PBN Endorsement (Performance-Based Navigation, Part-FCL)

PBN — Performance-Based Navigation — is area navigation based on defined performance requirements for aircraft operating along an ATS route, on an instrument approach procedure or in designated airspace. The PBN endorsement is the flight-crew-licensing side of that concept: it records on a pilot's licence that they have received the theoretical knowledge and flight training, and passed the assessment, to fly RNAV and RNP procedures rather than relying on conventional ground-based navigation aids alone. It is governed by Part-FCL (Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011) and is carried as a privilege of the instrument rating in the training and checking requirements around FCL.610, FCL.615 and FCL.630.

The endorsement is not a standalone rating. It lives on the instrument rating (IR), and it is what allows the IR holder to fly the PBN procedures that now dominate the instrument environment — RNP approaches (including RNP APCH down to LNAV, LNAV/VNAV and, with the appropriate approvals, LPV minima), RNAV departures and arrivals, and RNAV routes. Without PBN privileges an IR is effectively incomplete for the modern airspace system, because so many procedures are now published only in PBN form. The PBN privilege is annotated in the endorsements section of the licence.

The pivotal change came in 2020. Since 25 August 2020, PBN privileges are required for every instrument rating, and from the following training/checking cycle the instrument rating skill test and proficiency check themselves incorporate PBN: an IR (aeroplane or helicopter) cannot be issued, revalidated or renewed without the applicant completing an RNP approach during the skill test or proficiency check, flown either in the aircraft or in an appropriately qualified flight simulation training device. In practice this folded PBN into standard IR training rather than leaving it as an add-on — most pilots now acquire PBN privileges as an integral part of earning the IR, and those who held an older IR were required to add PBN privileges at the next revalidation or renewal.

It is important to keep the pilot-side endorsement distinct from the aircraft-and-operator-side framework. The broader Performance-Based Navigation concept also depends on the aircraft's navigation equipment being certified for the relevant RNAV/RNP specification and, for the operator, on any required operational authorization. The PBN endorsement addresses only the human element — that the pilot is competent to plan and fly the procedures. The FAA has no single directly equivalent endorsement; in the US, instrument-rated pilots fly RNAV/RNP procedures within the privileges of the instrument rating itself, with equipment and operational eligibility handled through aircraft certification and operating rules rather than a distinct licence annotation.

For an EASA approved training organization, the 2020 change reshaped how the instrument rating is taught. PBN is no longer an elective bolt-on; the syllabus, the aircraft or FSTD used for the skill test, and the examiner's checklist all have to include an RNP approach, and instructors and examiners need to be current in delivering and assessing it. A school that treats PBN as separate from the core IR course risks presenting candidates who cannot legally be issued the rating.

The endorsement also matters for currency and record-keeping over a pilot's career. Because PBN privileges attach to the IR, they follow the IR's revalidation and renewal cycle, and a school or examiner has to be able to show that each candidate's PBN training and the RNP approach in the test were actually completed and logged. For cadets moving toward a commercial and airline track, holding a complete, PBN-equipped IR is a baseline expectation of downstream type-rating and airline training.

Aviatize's Training Management module structures the instrument-rating syllabus so that PBN training and the required RNP approach are tracked as part of the IR course rather than lost as a side note, with each lesson, briefing and assessment recorded against the cadet's progress. Ground Training & Checking captures the theoretical-knowledge element that underpins the endorsement.

Because PBN privileges ride on the IR's revalidation and renewal cycle, Aviatize's Compliance & Auditing and Digital Data & Records keep the endorsement, the skill-test record and the currency dates in one place, so an examiner or authority can confirm at a glance that a pilot's IR carries valid PBN privileges.