Proficiency ?

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Tom-D
how many hours per year do you need to be proficient in a 150?

18 hours over 2 years enough? to handle a engine out on departure @ 300"
 
18hrs over 2 years!!

That's like 1hr flight time a month.


I'd like to see 100hrs a year


If I flew with someone who only logged 18hrs in the last two years, I'd likley have my CFI hat on.


As to your engine out question, depends.

What does this person do for a living?
What hobbies do they have?
What was the airport and surrounding area like?
What type of failure, full on stoppage or loss of some power?
 
It depends on how you define "proficient". It also depends on the person.

I'm probably going to get told how unsafe I am, but that is often the number of hours I log in 2 years. I don't have any problem passing flight reviews or check rides, either ground or air portion.

Things that I feel help me are lurking in forums such as these, flying with an instructor if the conditions are outside my comfort parameters, and thinking things through during the flight.

Engine out 300 feet up on a climb? Get the nose down, get to best glide speed, make for the most open area possible or the least solid object. Fly until it stops.

Edit: I also tend to only fly planes with steam gauges, which are relatively consistent in their user interface, unlike the glass panel planes. I only fly VFR as well. Foreflight and a paper chart fills my electronic/ nav needs quite well. Keeping it simple helps as well; most Cessna 150s are simple planes.
 
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Not enough info. Every person is different. After two months of not touching a GA plane I flew and it was like riding a bike. I flew 1200 hours in the year so it wasn't too difficult getting back into it.
 
I'm not exactly sure what the question is...

Are you defining "proficiency" as

A. "this person is safe to fly with",

B. "this person shouldn't need a flight review",

C. "this person should be able to pass a flight review with the minimum one hour ground and one hour flight",

D. "this person should be able to deal with an engine failure at 300 feet after takeoff",

E. "Being able to handle an engine failure at 300 feet after takeoff exceeds the requirements for proficiency", or

F. Something else entirely?
 
18 hrs in two years is no where near enough for me to feel proficient. I have flown about 90 this past year and that barely seems enough.

Of course, I am a beginner and you may have 5000 hrs under you belt. Too many variables for me to really say what is enough for you. If it were me, I would get some refresher training before I carried my family up for dang sure.
 
18 hours over two years isn't enough to be proficient imo. I'd take a CFI if going up after flying that infrequently.
 
I'll join "it depends." It depends on the pilot, prior flying experience, what the pilot does when not flying, and more. Using the engine out example, a pilot who flies 100 hours per year on normal flights is not in any better position than one who flies 4 of those 18 with a CFI practicing things he doesn't do normally. Knowing to pitch for best glide and choose the best spot in front of her in as normal a landing attitude as possible is mental response, not flight activity.
 
It REALLY depends.

NO ONE could handle an engine failure at 300 in a 150 at my home airport at a busy time without damaging the aircraft. The best emergency landing field you're gonna get is a 350 foot baseball diamond, and that's only if it isn't full of kids. Or you could put it in the lake.... A few have put aircraft on the street, but that only works if traffic is light, I.e. Almost never.
 
The question occurred to me while reading the NTSB accident base, Now I can't find the report, because I read several at random.
It seems the pilot did not realize he had carb ice, missed a good landing spot in trying to make a field way beyond his gliding distance put the aircraft it the trees.

It occurred to me a great many mistakes were made because of the lack of proficiency. or maybe that isn't what proficiency does for ya.
 
how many of you actually practice gliding distances in your aircraft?
 
Hard not to respond to the how often I practice glide distances:). Every flight in my glider.

300 feet I have 1.5+ mile glide distance and will take me about 90 seconds to get back to the ground.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
Tom-D said:
The question occurred to me while reading the NTSB accident base, Now I can't find the report, because I read several at random.
It seems the pilot did not realize he had carb ice, missed a good landing spot in trying to make a field way beyond his gliding distance put the aircraft it the trees.

It occurred to me a great many mistakes were made because of the lack of proficiency. or maybe that isn't what proficiency does for ya.
Click to expand...
Ok...based on that, I'd say hour have nothing to do with proficiency.
 
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