The 24 month recency clock is the cheapest item on your compliance list

A deadline that keeps arriving

Every drone pilot certificate in Canada carries a recency requirement. Before operating, a pilot must have completed a recurrent training activity within the previous 24 months, and must be able to show proof. The requirement is tied to the certificate rather than to the calendar year, so it lands on a different date for every pilot on the crew. That is manageable with four pilots and easy to lose with twenty, particularly when the expiry dates were set in different seasons and some of the certificates were issued before the current regulations came into force.

The free route most crews forget exists

Transport Canada publishes a self-paced study programme, and completing it satisfies the 24 month recurrent training requirement at no cost. Pilots who meet the relevant CAR requirements answer questions 1 to 30, and Level 1 Complex pilots also complete questions 31 to 35. The paperwork rule is the part that catches people. Keep the completed questionnaire for two years, paper or digital, with the completion date recorded, and be able to produce it on request. Dated proof is what satisfies the requirement, not attendance at a session.

What the questions actually cover Each question carries its reference, and the answers sit in the

Transport Canada Aeronautical Information Manual and AIP Canada. The content runs from aerodrome markings and chart symbols through radio phraseology, weather products, GPS and space weather effects, right of way, and crew fitness. It includes the operational limits that interrupt Canadian field work, such as the forest fire restriction and the weather floor for beyond visual line of sight flying. Two useful side effects follow. The questionnaire works as a syllabus check, because a crew that cannot answer it has a gap in the operation rather than in the filing cabinet. And it puts the whole team on one revision cycle, which is far easier to evidence than a folder of individually managed certificates.

It is not a substitute for an exam or a flight review Recency can also be met by retaking and passing one of the pilot exams, by passing a flight review, or by a training activity such as a

Transport Canada endorsed safety seminar or a recurrent programme run by a flight school. Those routes cost money, and for a flight review the fee is set by the reviewer, which means it is not a fixed budget line. Leaving the requirement too long carries the sharper cost. If a pilot's knowledge level lapses for more than two years, Transport Canada may invalidate earlier results, which turns a form filling exercise into a reset.

The operational takeaway Export your pilot list with certificate issue dates, sort by due date, and block one session each quarter to run the questionnaire as a group. Store the completed forms alongside the flight records, and treat a coming expiry the same way you treat an expiring insurance certificate: a scheduled task with an owner. Teams that keep fleet, certificate and recency records in one place, whether in a spreadsheet or a platform such as Aerosyne's, find that an audit question becomes a lookup rather than a search.

A crew that runs the questionnaire together in October has one dated file to produce in April, and one less thing to reconstruct under time pressure.