I was contracting for an Isle of Man aircraft for a while. The validation is valid for two years. On a SAFA check in France, I've heard of inspectors asking crews to see evidence that they had completed recurrent training within the last year. Even more fun now that EU part NCC is in place for private ops.
Example SAFA checklist from a helpful website:
http://code7700.com/pdfs/safa_expand...oilerplate.txt