Rusty Pilot

Trent Lamb

Trent Lamb

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
May 22, 2021
Messages
13
Location
Shanghai, China
Display Name
Display name:
PhatAV8r60
I'm working on plans to return to flying, other than renewing my medical, any suggestions on updating my knowledge base? is it worth an online ground course? or would just getting books and reviewing aerodynamics, weather, airspace, FARs, etc better
 
How long has it been? The time could make a world of difference.
 
Find a CFI and work out a plan of study to get up to speed and get through the flight review (formerly BFR). I did that after 15 years away and it was 4 of ground and two in the air to get back to VFR status.


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thanks, I fear Im a little dated, we didn't have any approved GPS in the aircraft back then. I think VFR will be fast, like you say, but catching up on the avionics looks like a long haul.
 
bflynn said:
How long has it been? The time could make a world of difference.
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26 years. I'm not in a rush, Ive saved money to "get the rust off" when I'm ready, but I thought I could get caught up on ground stuff.
 
I’ll second working with a CFI. Flying is like falling off a bike, you don’t need to relearn how to do it, just practice.

some of the airspace and requirements have changed but I think a full ground course is overkill. I suspect 10 hours max and you’ll know where to focus.

you will need to get your medical sorted. After you do, there’s a new medical called BasicMed which you do with your family doctor, but you’ll need one FAA medical first. Saves hassle with the FAA as you get older.
 
I have worked with rusty pilots. Have one in the queue right now waiting for his schedule to get better.

Time away tells me there's going to be an avionics learning curve but there can often be one even if the pilot is not rusty, although perhaps not as steep. Other than that, I like to get a baseline for both of us.

For knowledge, I sometimes suggest doing one of those free private pilot practice tests. The goal isn't pass or fail, but learning what has been retained, what has been lost, and what just needs a little review. The post test review may lead to suggesting an online course (paging @write-stuff) or some targeted webinars, or some things in between.

For flight, almost the same. Discussion to see what knowledge of maneuvers has been retained and a first flight trying some of them. Again, the idea is to baseline in order to design a syllabus which acknowledges retained skills and is specific to the student.
 
Trent Lamb said:
I'm working on plans to return to flying, other than renewing my medical, any suggestions on updating my knowledge base? is it worth an online ground course? or would just getting books and reviewing aerodynamics, weather, airspace, FARs, etc better
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Number of years is not the only indicator of rustiness. I would recommend going up with someone, even a fellow pilot, and assess for yourself how it all feels. Follow the aviate, navigate and communicate sequence. You should first figure out how much of your aviate reflexes are still there, then learn how navigation has changed in the years (quite a bit), and then how radio procedures (hasn't changed much). I took a 10 year hiatus, but didn't have any trouble getting back.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I came back after 20. That was in 2011. How far along in your flying were you 26 years ago?
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I was a 1000+ hour military RW guy with commercial instrument, and got my airplane commercial crossover and about 10 hours of instrument (including 6 hours complex) before I stopped (really just had my cross-country in prep for the check ride). Sadly, life got in the way.

But I'm a gamer, and my navigation and commo are very good even today, my biggest issue is the new avionics, the old stuff is still familiar. I think I'd pick up the flying fast enough, but I'm targeting 40 hours to get back fully, because that's when I feel like the aircraft and I really came together.
 
I got back into flying in 2019 after a 20 year gap. My goal was not just to regain enough proficiency to fly adequately, but to be as comfortable as I was shortly after getting my PPL. I used the Sporty's private pilot course and found this to be very helpful, and went through it a couple of times. I got an excellent instructor who essentially did a mini PPL course with me over a couple of months - standard procedures, practice emergencies, navigation with and without GPS, cross-countries, communication etc. After 20 hours of dual instruction, I felt very comfortable although I'm sure he would have signed me off sooner. I retrained in a Class D airport under a Class B shelf, and the thing that took the longest to refamiliarize myself with was ATC communication, but it came back after a few hours.

Best of luck!
 
You don’t need avionics. Start flying to knock off the rust, along with reg, airspace, and procedure updates, and then (or concurrently) start investigating/learning avionics. I’m excited for you!
 
AOPA offered Rusty Pilot seminars before COVID pushed the pause button on gatherings. I attended several to meet new folk and hang out with my friend Pat Brown from AOPA

Check their website to see what is offered online or virtually
 
Trent Lamb said:
I was a 1000+ hour military RW guy with commercial instrument, and got my airplane commercial crossover and about 10 hours of instrument (including 6 hours complex) before I stopped (really just had my cross-country in prep for the check ride). Sadly, life got in the way.

But I'm a gamer, and my navigation and commo are very good even today, my biggest issue is the new avionics, the old stuff is still familiar. I think I'd pick up the flying fast enough, but I'm targeting 40 hours to get back fully, because that's when I feel like the aircraft and I really came together.
Click to expand...

I did it also with over 20 years off spanning the steam to whiz box era. The IPC was an adventure. CFII said let’s just do it steam and then you can get caught up with GPS later if you want to. I said let’s just get it done now. While I could have had the IPC in a couple hours it took about 20. I have a word for you. Buttonology. Although ‘tapology’ might be a better one with all the touchscreen gadgets there are now. I did it with a Garmin 430. I became convinced that GPS was invented as a marketing ploy just to increase Autopilot sales:biggrin:. Approach Charts, SIDS, IFR Departure Procedures(they call those Obstacle Departure Procedures now) have all changed significantly enough that you’ll need time in the books to get some new rules down. Have fun and welcome back.
 
Was just reading about the new eLoran. Funny, you were probably using Loran-C 25 years ago. That system went away a while back and it's all GPS now...except they recognize how fragile GPS can be, so they are putting in a new eLoran technology. What was old is new again.
 
bflynn said:
Was just reading about the new eLoran. Funny, you were probably using Loran-C 25 years ago. That system went away a while back and it's all GPS now...except they recognize how fragile GPS can be, so they are putting in a new eLoran technology. What was old is new again.
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I haven't read anything about this yet.

Will they be reviving the old Loran sites? A few years ago my wife and I walked the property of what was the Searchlight, NV LORAN transmitter.
 
The initiative started with the 2018 Coast Guard authorization bill. Congress has been looking at the question of GNSS fragility since 2014. eLoran could use the same Loran sites, but I don't know if they are.

As I understand it, an eLoran unit will be backward compatible with Loran-C but not vice versa...your old loran is still just a door stop. The accuracy of eLoran will be better, I think I read under 10 meters.

But who knows, I think we're a bit away from having units that can be installed.
 
I came back after almost 25yrs. I started getting caught up on my own doing ground school review and watching YouTube videos. Pick one of the Ipad apps Garmin/Foreflight and start learning its ins/outs. Pick up your local sectional and TCA charts and start refamiliarizing yourself with them. Sharpen up on weather briefings, TFR's and airspace reviews. As for the flight work, in my case as soon as I pulled the 172 off the ground some instincts kicked right in and everything else fell into place in about 3-4hrs. I'm SEL/MEL and 25yrs ago before I stopped flying I was only flying twins 310/414's and Barons. So the first landing didn't exactly represent what I used to be capable of :). Once you start at it, stick with it and see it thru. Hopefully you'll be as surprised as I was how quickly it comes back.
 
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