Bob Fry wrote:

I talked to an FAA guy at the Golden West show over the weekend. He
says the new WINGS program definitely counts as a BFR, but it is quite
different than the old one.

That's what I was told here too, except that the official text --
specifically AC 61-91H -- from the FAA says otherwise. Hence my problem,
and my decision to play it safe and get myself a BFR.

That said, I like the idea of the Wings program a lot, and will keep
participating; in fact the new version looks good and seems to be an
improvement over the previous program.

The way I see it, the Wings program serves two purposes: a) recurrent
training, learning new stuff, meeting interesting people, etc. b) legal
issues and a** covering (via 14 cfr 61.56(e) and relevant texts). As far
as the new program is concerned, I am quite happy about what I understand
of part a), but not convinced about part b) yet -- until I see a
clarification, in writing, in an official publication (as opposed to just
hear-say and some stuff on the web). But then I am picky.

--Sylvain

ps anyway, the BFR thing was interesting, I didn't waste my time.