The 5-in-13 Rule Is Ending. What Changes for Microlight Pilots?
If your microlight paperwork still runs on five hours in 13 months, open your logbook before planning the autumn flying. The final exemption ends on 31 October 2026, and your next revalidation must move you onto a 24-month certificate. An earlier expiry on your own rating still applies.
This change concerns a particular group of pilots with older UK licences and ratings. NPPL(A) holders are excluded from the five-in-13 exemption. Two people sharing the same microlight can therefore have quite different paperwork to sort out, even when their flying looks much the same.
For an eligible pilot, the transition can be straightforward: present the qualifying experience from your existing cycle, have the new certificate completed and plan your flying against its requirements. The detail is in which experience counts at each stage.
Contents
Who has been using five-in-13?
The arrangement survives through a CAA exemption for holders of a UK pilot’s licence, valid under the Air Navigation Order, which includes UK PPL(A) privileges and has a microlight or self-launching motor glider class rating endorsed on it. A UK PPL restricted to microlight aeroplanes is included.
The rating must have been first granted before 1 February 2008 and subsequently maintained under this or earlier exemptions. That combination of licence, rating date and revalidation history establishes eligibility. Owning an elderly aircraft, or having learned to fly before 2008, does not establish it by itself.
Under the historic arrangement, the required experience was at least five hours in the preceding 13 months. It could include flying as pilot in command, under supervision or under instruction. Experience could come from aeroplanes or motor gliders, with at least one hour in the class being revalidated.
NPPL(A) holders have their own revalidation requirements and cannot use this exemption. If you already have a microlight rating with a 24-month expiry, keep working to that certificate. The headline about five-in-13 does not send you back to start again.
What ends on 31 October 2026?
The final exemption, ORS4 1633, preserves a route for qualifying pilots to move across at their next revalidation anniversary. It does not permit another fresh 13-month cycle during the transition period. The new certificate must run for 24 months, to the end of the relevant calendar month.
All affected pilots must have transitioned by 31 October 2026. From 1 November, the five-in-13 exemption provides no authority to continue flying. If your current validity ends sooner, arrange the transition by that earlier date. October’s deadline cannot add a few weeks to an expired rating.
The change follows the wider licensing simplification programme and a review of experience-only revalidation for this older group. An AAIB safety recommendation after the G-CBDJ accident asked the CAA to assess whether the arrangement remained appropriate. Following its review, the CAA chose to bring these pilots into the 24-month system, including refresher training.
For pilots who have renewed the same way for years, the familiar logbook routine is easy to repeat without thinking. This year, the useful question for your examiner is whether the next entry puts you onto the new certificate and records the correct expiry.
Your first 24-month certificate
At the transition, an eligible pilot presents the logbook evidence required by the existing five-in-13 arrangement. The authorised person checks that evidence and issues the separate Certificate of Revalidation for the new period. You then work towards the replacement requirements during that period.
The CAA’s example uses a rating expiring on 30 November 2025. After checking the pilot’s five hours in the preceding 13 months, the examiner issues a certificate expiring on 30 November 2027. The pilot meets the new requirements during that 24-month validity period.
Apply the same principle to an eligible rating expiring on 30 September 2026: after the required transition checks, its new expiry would be 30 September 2028. The old cycle is assessed against its five-hour requirement. Your 12-hour planning starts with the new certificate, once the transition is completed on time.
Arrange this with someone authorised to sign the relevant certificate. Bring your licence and the logbook containing the existing revalidation evidence. If you have no separate certificate page, mention that when booking. The examiner also completes the appropriate notification to the CAA as part of this transition.
What you need during the new cycle
For revalidation by experience, the new period requires at least 12 hours of qualifying flying, including at least six hours as pilot in command. You must also complete at least 12 take-offs and 12 landings, and at least six hours of flying in the final 12 months before the rating expires.
The training requirement is at least one hour with an instructor entitled to instruct on aeroplanes of that class. That hour sits within the total 12 hours. It can be completed at any stage during the certificate’s validity; you can book it in the first year if that suits your flying.
Keep the two six-hour requirements distinct when checking your logbook. One concerns your role as pilot in command. The other concerns when you flew. A final-year instructional flight can contribute to the final-year total while being logged as instruction, so avoid treating every required hour as a separate addition.
Qualifying experience must be in aeroplanes covered by class ratings included in your licence. If you fly several classes, have the authorised person check how your entries apply to each rating before assuming one total settles every certificate.
Air Law revision can help you distinguish licence privileges from the conditions attached to an individual rating. QuizAero Bitesize explains the theory behind the paperwork, giving you a clearer basis for those conversations with your instructor or examiner.
Two logbooks with the same total
Consider a pilot whose new certificate expires on 30 September 2028. During its validity, they log 12 hours in the microlight, comprising 10 hours as pilot in command and two under instruction with a suitably entitled instructor. Seven of those total hours fall between 1 October 2027 and expiry, and the record includes 18 take-offs and 18 landings.
Those entries meet the experience components described above. The pilot can show the authorised person where each requirement is satisfied, then have the certificate revalidated before it expires. Reaching the numbers alone does not complete the signature.
Now consider another pilot with the same expiry and 12 total hours. They flew nine in the first year and three in the final year. Even with sufficient pilot-in-command time, take-offs and landings, and the instructional hour completed, they are short of the final-year flying requirement by three hours.
A busy first summer can make the grand total look reassuring. Marking the start of the final 12 months gives you a second figure to watch, and leaves time to arrange suitable flying before autumn weather begins cancelling plans.
Make the instructor hour useful
For someone who has used the old exemption for a long time, flying with an instructor may be the largest practical change. Agree the content beforehand so it addresses something you would value help with. A crosswind landing that has become uncomfortable, or a go-around you rarely practise, gives the session a clear purpose.
An instructor can notice habits that feel entirely normal from your usual seat. Perhaps your approach has gradually become faster, or your lookout suffers whenever the radio gets busy. Bring those questions into the briefing. You have paid for access to another pilot’s observation and teaching, so give them something useful to work on.
The refresher hour is a training session. Approach it ready to practise and accept feedback, including further training if a weakness needs attention. Book with an instructor who has the appropriate privileges for your class and aircraft, and make sure the training is recorded clearly in your logbook.
Single-seat flying and expired ratings
The rules contain a restricted option if you meet all the experience requirements except the instructional hour: a certificate may be issued with a “single seat only” endorsement. It restricts the aircraft you may fly as pilot in command. Flying a two-seat microlight alone does not make it a single-seat aircraft.
Discuss that endorsement with the authorised person if your flying is confined to a single-seater. Anyone who wants the usual two-seat privileges should arrange the required training. Leaving the hour out of the logbook cannot silently create an unrestricted revalidation.
If your rating has already expired, contact an appropriately authorised microlight examiner about the renewal route and any training or test required. Do not fly using that expired rating while trying to build enough hours to repair the position. A lapsed rating needs to be dealt with before you resume exercising its privileges.
Check the date before the next flight
Start with the actual licence and rating entries. If you are still on five-in-13, arrange the transition at your next anniversary and within the final deadline. Confirm the new expiry when the certificate is signed, then set a reminder for the start of its final year.
That gives your next flying season a clear plan. You can arrange the instructor flight around the skills you want to improve and keep track of recent experience as you go, with the paperwork settled before the aircraft is fuelled.
QuizAero Bitesize is our online ground school for refreshing the Air Law knowledge behind your licence and preparing the theory you want to revisit before flying with an instructor. The video below shows how its short lessons can fit that revision around your microlight flying.
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