Comments on: Losing my religion?

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:00:36 +0000

I know how you feel, Paul. I was flying fairly regularly after getting my license up until I ended up buying a new car and moving around the same time. Since then, I haven’t flown for a variety of reasons that boil down to time and money. Even though I found my skills didn’t degrade that much between flights, I wanted to be able to fly frequently enough that the flights were for fun and not to refresh the skills. (Picking up a mutually exclusive hobby (scuba diving) didn’t help since I wanted to keep a healthy interval between the two activities.) And with ever increasing fuel costs and the introduction of landing fees at CYOW a few years ago, the hobby has become quite pricey. I did toy with buying a share in a plane a few years back, but I was concerned that the partners wouldn’t have mutually exclusive flying schedules.

So, instead I remain on the ground watching the planes I used to fly pass overhead and wonder when I’ll fill in the next line of my logbook.

By: Paul Tomblin

Paul Tomblin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:27:17 +0000

Our club doesn’t have currency requirements beyond an annual BFR-equivalent “club check ride”. We used to have more stringent rules on the Lance, but we sold it. Also, if you go inactive, you either have to stay inactive at least a year, or pay dues for the months you were inactive – that’s to prevent people from going inactive for the winter. If you’re going to be out at least a year, you’re going to have to do the club check ride when you come back.

However, as a responsible pilot, I wouldn’t do just the club minimum – if I were to get my medical back tomorrow I’d still want to go do at least an hour practising the basic maneuvers before I flew anywhere or with anyone.

And of course, since I haven’t flown either simulated or real instruments since my IPC this spring, I’d obviously need another IPC to get the rust off again.

So yeah, I guess I’m in a similar situation to you, Mark, in that all the things I’d need to do to get current again just don’t seem worth it.

By: Kristopher Johnson

Kristopher Johnson — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:45:31 +0000

It’s been about a year and a half since my last flight. I just got bored with it.

Now I live about an hour and a half from the nearest airport where I could rent a plane, so it seems unlikely that I’ll be getting back in the seat any time soon.

Still, even if I never fly again, I’ll always think of myself as a pilot.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:30:08 +0000

Grr, that should have been “Became a task”. That’ll teach me to proofread.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:28:02 +0000

It’s been about 16 months since I’ve flown myself, so I can relate in some regard.

I still feel the thrill is there, and if things were different from a priority standpoint I’d be back flying regularly again in a heartbeat, but other things have come before flying for a long while for me.

My medical is still valid and for all intents and purposes I’d just need to go and get current again to be back in the saddle, but I just find the whole thought of jumping through all the bloody currency hoops again daunting. There’s no instructors left at my FBO that I actually know (or are comfortable/compatible with) and I tend to suspect that I’m rusty enough that a single 1.0 currency flight isn’t going to cut it from a proficiency/insurability standpoint, meaning I’m probably looking at a large cash outlay to just get current, never mind actually enjoying things again.

Add in a bit of indifference about the whole situation, and I’m in a similar rut as you I guess.

What does active/inactive relate to from the clubs standpoint – just a financial savings from not paying dues, or does it effectively put you in a similar situation where you need to jump through all sorts of hoops again if/when you come back in order to get flying again? One thing I’ve always observed about your club is that they assume you don’t forget how to fly if you don’t go up at least once every 30 days, something that I found incredibly irritating from a renters standpoint since after 30 days passed with no logged time you were treated as if you just walked in off the street.

If I could have had a 40-50 day currency I’d probably have maintained it, but once every 30 days just because a task instead of an enjoyment at certain times in the winter/spring (due to time constraints and such) and that contributed to me dropping out of things.