How often do I need to fly ?

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Kylepa28

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Kyle
I was wondering how often I will need to fly in order to retain what I've learned once I've received my private pilot certificate over the long haul. I am a reasonably intelligent person but I'm wondering how much the use it or lose it may apply here. I don't have unlimited funds to fly twice a month in perpetuity. Thoughts, opinions, all welcome

For me this is more of a bucket list personal hobby item of interest that I think I will be continually interested in, in the long run I just don't know that I'll be able to fly as much as most of you.
 
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So that's a question that really depends on the person, but for me, I want to fly at least once a week, hopefully more. Of course things get in the way, but as a rule that's my goal.
 
Yeah as often as you can as you can afford to. You might look into a club, and/or part ownership with 4-5 pilots for cheaper options.
 
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You should fly as often as you possibly can. When there is VFR weather and you aren't working, go for it. Weeks can turn to months, and if you can rusty it can kill you.
 
This is from an "almost" private pilot. Between weather and holidays I didn't fly for over 3wks. We did a mock check ride. My short field landing was terrible. My wife has been flying for years, she can take a 3wk break and not even phase her. But when she doesn't fly for a couple months (eg. winter) she has always limited herself to pattern work first...as I watch her you can see her quickly getting the timing and rhythm back in-synch.

Then again, getting the PPL is quite a effort. Just concentrate on getting it and having it behind you. So what if you take a 10yr break, when you decide to come back hire an instructor to get back at it and eventually do the flight review. You won't have to re-do the entire PPL again.

For me I know I will want to fly at least 90-120min every two weeks until I have more experience.
 
I try to fly once per week also. As Paul said, it depends on the individual and how quickly you adapt to new motor skills. You will find that cobwebs begin to form after not using all of the skills you learned while in training, if they’re not frequently repeated.
 
Kylepa28 said:
I was wondering how often I will need to fly in order to retain what I've learned once I've received my private pilot certificate over the long haul. I am a reasonably intelligent person but I'm wondering how much the use it or lose it may apply here. I don't have unlimited funds to fly twice a month in perpetuity. Thoughts, opinions, all welcome

For me this is more of a bucket list personal hobby item of interest that I think I will be continually interested in, in the long run I just don't know that I'll be able to fly as much as most of you.
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Well you should be flying right now.


But honestly, I'd say log a hour or so once a week, those numbers go up if you're flying IMC or backcountry or floats or skis.
 
Ryanb said:
I try to fly once per week also. As Paul said, it depends on the individual and how quickly you adapt to new motor skills. You will find that cobwebs begin to form after not using all of the skills you learned while in training, if they’re not frequently repeated.
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Yup, an hour a week, four hours a month sounds about minimum to me.
 
This is a really subjective question and unfortunately the answer is that it depends on you. You may be a natural "stick & rudder" type where flying well comes easy or you may the type that needs to constantly work at it in order to maintain proficiency. Also it really depends on the type of flying you do. Are you going to be the straight and level type or are you going to go out and practice stalls or fly to the PTS (or whatever it's called these days)?

There is nothing wrong with taking some time off and then going out with a CFI to make sure you are proficient...
 
I got my PPL in Oct 2015. In these past 27 months, I have taken no more than 15 flights. Changing jobs, and more family stuff, it has been harder to find time to fly. In the past, I "had to" go flying since it was scheduled and I had to finish, but now that urgency is not there. The most time between flights was about 82-83 days at one time to where I was a week from losing my currency to carry passengers. But I do a lot of pattern work (every other, or every 3rd flight is just pattern work) because that's where you need to be on point, so maybe that keeps me from feeling rust. I don't feel rusty as far as my "stick and rudder" skills go. But you forget stupid "little" stuff that can kill you just the same, like not retracting flaps on a touch and go, and trying to climb with 40* of flaps in a Cherokee. Yeah, that happened to me. Maneuvers (stalls, steep turns) you will naturally get somewhat rusty over time in since you don't do them in regular flying (at least not on purpose...LOL). But in my flight review, I did them pretty well without any practice beforehand. I went into it cold and knocked it out.
 
I try to fly twice a week. Once you have your license,and can’t fly for long period of times,you can always fly with an instructor to get the rust off.
 
Kylepa28 said:
I was wondering how often I will need to fly in order to retain what I've learned once I've received my private pilot certificate over the long haul.
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Part of the joy I find in flying is that I continue to learn.

In my opinion a PPL is only a milestone on you aviation adventure and an opportunity to learn more.
 
