Is flying like riding a bike?

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TxAggieMike@reddit

If you’re unable to afford the flights, consider participating in the FAA WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program via FAASafety.gov

These are no cost opportunities to keep your knowledge up to speed on a variety of topics. And completing the different phases count as ground portions of your Flight Review.

Other solid knowledge offerings are the VFR and IFR Mastery scenarios offered by PilotWorkshops.com

Bold Method has some really good items too.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

Answering the 6-12 month question…

Make sure you’re keeping in mind the §61.57 requirements for Day and Night currency.

After an absence getting in excess of 6-months, I say it’s a good idea at that point to invite a capable and current CFI along as a risk management solution.

Your skills might not have deteriorated too much, but what if they had. The CFI can be there to help.

And at the end of the flight, provide some valuable assessment and critique.

If you go longer than 12 months, consider making the rust removal flights a Flight Review with a current and capable CFI. You may need it, and you might as well get the proper credit for the activities.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

2,600 hours total time.

I still learn something each flight. Or at least am reminded that a particular something makes a world of difference.

There are items that can be considered perishable. Other items will accumulate rust.

Since you have already spent considerable time and dollars acquiring your certificate(s), it is important to exercise your skills and knowledge when you can.

Maybe try to schedule at least 2-3 flight a month.

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vtjohnhurt@reddit

Recreational pilot here, 400+ hours in glider and tailwheel airplane. I've only flown May-October for 16 years. Starting in May, the effort that I make to recover proficiency gets me to an acceptable level quickly, and then I ramp up proficiency over the summer. Come October, when I fly my most challenging conditions (mountain wave), I'm more proficient than I was a year earlier. By the end of October, I'm ready to take six months off, and next May, I'm eager to fly.

I try to challenge myself on average on every flight, so proficiency ramps up. This is confirmed objectively by metrics, but I have some sense of objectively getting better. If I did not see improvement, I would conclude that my proficiency was gradually eroding, and that I needed to do something different to start climbing the learning curve again. Flying both glider and tailwheel airplane are both challenging, so changes in proficiency tend to be apparent. Last summer, wildfire smoke and heat reduced my frequency of flight, capped my proficiency, so I opted out of flying in wave conditions. I need to be on-my-game for that.

I'm getting older, so at some point my proficiency will inevitably stop improving. Then I will need to decide if I can make it work with an apparent slow erosion of proficiency, or if it is time to do something else with my disposable time/$s. Some pilots who have high proficiency and lots of experience continue to fly into their 80s, and some of them are still much better than I am. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Striedieck is my favorite example, but there are others. I don't have their level of proficiency-experience to continue into my 80s.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

What I mean, is flying a super perishable skill, or does it come back fairly quickly?

I’m at like 230TT, and still learn something every flight, but I’m finally to a point where I feel truly confident in my ability flying various small aircraft. Once I get my commercial, I’ll probably have a lot less time to fly. I don’t want to loose everything I’ve learned so far.

Is it fairly easy to get back in the cockpit after 6-12 months? Or is it worth the money to fly once a week, even if it strains my calendar/wallet?

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ShelbyDriver@reddit

I took a 25 year break from flying after PPL. It is definitely NOT like riding a bike.

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coldnebo@reddit

your question inspired me to prototype a tool for part 91 proficiency schedule and cost because I've had similar questions regarding what training I would need after PPL to remain proficient. I also expanded it a bit for other common ratings and endorsements that I'm interested in. I added CPL in case it helps.

caveat: I collaborated with Claude for this tool and approach -- I skimmed the sources and they look quite interesting. also I'm not sure the data format is ideal for maintenance, but as a rapid prototype it gets the idea across. also experts would need to review this for correctness. To my novice eyes, it looks compelling -- but I respect real expertise.

coldnebo.github.io/seagull

feedback welcome.

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PutOptions@reddit

As some have suggested, TT has been a notable factor IME. As a student, any more than a week away affected me. Just under 500 now, and after a month or more away I will grab an instructor for a proper thrashing. It all comes back quick.

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flight_char_@reddit

I took a 13 year hiatus 1 year after getting my PPL. I had about 80hours at the time. Everything came back like riding a bike for me (was able to maintain PPL standards) with the exception of the landing flare took awhile to get perfect again. Caveat is I was a teenager when I flew before and I also had probably 3000 hours of flight sim when I was young and flying as well - so it was probably extra ingrained. If you want to keep the skills up at a commercial level you should keep flying once a week or as much as you can afford.

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flyingron@reddit

Just a lot harder to stick baseball cards in the spokes.

(I guess I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue).

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PhilRubdiez@reddit

It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.

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primalbluewolf@reddit

There's a sale at Penny's!

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aftcg@reddit

I can make a pterodactyl

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Redfish680@reddit

I like turtles!

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Canikfan434@reddit

You like gladiator movies?

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Canikfan434@reddit

Surely you can’t be serious.

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Ok_Truck_5092@reddit

I'm at about 300 hours and when I have gaps in flights longer than 2 weeks I definitely feel a bit rusty. After a few hours I'm good again.

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Inside-Deal-3821@reddit

Concerning

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Ok_Truck_5092@reddit

In what way?

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Canadian47@reddit

It depends on your experience level. Below 500TT I think l less so. Once you have around 500TT I think it comes back pretty easily.

What type of flying also matters. If you have been away from it for a while day VFR is not a big deal. Hard IFR...big nope unless I'm current.

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MiniTab@reddit

I agree with that. I had to take 18 months off for a fairly stupid medical issue (thanks FAA!). Thank goodness I have great LTD at my airline.

