Maintaining Currency Contributed by Greg Matte, GM

Maintaining Currency VFC Manager BGen (Ret’d) Gregory C.P. Matte, CD, PhD

As the COVID-19 implications continue to curtail our daily lives, routines and pastimes, the Victoria Flying Club has witnessed a sharp decline in flying activities. In addition to the suspension of all flight training, this has also impacted flying currency for numerous students, Flight Instructors and recreational pilots alike. While there are specific regulations and guidelines pertaining to the maintenance of currency, there is an underlying component that links back to airmanship and safety.

Currency can be highly subjective and individualized, based on one’s depth of aviation experience as well as a realistic self-assessment. It can also relate to a variety of aviation skills beyond the obvious ones such as night flying and instrument flying, how current one might be in practicing a forced landing, incipient spin recoveries, cross-wind landings or other specific aviator skills. The bottom line is that in the aviation business, our flying skills are perishable, meaning that with less practice, our proficiency declines.

During my time on the multi-role CF-18 Hornet, we had to maintain currency and qualifications in a number of closely tracked regimes. Quite often, it felt like running on a treadmill that never stopped; no sooner was a requalification achieved than the clock began ticking down to the next looming expiry date. Although some of the currency requirements would be common across the world of aviation, many others related to the highly specialized world in which we operated. In some cases, currency related to safety training for the ejection seat, in other cases it related to the use of weapons on a controlled range, whereas in other cases it related to the rather vital skill of in-flight air-air refuelling on a variety of tanker platforms. The list was seemingly endless...

Given that we had to remain current and qualified in a variety of combat skills sets, including everything from dog fighting to aerial gunnery, to ground attack missions as well as a number of other missions involving air intercepts in VFR, IFR and night conditions, we had to rotate our

training schedule accordingly. It was for this same reason that on operational deployments abroad, such as the air patrol missions we conducted over Bosnia-Herzegovina following the Dayton Agreement of 1995, that we would rotate our pilots through the mission for only 6 weeks. The problem was that the nature of the recurring air patrol mission caused a gradual decline in their other fighter-bomber skill sets. As such, we needed to bring them back to Canada for currency training in these other areas so avoid them losing their important “combat readiness” status required for NORAD and NATO operations.

As for myself, despite my many years of experience on the CF-18 as well as my Fighter Weapons “Top Gun” Instructor rating, it was with sadness yet pragmatic realism that my final period of flying on the CF-18, whilst I was the Wing Commander of 4 Wing Cold Lake, was also a period in which I had to come to terms with the impact of limited currency and my declining fighter pilot skills. While I still knew what I needed to do in the cockpit to

maneuver into a weapons solution in a mock dogfighting scenario, the precise “hands and feet” skills that had been so intuitive and automatic in my previous flying tours had become mechanical and marginally competent. In my prime, I had the EM diagrams of other fighter aircraft committed to memory, and knew how to exploit their weaknesses. Similarly, I was able to clearly see and deftly execute the complex 3D acrobatics required to effectively maneuver into a position of lethal advantage against most aircraft and fighter pilots I dueled with.

However, given the extent of my command duties and responsibilities, I was only able to fly once a week at most. Although I was very proud to have once again gained partial combat readiness as a Colonel in my earlier forties, it was limited to flying as a wingman and to domestic NORAD duties only. As such, I was careful in choosing the complexity of training missions that I participated in. Furthermore, in recognition of my diminished skills, I took every opportunity to jump into the simulator to practice my “red page” emergencies and instrument flying skills, which were of high priority in remaining safe and competent in the basics of flying the mighty CF-18.

In summary, while there exist regulations and guidelines pertaining to the minimum currency requirements required to fly as a PIC, the bottom line is that our flying

skills are perishable and need to be practiced regularly, otherwise they

quickly decline. While many of our VFC members have been actively preserving their currency through regular flights, for others such as our students and Flight Instructors, the return to flight training will need to consider the state of their individual flying skills. It will also require a realistic assessment of what should be reviewed and practiced before progressing on to new levels of training, teaching and flying. At the end of the day, as PICs we are all responsible for realistically assessing our own skills, proficiency and currency each time we take to the skies to ensure we are fully prepared, safe and competent for the flight we’ve undertaken.

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