I try to fly twice a week... over Christmas I didn't for little over 2 weeks, the first time I went up , stayed in the pattern, winds were supposed to be ok, but it quickly changed and let's just say my landing was less little above crash on the runway.... new ppl, but if I am not flying for more than 2 weeks... it feels like my muscle memories are lost

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Once a week is typical for me. I try to alternate between towered and nontowered airports to keep the radio calls sharp.
 
As I answered in a similar thread, I try to fly at least one hour per week, for proficiency and to exercise the A65. Ideally, I'd fly two hours per week.

I need to get some towered-field time this year. It's not as easy with a hand held radio and no transponder.
 
I actually posted a similar thread without seeing this one first. I thought about this today because I've been able to fly 4 times in the last week, which is unusual. I guess I wonder at what point I'm doing myself and my plane more harm than good, if there is such a point.
 
Challenged said:
I actually posted a similar thread without seeing this one first. I thought about this today because I've been able to fly 4 times in the last week, which is unusual. I guess I wonder at what point I'm doing myself and my plane more harm than good, if there is such a point.
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I’d say at that rate, you’re doing both yourself and the plane good!
 
I try to fly at least twice a month. I can sometimes go a month without flying, and it happened last spring as we had several weeks of rainy imc weather. I am a vfr pilot. And I don’t fly in the winter as the airplane gets upgrades while I endulge in my other passion, volunteering as a ski patroller. I then hire an instructor for an hour or two in march for a quick refresher.

Something that I found helps tremendously is that I often fly with a pilot friend as the copilot. Sometimes I am the copilot in their airplane. I observe how they do things and we discuss the various phases of the flight, the navigation, etc. It is incredible how much I have learned from them.

We split the costs, so that makes for enjoyable and affordable flying.

Another advantage of having a copilot is that I can ask him or her to keep a heading while I look at the charts or I search for something in Foreflight. Much cheaper than installing an autopilot on my little plane
 
Kylepa28 said:
I was wondering how often I will need to fly in order to retain what I've learned once I've received my private pilot certificate over the long haul. I am a reasonably intelligent person but I'm wondering how much the use it or lose it may apply here. I don't have unlimited funds to fly twice a month in perpetuity. Thoughts, opinions, all welcome

For me this is more of a bucket list personal hobby item of interest that I think I will be continually interested in, in the long run I just don't know that I'll be able to fly as much as most of you.
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I think that the responses above don’t really respond to the question.

For people for whom this is a hobby, I think that this is a huge issue. In my case it is part of a current re-evaluation about how far I want to go with this.

I’m in New York. I’ve concluded that I have zero interest in flying to the Block Island airport so that I can have bad coffee at the airport and then get back in the plane to fly back. I also now know that if I want to fly to Block Island and stay for a couple of days, I’m looking at serious money for the plane to sit there.

A couple of days ago, I watched the latest Flight Chops video about three people flying in a cramped cockpit for five hours at 30,000 feet on autopilot. The YouTube audience loved the video, and indeed it is well made, in large measure because the plane was flying itself and they had lots of time for chit chat.

I asked myself this question: Why would I want to do that? I could do the same flight on Air Canada in half the time, for less money, with an aisle to walk to stretch my legs, a glass of wine as desired and a restroom a few feet away. To my question, I did not have a satisfactory answer.

I think that it’s really important to consider and answer the question “What, exactly, am I going to do with this license, and what is it going to cost over time”?

I’m beginning to understand why people take up gliding.
 
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Ryanb said:
Well I certainly don’t believe that your contribution did either.
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Sorry for addressing basic, underlying issues instead of towing the party line.
 
PaulS said:
Fly commercial then, don't crap on everyone else's dream.
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If you’re going to respond, at least do so in a way that doesn’t misrepresent what I said.
 
Rory said:
I think that the responses above don’t really respond to the question.

For people for whom this is a hobby, I think that this is a huge issue. In my case it is part of a current re-evaluation about how far I want to go with this.

I’m in New York. I’ve concluded that I have zero interest in flying to the Block Island airport so that I can have bad coffee at the airport and then get back in the plane to fly back. I also now know that if I want to fly to Block Island and stay for a couple of days, I’m looking at serious money for the plane to sit there.

A couple of days ago, I watched the latest Flight Chops video about three people flying in a cramped cockpit for five hours at 30,000 feet on autopilot. The YouTube audience loved the video, and indeed it is well made, in large measure because the plane was flying itself and they had lots of time for chit chat.

I asked myself this question: Why would I want to do that? I could do the same flight on Air Canada in half the time, for less money, with an aisle to walk to stretch my legs, a glass of wine as desired and a restroom a few feet away. To my question, I did not have a satisfactory answer.

I think that it’s really important to consider and answer the question “What, exactly, am I going to do with this license, and what is it going to cost over time”?

