Becoming Low Time Pilot - Strategy update
My flying strategy for the past months was simple and pleasant: fly 50 hours per year including enough IFR to remain comfortable. With the raise of fuel price I changed it to take the FADEC Challenge. After that an hectic period started as I decided to change job.
Short term strategy - Save money for next step
With big life changes in sight I decided to reduce my flying activities to a minimum, saving some money for the next steps. Even if nothing was defined, I preferred to build up reserves to make sure I could later afford flying expensive IR planes as much as I would need. As this was a short term measure, I did not change the way I flew, but just refrained from flying too much.
Mid-term strategy - Save the ratings
My professional future is clear now, and the next months will be quite complex as new job will imply new location in a new country. As you may imagine flying will not be a top priority. But to keep things simple, I decided to leave with current SEP and IFR ratings, and never let them expire.
In JAR context a pilot holding a current rating can renew it by experience (SEP) or directly with an examiner (IR). My SEP is valid until mid 2009, so it is not a mid-term issue. IR is another deal: yearly examination flight is needed. If the rating is current the pilot can directly go to an examiner, but if not the candidate must be presented by an FTO. Obviously no FTO would present a candidate without intensive re-training…
My decision is then to renew my IR before leaving. As it expires in May 2008 and I can renew it three months before expiry, in this case from February 2008. As I will move by end of March, I have a period of two months to renew. This is not so bad, but February and March are not so IR friendly when flying single engine planes - not exactly icing friendly.
Renewing on an FNPT-II simulator is also an option, but as I don’t have an MEP rating, I need an SEP certified simulator, which is not so common.
I stopped all flying activities to be certain I will have sufficient budget to renew my IR. If after practice and exam flight some money is left, I’ll certainly use it for kind of “last flight in Switzerland”.
Long-term strategy - Find a new home base
When everything will be set and my new life go smoothly, I will have to find a new airport, a new flying club, and resume flying activities there, depending on new budget.
If new budget is low, I will focus on maintaining good skills at landing, probably by flying circuits and short flights. Even if they are boring, circuits help a lot to maintain skills up to the task. When budget will allow for more, I’ll resume flying cross-country, and start discovering new places again.
One step backward
Reducing flying time will certainly be frustrating. But as this is a hobby and not a job, the priorities are clear. The harder part in this new strategy will be to resist the temptation of doing things beyond what is acceptable, and end up in a situation I won’t be able to manage, by lack of money or skills.
I will post on this topic each time the situation will evolve, and will also report on the pleasure of discovering new places.
7 Comments, Comment or Ping
pat
Interesting post, as usual!
I’m in a “fly safe with a limited budget” situation and I agree with you that practicing circuits and short flights help in maintaining good skills.
It may be boring (it used to be when I was forced to do so for hours), but it’s not anymore, for me. I like flying circuits and gliding approaches, especially with a touchy aircraft. It’s quite rewarding to land a taildragger perfectly on a concrete runway with a fair crosswind.
I try to fly cross-country as often as I can, but it’s not as often as I’d like…
I know how frustrating it is to resist to the temptation of burning the family budget in flight-time
Pat, looking forward to the next training session of a nice little aircraft I tried out last week-end!
Dec 18th, 2007
Peter Bremer
There is another method to keep somewhat current, it does not count official logbook hours but it helps:
1) Use a good flightsimulator. And with good, I mean good for flight traning. In that sense Microsoft ‘flightsimulator’ is a game, as Microsoft advertises it themselves, and not a simulator.
A good training simulator is X-Plane (http://www.x-plane.com).
For a Piper Saratoga buy the planes from http://www.c74.net/xplane/_piper.html 9only $12.50 for 10+ planes)
2) Join IVAO (http://www.ivao.aero) for live ATC and weather to add realism and increase the workload to a realistic level.
This is the way I solve the money issue.
I will also use it to prepare for a real flying week in June to Annecy/Switzerland.
Kind regards,
Peter.
Feb 21st, 2008
PlasticPilot
@Peter: thanks a lot for the Saratoga package ! I’ve been looking for one for years but no success until know !
I use sims to keep current in low-time phases, but I usually use ELITE (www.flyelite.ch) more than X-Plane.
Another way to have some “non-loggable” experience for free is to fly as safety pilot or passenger. There’s a lot to learn…
Feb 21st, 2008
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