◆ Insights / Regulatory

Global Hoist Proficiency Cheatsheet - Is the FAA Falling Behind?

Jon McLaughlin · October 13, 2026

In aviation, you often hear certain terms thrown around interchangeably: qualified, proficient, current, recurrency, and recency—all of which mean different things depending on the country, the operator, and the culture of that aviation organization.

To us at Priority 1 Air Rescue (P1AR), proficient means, “the demonstrated ability to perform the assigned hoist role safely, consistently, and to the required operational standard—including normal, abnormal, and emergency procedures—in the actual mission environment.”

Note that this definition includes emergency procedures. As my former CFI once taught me when I was getting my fixed wing PPL, “any damn fool can fly a Cessna - it’s the real pilot that can fly it in an emergency.” Those are strong words to live by, particularly for HEC/HHO hoist operations.

While we train to a single standard at P1AR, there is no single international standard among HEC/HHO hoist operations. To that end, we thought it would be helpful to outline the differences between the major civil aviation authorities and the IOGP standards to point out some of the potential gaps and deficiencies between regions.

Download the cheatsheet here.

As you can see, EASA has led the way for the UK and IOGP standards, calling out clear recurrency and recency standards that go beyond FAA and Transport Canada’s (TC) operator-specific syllabus (which in our experience can vary quite a bit).

On the PIC side, EASA goes as far to define and require hoist evolutions: 50 onshore or 50 offshore (and 20 night if doing night hoisting) for initial qualification, again going beyond the FAA’s Part 133 regulations. In the US, there is no numerically prescribed hoist proficiency requirement.

While the FAA has put out an Advisory Circular (AC 133-B) with recommended guidance for Part 133 operations—legally these are not actually mandated. We recommend operators take the extra step to at least meet these requirements.

Interestingly enough, the IOGP has adopted similar standards to EASA, which make sense given the global nature of O&G operations and insurance/safety requirements that are often more stringent than what you might find down at your local neighborhood agency.

As we’ve written about in our update on our recent ESPN-R gathering in Bordeaux, EASA continues to explore new advancements in its rules and regulations to include simulator/synthetic training as part of its qualification and proficiency regiment.

Beyond EASA, these advancements should help guide other civil aviation authorities (CAAs) in updating their own HEC/HHO hoist guidelines to take the burden off the operator and help harmonize international best practices across the globe.

If your agency is interested in how we translate global HEC/HHO best practices from around the global into a single proven standard that reduces risk and improves your agency’s capabilities—reach out today.