I’m beginning to understand why people take up gliding.
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Everyone's different, some value things more then others. Some find joy in things that others find dread. To many, the amount its going to cost over time is irrelevant as long as their getting to fly.
 
Kyle you said, "I was wondering how often I will need to fly in order to retain what I've learned once I've received my private pilot certificate over the long haul..."

If you fly alone or with someone who isn't a pilot after you get your certificate how do you know what you haven't retained? If there isn't someone there to remind you for example to turn on the fuel pump and landing light before you land or similar little nudges then what you haven't retained could possibly kill you or someone else. Fly when you can and as often as you can. Everyone is different.
 
Rory said:
Sorry for addressing basic, underlying issues instead of towing the party line.
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Some people don't get it, at all. It's not justification for how one flys, how much it costs, return, all that nonsense. It's very simple, love of anything aviation. Hope you get some of it someday. Not a slam at you, but for the majority of us that's how we feel about aviation.
 
mscard88 said:
Some people don't get it, at all. It's not justification for how one flys, how much it costs, return, all that nonsense. It's very simple, love of anything aviation. Hope you get some of it someday. Not a slam at you, but for the majority of us that's how we feel about aviation.
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Sorry, but except for people with very high disposable income, cost is a very real issue. This entire thread was started by someone who is concerned about cost, and the idea that cost vs return would be raised only by people who are anti-aviation, or don’t understand it, is flatly ridiculous.

The fact is, I’ve raised some really basic issues about spending income on learning to fly, and the hostility directed at even raising the issues is crazy.
 
mscard88 said:
Yep, you don't get it, at all. Sorry.
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What I know, as a lifelong sailor, is that I’ve never seen the attitude coming through in this thread. In the sailing community, including in the competitive sailing community that I have been part of, what you people are saying would be dismissed out of hand.

If you are representative of attitudes in general aviation, the sooner that I move to gliders the better.

I am genuinely astounded by a number of these posts. Indeed, I would like to believe that they are made by people who are way offside mainstream pilot attitudes, and by people who have had too much to drink.
 
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Rory said:
What I know, as a lifelong sailor, is that I’ve never seen the attitude coming through in this thread. In the sailing community, including in the competitive sailing community that I have been part of, what you people are saying would be dismissed out of hand.

If you are representative of attitudes in general aviation, the sooner that I move to gliders the better.

I am genuinely astounded by a number of these posts. Indeed, I would like to believe that they are made by people who are way offside mainstream pilot attitudes, and by people who have had too much to drink.
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Dude... coming to a forum full of pilots and complaining about how ridiculous this is won't get u any brownie points.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
WannFly said:
Dude... coming to a forum full of pilots and complaining about how ridiculous this is won't get u any brownie points.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
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There’s always the chance that I don’t care about brownie points ..... dude.

I gather that I’m supposed to congratulate you on how you posted this message, so congratulations on your SM-G935V, whatever that is ..... dude.
 
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Trollin’ trollin’ trollin’... LOL.

I’ve met plenty of people in the boating community who blow insane amounts of money on boats to basically bar hop between marinas.

Airplanes and boats have the same problem, expensive ways to go between “docks” if you’re not bright enough to figure out ground transport away from the “docks” and activities to go do away from the “docks”.

If you don’t feel like piloting yourself between “docks”, the (Air)Bus is fine. Take it. All sorts of pilots who appreciate getting paid to fly you around.

Trolling “Your hobby is expensive” is kinda like, ummm... “Duhhhh!” So is boating, building and driving custom and race cars, ham radio, hell... name it, you’ll find someone who enjoys it and spends a lot of money on it.

So what?
 
denverpilot said:
Trollin’ trollin’ trollin’... LOL.

I’ve met plenty of people in the boating community who blow insane amounts of money on boats to basically bar hop between marinas.

Airplanes and boats have the same problem, expensive ways to go between “docks” if you’re not bright enough to figure out ground transport away from the “docks” and activities to go do away from the “docks”.

If you don’t feel like piloting yourself between “docks”, the (Air)Bus is fine. Take it. All sorts of pilots who appreciate getting paid to fly you around.

Trolling “Your hobby is expensive” is kinda like, ummm... “Duhhhh!” So is boating, building and driving custom and race cars, ham radio, hell... name it, you’ll find someone who enjoys it and spends a lot of money on it.

So what?
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I have never in my life heard someone suggest that the cost of sailing is irrelevant.

Sorry, but several of the posts in this thread are patently ridiculous, unless they are written by people with limitless disposable income.
 
So getting back on topic here with less flaming, i think all the info suggested has given me a very realistic idea of what is needed, when and why. Thanks guys
 
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