Recognizing the difficulties associated with operating in the Covid-19 environment, the FAA is continuing to extend and expand relief requested from numerous groups for a range of deadlines ranging from renewal times to training mandates.

Some of the recent major actions include the release of special federal aviation regulation (SFAR 118-2), a comprehensive package that builds on two earlier versions to provide relief from certain training, recency, testing, checking, medical duration and renewals, and student pilot certificate requirements, among other areas.

SFAR 118-2 expands the relief to additional pilots and other persons who are now coming up on their renewal and other deadlines. However, other than certain specific medical certification requirements, the latest version generally does not extend relief for those covered under the original SFAR 118 and SFAR 118-1.

For instance, the original SFAR provided a three-month grace period for pilot-in-command proficiency checks that were coming due between March and June 2020. SFAR 118-1 extended that grace period for checks coming due between July and September 2020, while the latest SFAR-2 covers the deadlines between October 2020 and January 2021. However, unlike the early SFARS, which gave a three-month grace period, the latest provides only a two-month grace period.

The agency said it designed the SFAR to “provide temporary relief to persons who have been unable to meet certain requirements during the national emergency concerning Covid-19. Without this final rule, certain individuals will not be able to continue exercising privileges in support of essential operations due to their inability to satisfy certain training, recent experience, testing, and checking requirements.”

In addition to SFAR 118-2, the agency also recently granted a request from NATA for an extension of exemptions from certain Part 135 crew training and checking requirements. The latest extension provides an additional two grace months for Part 135 pilots to meet certain training requirements that were due through Dec. 31, 2020. Since pilots already have a built-in grace month, that would give them a total of three grace months.

However, in certain qualification areas where that original grace month is not provided, such as second-in-command requirements under FAR 135.245(c) and 135.247(a), only one grace month is permitted.