This page summarises the rules. The sub-pages cover specific roles and the deeper engineering reference.
Per-role at a glance
Different roles have different currency clocks. This is the most common source of confusion when reasoning about currency.
| Role | What keeps you current | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Flyer | Logged flight time, OR a refresher | Activity-based — 180-day rule (see below) |
| Instructor | Recurrent safety training each cycle | Six-monthly — Cycle 1 (Jan 16 → Jul 16), Cycle 2 (Jul 16 → Jan 16) |
| Trainer | Annual recurrent training | Yearly |
| Examiner | Annual recurrent training | Yearly |
| Coach | Recurrent training | Six-monthly (similar shape to instructor) |
| Military | Military-specific recurrent training | Separate cycle in channel_currency_military |
A member with multiple roles has multiple currencies running in parallel. An instructor has both flyer currency (activity-based) and instructor currency (cycle-based) — they tick down independently.
Flyer currency — the 180-day rule
Flyer currency is activity-based, not cycle-based. As long as a flyer logs flight time often enough, currency stays active without any training event.
A daily cron job checks each flyer’s most recent logged flight:
| Days since last flight | Effect |
|---|---|
| 150 | One-month warning email — get to a tunnel soon. |
| 172 | Final week warning. |
| 180 | Currency lapses. Member becomes uncurrent. |
Recovery from a lapse takes one of two paths:
- Get back in the air. Logging fresh flight time at any IBA tunnel re-establishes activity.
- Refresher / recurrent course. A short refresher run by a qualified instructor restores currency without needing to hit the activity threshold.
A flyer must have passed Flyer Level 1 to be eligible for currency at all (Flyer Safety Brief alone doesn’t qualify). Currency at higher levels is layered: Level 3 currency requires Level 3 skills kept current, not just Level 1.
See flyer currency for the full detail including renewal-checkbox requirements per level.
Instructor currency — six-month cycles
Instructors run on a strict calendar:
| Cycle | Period |
|---|---|
| Cycle 1 | January 16 → July 16 |
| Cycle 2 | July 16 → January 16 |
Two months before each cycle ends (December 16 and June 16), the platform notifies every instructor. Each cycle, an instructor must complete the safety training for every level they’re authorised at: an Instructor Level 4 doesn’t get to skip Levels 1, 2, 3 — they do the full stack each cycle.
Grace period and bridging
The system is forgiving at the edges of an instructor cycle:
- Last-month renewal — completing recurrent training in the final month of a cycle credits the instructor for both the current cycle and the next.
- Recovery within 5 months — completing recurrent training within 5 months of a lapse reinstates the instructor for the rest of the current cycle.
- Beyond 5 months — instructor currency must be re-earned from the start of the next cycle.
See instructor currency for the checkbox requirements and the eligibility rules (AFC + Flyer Level 1 gate).
Trainer / examiner — annual
Trainers and examiners refresh once per year. Same shape as instructor recovery rules but on an annual clock.
When a trainer’s currency lapses, their authority to certify instructors pauses. When an examiner’s lapses, level assessments they’re authorised to run pause. Both gate downstream IBA processes (new instructors can’t be certified without a current trainer; flyers can’t formally level up without a current examiner).
Coach currency
Tracked separately from any other role’s currency. A member can be a current coach without being a current instructor or trainer. Coach currency uses a six-monthly cadence similar to instructor currency.
Military currency
Tracked in channel_currency_military with its own checkbox set
(channel_currency_military_checkboxes) and its own trainer
certification (military trainer ≠ civilian trainer). Cadence and rules
follow the partnering military programme rather than the standard IBA
cycles.
Why this matters — the gates
A handful of platform behaviours hinge on currency:
| If… | Then… |
|---|---|
| Flyer currency lapses | Logbook entries from booking-driven flights are not auto-created. |
| Instructor currency lapses | The instructor’s skill approvals stop being recorded as valid. |
| Trainer currency lapses | They can no longer certify new instructors. |
| Examiner currency lapses | Level assessments can’t be run. |
| Coach currency lapses | Coach-only authorities pause. |
Currency is how the IBA enforces “everyone teaching, being taught, and being assessed is demonstrably trained, right now”. It’s strict on purpose.
Sub-pages in this module
- Currency by role — per-role overview from the safety-training point of view.
- Flyer currency — full flyer rules including renewal checkboxes per level.
- Instructor currency — full instructor rules including AFC eligibility and per-level checkboxes.
- Training rules — the decision flow for currency training validity (extension to next cycle, partial recurrency, etc.).
- Cycle rules — the cycle-math implementation details.
- DDD refactor notes — design notes for splitting currency code into a dedicated bounded context.