Recurrent proficiency

It is an assessment against the same completion standards as the endorsement program, flown in one or two sessions rather than five lessons.

It issues no endorsement, because you already hold one. 14 CFR 61.31(i) is a one-time requirement and there is no recurrent version of it, no expiry, and nothing to renew.

It is not Phase 4. It is not the back quarter of a five-lesson syllabus. A pilot with 200 hours of tailwheel time who has not flown a taildragger in three years is not partway through a course they never started.

• A written assessment, element by element, against the six 14 CFR 61.31(i) elements, using the same NOT LOGGED / IN PROGRESS / NEEDS WORK / PROFICIENT vocabulary the endorsement program uses.
• A North Aero checkout, if you intend to rent N1302B. See standards/CHECKOUT-AND-CURRENCY.md.
• Your personal minimums, set with you and recorded.

• A pilot returning to taildraggers after a layoff.
• A tailwheel owner who wants an honest outside look before the season.
• A pilot who holds the endorsement from a school that signed it in six hours and has quietly wondered about that ever since.
• Anyone who wants the Luscombe checkout and does not need the endorsement.

Session one is an assessment, not a lesson. The instructor flies with you and watches. You will be told when the instruction has stopped and the watching has started, because an assessment conducted silently inside what feels like a lesson is a secret standard, and this program does not use those.

The order of elements follows the day. A crosswind gets flown when there is a crosswind. In calm air, the crosswind elements are assessed on a later flight or the checkout is issued with that limitation stated.

Session two, if needed, addresses whatever came back NEEDS WORK.

Expect one to two hours of dual in session one, and a short ground portion covering the airplane, the field, and North Aero's procedures.

You fly the lesson that owns it.

An element assessed NEEDS WORK points at a specific lesson in PROGRAM-STRUCTURE.md. Wheel landings are Lesson 3. Crosswind is Lessons 4 and 5. You fly that lesson, against the same standards every other student is held to, and you are not enrolled in the whole program to do it.

Nobody is turned away for a poor assessment. That is what the assessment is for.

The same hourly rates as everything else. Aircraft and instruction billed by the hour as flown, member or non-member, per PRICING.md. No package, per docs/adr/0001-no-block-or-package-pricing.md.

A typical single-session recurrent flight with a short ground portion runs about 1.5 hours of dual and 0.5 hours of ground. What that costs depends on whether you are a Club member, and the rates table will tell you.

Three terms that get confused, kept apart here:

• Endorsement. Once, permanent, regulatory. You have it.
• Checkout. North Aero's finding that you may fly N1302B alone. Not portable.
• Currency. Three landings in N1302B in the preceding 60 days. Lapses, and a lapse means your next flight is with a CFI.

Recurrent proficiency is none of the three. It is an assessment you chose to have.