When to stop flying ?
Deciding to take your first flying lesson is not always an easy decision to make. It’s often made of a mix of curiosity, apprehension, fear, and questions regarding one’s own abilities. Then comes the training phase, and the active phase of a flying life. But what about the decision to stop flying ?
One of the many things that differentiate flying light aircraft from other hobbies is the possibly high impact of an accident, for both oneself and the others. Not many pilots can afford two accidents. Deciding to quit flying is not an easy decision to make. Here are some personal thoughts on this topic.
Age limit ?
The aviation regulations define maximal age for airline pilots, but not for private pilots. If you think that UFO is Unidentified Flying Object, you should visit the site of the Unified Flying Octogenarians… As long as body and brain are up to the task, I don’t see any reason to stop.
Depending the kind of license held, pilots have to go through periodical medical checks, which go beyond a simple “reflex check”, or not. Unfortunately, things can change quickly, and it’s also a question of self-responsibility. Something I personally disapprove is the decision some pilots make to change aircraft / license category after their medical certificate got suspended. In my humble opinion, when the doc says stop, it’s time to stop.
Lack of time and experience ?
In that domain as well, regulations are quite clear. Minimal flight time is required to keep a license active. If the criteria are not met, privileges extension goes through a flight with an examiner, and probably training before that. The experience validation takes place every year, or two years, depending of the ratings held, but other recency rules impose shorter regulations.
Most pilot’s go through phases where they have less time / money / envy to fly. There can be many reasons for that, and even if it is possible to “maintain” ratings with a minimal activity, it is frustrating. Serious re-training shall be envisaged before restarting complex flying activities. Here again, personal responsibility is the golden rule.
The Big Fear
I don’t like pilots who never got afraid in flight. A pilot knowing no fear is either not able to recogize dangerous situations, or only fly in optimal situation. Both cases seems risky to me.
There were a couple of flights after which I asked myself if it would not be better to stop. Some resulted from my own mistakes, other from challenging weather, but I never gave up.
I understand that someone surviving something like a crash, an emergency landing, or other extreme cases can decide to stop. Hopefully I never had major accidents, so may be my personal big fear is still to come - touch wood !
Responsible pilot
Shall I change the name of this blog from PlasticPilot to ResponsiblePilot ? I realized that well after I started to fly, but the high responsibilities associated with that activity are also what makes it so attractive.
Making the final landing is not an easy decision, and pilots have to make it mostly on their own. I hope I won’t have to report it soon for myself. If you already made this decision yourself, or thought about it, feel free to share your thoughts via comments.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Roy McMillion
For me, the decision to stop flying was a financial one. A new son in daycare really ate up the money. I could fly enough to stay current, but not enough to stay proficient. I could see that I was not in a position to further my ratings, or even fly more than the once every 60 days my FBO requires so I decided that rather than fly rusty all the time, I would give up flying.
It’s a decision that I still struggle with.
http://www.nwflyingphoto.com/blog/?p=121
Jul 18th, 2008
PlasticPilot
Thank you Roy for sharing that. I read the post you liked to in your comment, and have much respect for your decision. I sincerely hope that you will later be in position to restart flying.
Jul 19th, 2008
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