![]() ![]() We both had good jobs and were financially stable enough to get back into it, so I did the Rusty Pilot program back when it was still in its early years. Reached 60, and my wife said if you wanted to resume flying, this would be a good time to do it. Then the usual story of going back to school, got married at 48 and had another kid. ![]() Learned to fly at about 40 and rented for 5 years. Great story! Very similar to mine in fact. There’s no better feeling than going from Chicago to Nashville in 2.5 hours. I do still remember what a blast it is and how much I love it. But I suggest that you just get back into flying. But spend time listening to your instructor, trust me, they have probably seen worse. I may be responsible for more than a few instructors quitting.ĭepending on how far behind you are, some online training is good. My first taxi was like I was driving a lawnmower and was heading for the infield grass to do some trimming. The glass panel was new and I guess I need to re-learn how to taxi. ![]() I went out to the flight school and we jumped into what I thought was a old friend, a Cessna 172. After spending a few weeks binge watching those, I felt more comfortable at least with the ground work. So I signed up for Sporty’s online Private and Instrument ground course. Now that I do remember from my last time flying. The school should be able to figure out what I didn’t know. They said just go to my local flight school and jump back in the pool. I called AOPA to get an idea on what to do, and they were a big help. But I think the magnitude of how rusty anyone could be is the issue. I did the AOPA Rusty Pilot course, it was helpful. You can’t recall something you forgot, so how are you supposed to know what parts of flying you are missing that you can’t remember? The bigger problem is that I don’t think anybody is sure on what they’ve forgotten. I like cool abbreviations as much as the next pilot but geez, do you have to change everything? As I transition to learning in a Cirrus, what happened to Va? Its now Vo? So I guess if you make really cool airplanes, the FAA lets you make up your own “V” speeds? It is way better, but it is just one more thing to learn beside the flying part. Approach plates are on a tablet, not inside a one inch stack of paper. Unfolding a map and looking for KORD? That I can do, KORD is by that big lake. Makes you feel bad for Gutenberg and all his hard work. No more is there a device on the panel with numbers 0-7 that you could basically figure out. Transponders are now hidden inside of glass requiring a sequence of button presses that are not outwardly intuitive for the new pilot. Go ask your parents what a “typewriter” is, I’ll wait). Now you see what it feels like to not know tech. It is like if you had an IBM typewriter, a cave person might figure out how to put paper in and push buttons to get letters (HA, take that you 20 somethings. ![]() The components of the airplane in the “before times” were straightforward. What was once the Heading Indictor, Airspeed Indictor, and the Attitude Indicator is now just the Garmin G1000. I guess it could be possible if you were out for a year or two and jumped back in. The “Rusty Pilot” – it is a great term but I think it leads you into thinking a can of WD-40 and a few laps around the pattern and you are back. I wanted to get back to flying because I really love it. The last kid is almost out of school and as time moves on, things stabilized. Used to fly, got married, kids, college, even more college, less money, etc. You have heard the story thousands of times. Hoping the flight school has some NASA forms, or are they now called Space X forms? I’m going to have to figure out how to land an airplane after 16 years without embarrassing myself too bad. I don’t know how we are going to fit this Cessna 172 on that narrow 75’ strip of concrete. Is that me getting scared? Last time I did this I thought I was “Joe Pilot”, what’s happened? There I was turning from base to final, oh my. I don’t know how we are going to fit this Cessna 172 on that narrow 75’ strip of concrete ![]()
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