My DA42 training will start in one and a half week with a simulator session. After almost 7 months without flying as pilot in command you can imagine how excited I am. It is the third – and not the last – time that I resume flying for a short period only after months of inactivity. I’m a low-budget pilot because of changes in my life which I do not regret. New job, new country and new house are good things, even if they mean less flying for the time being.

When I started my G1000 training in Cannes after months without flying IFR, my instructor threw a departure from Nice at me and asked me to fly it with minimal preparation. After two intensive hours in the sim struggling with the procedures, the G1000, the new scan, and school SOPs, I went back to my hotel exhausted. This was before noon and I had another session planned for the afternoon but I was wondering if I would be up to the task. Should I not stop, and save the money ? Was my low flight time strategy the good one ? Flying only a couple of month per year was may be too optimistic ? Thanks to the good teaching skills of my instructor my flying during the afternoon session was much better. Flying the bugs and not the figures, and the few hours flown in the morning everything went fine.

My first Saratoga flight in England last summer was the same thing. It was a simple local VFR to re-take contact with flying. The combination of a new environment, less than optimal weather and lack of currency resulted in lot of stress and poor flying: late power reduction in climb and after transition to cruise, unstable turns, missed items in checklists… Not exactly brillant. Rich of what I learned the first time I resumed flying, I was not worrying too much. The flights on the next day – still with an instructor on board – were much better and within standards.

I somehow expect the same kind of feeling after my first simulator session for the MEP rating. This is no ground for complacency. I’m simply trying to get as ready as possible and knowing that such feelings are to be expected makes possible to disregard them and stay focused and get most out of the training. Will this really help ? Let’s re-talk about that in a couple of weeks.