Safety training

Safety training is what keeps most members’ currency active. It’s recurrent — every cycle, an instructor / trainer / examiner / coach / military member does it again. (Flyers are the exception: their currency is driven by flight activity, with refresher training only used when activity lapses.) Recurrent training is the IBA’s main mechanism for ensuring the people running its tunnels are demonstrably up to date on safety practice.

The flavours of training

Safety training isn’t one single course. It’s a set of role-specific programmes:

Flyer safety training — for everyone who flies.
Instructor safety training — additional curriculum for people authorised to teach.
Trainer safety training — for people who train instructors.
Coach safety training — for coaches working with members on technique.
Examiner safety training — for those who run level assessments.
Military safety training — a specialised track for military flyers using IBA tunnels.

A member only does the trainings relevant to the roles they hold. A flyer only does flyer training. An instructor does both flyer and instructor training. A coach who is also a flyer does flyer and coach.

Two kinds of training

Each programme has two flavours:

Initial training — the first time you do it. Longer, more comprehensive, often combined with the assessment that grants the underlying role.
Recurrent training — the periodic refresh. Shorter, focused on what’s changed and what tends to be forgotten. Done every cycle to maintain currency.

Recurrent training is what 95% of platform-tracked safety training events are. The cadence depends on the role:

Instructor / coach — six-month cycles (Cycle 1 ends July 16, Cycle 2 ends January 16). Notifications go out two months before each cycle ends.
Trainer / examiner — once a year.
Flyer refresher — on demand, when the 180-day flight-activity window has lapsed.
Military — separate cadence per the military programme.

Members get notified ahead of their renewal window, complete the required module, and have it logged against their record.

Approval workflow

A safety training event isn’t valid until it’s approved.

For most flyer recurrent training, an instructor at the tunnel signs off after the session.
For instructor / trainer / coach training, the approver needs to be a higher-tier role — typically a trainer or examiner.
For initial training that grants a new role, an examiner runs the session and a separate verification step often follows.

The platform records who trained the member and who approved the training. Both signatures must come from people whose own currency is active at the time. (You can’t be signed off by someone who’s themselves out of date.)

What happens when training lapses

Currency is what tracks the freshness of training. When training is due and the member hasn’t completed it, the platform flips them to “not current” via a scheduled job. Once not current:

Flights stop generating logbook entries.
The member is sent a notification with a recovery path.
Skill approvals stop counting.

Recovery is just “do the training” — usually the recurrent module is enough. If the member is far enough out of cycle, they may have to do initial training again, which is more involved.

For the exact rules on what counts and when, see Tech docs → Domain logic → Currency.