Anyway, that was by far the longest break I ever had from flying in the 20 years I’ve been doing it.

The first couple of procedure sims were strange, because I felt myself not being able to think as far ahead as I usually am. They went fine, but it just wasn’t normal for me.

But it all came back very quickly, and I was at my previous performance within a couple of sessions. So yes, when you have experience it is just like riding a bike.

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Atheizt@reddit

The skills are absolutely perishable, especially at low hours. That said, since money is a concern and you're talking about a fairly long timeframe, personally I'd stop flying until I was ready to pick it up consistently again.

I have no idea where you live or what it costs there (I'm not in the US), but if we assume a ballpark of $200 per flight once /week, that's $10,400 of flying over 12 months. Your skills will decay in that time, but not so badly that you'll need to spend >$10k to get the back up to speed.

After a year, maybe 2-4 flights to get back to your current level. A fraction of what it would cost to fly consistently.

That said, money isn't the only factor to consider here. If you can reasonably afford it, those flights will continue to build on your experience, it helps your TT which is always a win when it comes to looking for a job and--let's not forget the important part here--you're getting to spend more time in a damn plane!

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KarmaTheBrit@reddit

I only read the title. No because you’re flying.

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Mr-Badcat@reddit

Flying is not like riding a bike. Even some airline pilots let their own flying skills degrade as they rely too much on the auto-pilot or have long breaks away from the cockpit. At your stage of the journey you definitely need to stay engaged and keep learning.

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DefinitelyNotDebo@reddit

Keep flying

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Ok_Relationship_335@reddit (OP)

How often is reasonable to maintain proficiency? I was told 3 times a week when training for PPL, but that feels excessive if I’m not working towards specific ratings.

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aftcg@reddit

Every 5-8 days for perishable skills. The fire fighting training world has known about this forever.

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DefinitelyNotDebo@reddit

If you’re not actively pursuing a rating I’d say a few times a month

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mrmurnio@reddit

It really depends. After getting my cpl, I had 1.5 year hiatus. Then I re-validated my mep ir and it was surprisingly easy, like much easier than during training. But now after couple of years on the line, only a week away and it feels weird being back on flight deck. But after one leg, it's back to normal.

Of course it's not apples to apples because at least I never got good routine going on during training.

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JSTootell@reddit

I've got well over 10,000 hours on a bike. If I had that experience flying my shitbox, I'd probably be pretty good at it by now 😂

I feel like my flying skills degrade quick right now, I'm only at 200 hours.

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citpilot1@reddit

Yes and no, there will be a day it just feels different. You realize it was gusting 25 knots on final and you didn’t think about it anymore, just landed. Stuff like that. That being said 1000’s of hours and if I’m away a few weeks it devotes a little more brain power just so you don’t get a phone number, not because it’s not safe.

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FlyingTerrier@reddit

No. I took a ten year break and it took 30 hours to go solo again!

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bones302@reddit

I have just returned to flying after a 12 year break. Surprisingly, it has been a bit like riding a bike. I only have about 160 hours TT. I am more cautious and my personal mins are those of a student pilot, but i am slowly getting my sea legs. My flight review, steep turns, stalls, slow flight etc.. all came back very fast

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LightedAirway@reddit

It probably depends on the person a bit, as well as how much flight time you’ve had to date.

What I found for myself is that while I might be a touch rusty, the basic flying skills came back quickly for me after any sort of a layoff - even after years.

I did find, however, that my radio skills took some time and extra practice to return to previous level capabilities.

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AirSorvete@reddit

It is a very expensive bike.

One with turbulence.

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SSMDive@reddit

At 100 hours TT I took about 10 years off and then bought a light sport plane and was signed off in an hour of ground (which was mostly him giving me advice on how to handle a Rotax 503) and an hour of airtime. Now it was a simple plane and I had been skydiving that entire time (so still involved in aviation), and had been flying RC the whole time.

So my personal opinion it was like riding a bike, but that is a data set of one... So basically worthless. I feel I could have flown the thing without any checkout, but that would have been stupid as hell to try.

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swedishlightning@reddit

I took months/years off here and there. If you keep thinking about flying even during time off (eg watch the occasional GA YouTube video, screw around in a flight sim, etc) then you can retain a lot of the base knowledge (airspace, XC planning, etc). But you will definitely feel behind the airplane for the first couple flights once you’re back. But you’ll feel back in the saddle pretty quickly if you jump right back in to flying regularly.

I would not strain your finances/schedule to maintain minimum currency. Probably better to just put some money in a flying piggy bank so that when you decide to get back into it, you can fly twice a day 3 times a week at first to get back in the rhythm.

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Needs2GetLaid@reddit

Probably depends on your hours, but at 800 I'm finding that only flying once every six months (for the past seven years) for just a half hour IS just like riding a bike. My basic skills have not left me,...yet, lol.

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FishrNC@reddit

I have about 850 hrs and hadn't flown for 15 years. Just for fun I went to a local school and went up with an instructor. It was like I'd flown yesterday, except for learning the C172 handling instead of the Bonanza I'd flown in the past.

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adventuresofh@reddit

It depends. I have ~800 hours and just flew for the first time in 6 months. It came back pretty quick but my first landing was a bit rough. I’d try to fly once or twice a month at least at 250 hours. Ideally once a week, but for many reasons that’s not always possible.

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sniper4273@reddit

At your experience, it's surprisingly perishable.

At the same time, money is money. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. I don't think this is the time to be taking financial risks.

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Ok_Bottle_7568@reddit

When is it ever?

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T-1A_pilot@reddit

Yes. You fall down and get hurt a lot, unless you bolt some extra wheels to the back for more stability.