(a) No person may operate an airplane for which a flight engineer is required by the type certification requirements without a flight crewmember holding a current flight engineer certificate.

(b) No person may serve as a required flight engineer on an airplane unless, within the preceding 6 calendar months, that person has had at least 50 hours of flight time as a flight engineer on that type airplane, or the Administrator has checked that person on that type airplane and determined that person is familiar and competent with all essential current information and operating procedures.