Can one be a safe, occasional pilot?

Jim K said:
There is some value too in "keeping your head in the game". Podcasts, Youtube, books, even POA keeps your brain engaged. Looking at charts, thinking about scenarios.
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That's really the underlying theory of the WINGS program. Yes there is flight component, but my sense as a participant since the beginning and as an instructor, is that people who think about safety and proficiency are generally safer and more proficient. "What you think about expands" is a long-time psychobabble concept that seems to be borne out by modern neuroscience.
 
I asked a friend of mine, pilot that loves flying IFR, kind of the reverse question: How often do you have to fly to stay current? He gave me an answer that I didn't expect. He said once a week, and he said he didn't base it on his flying ability but on his job skills. He said that if he's away for longer than that he can notice a slight change in his motor skills. Everybody is different, each skill different, but I think I remember similar from talking w/ musicians or competitive athletes.

That led me to BP's question, which is - if a week is ideal, what's unacceptable? I don't know, but I kinda want to find out. Along the lines of using judgement to avoid needing to rely on exceptional skill, and more accurately find out what the range is that is still acceptable. Asking another friend and CFI, they said that every pilot has different strengths and weaknesses, and along those lines will get worse at different areas faster. So figure out what skills you lose first, and when, and work on keeping those up at the frequency required.
 
I fly a 150 VFR, for fun and very rarely transportation. I recently had 18 months of no flying while dealing with medical and maintenance issues. Went for a flight review in a Cherokee with a young instructor I'd never met. We did basically the PP maneuvers and a few landings and it felt very comfortable. Same when I was able to get back in the 150. I guess all that to say, for a simple plane, in simple airspace, with generous consideration for conditions, I think you can be both safe and proficient with very few hours per year, if you're actively and intentionally working on both every flight.
 
psween said:
I fly a 150 VFR, for fun and very rarely transportation. I recently had 18 months of no flying while dealing with medical and maintenance issues. Went for a flight review in a Cherokee with a young instructor I'd never met. We did basically the PP maneuvers and a few landings and it felt very comfortable. Same when I was able to get back in the 150. I guess all that to say, for a simple plane, in simple airspace, with generous consideration for conditions, I think you can be both safe and proficient with very few hours per year, if you're actively and intentionally working on both every flight.
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Safe maybe. Proficient depends on a personal definition. Mine might be landing a 150 gently nose high on the upwind wheel in a 15 knot crosswind while lighting a cigarette. Then put down the downwind wheel and finally the nose. Total distance maybe 500’. Each to his or her own.
 
Baked Potato said:
After a few years with no change, I've discovered at this point in my life that my pattern of frequently going a month (or two) without being AGL is inescapable.

My non-aviation career, family, weather (Mid-Atlantic), and the maintenance realities of the fleet at the flight school all collude together to make cancellations and long calendar blocks the norm instead of the exception. It also doesn't help that the airfield is 45 minutes away.

I do have a good (unofficial) sim setup at home, which helps me plan and practice navigating and the VFR sight picture for upcoming jaunts, checklist items, instrument scans, patterns at unfamiliar airports, and emergency procedures, but does not help with talking to ATC or situational awareness IRL.

I imagine my struggles with this are not unique on this board. What are your thoughts on the reality of wanting to be a safe pilot who can likely only fly a couple dozen hours in a year? As I grow older and more risk averse, sadly I'm beginning to think these two things are not compatible.
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Flight proficiency is fundamentally a matter of mental preparedness rather than purely physical skill. Unlike activities such as weightlifting or running - where performance is largely constrained by physical conditioning (though even there mental state becomes critical at elite levels) - safe flying depends primarily on judgment, awareness, and decision-making. From this perspective, it is entirely plausible to maintain an acceptable margin of flight safety with as little as 24 hours of flight time per year, provided those hours are complemented by a substantially greater investment in studying, reflecting on, and discussing flight procedures and safety. Time in the cockpit is only one component of proficiency. For some pilots, it may be the only one, but it doesn't have to be.
 
This will be highly individualized. For a VFR-only pilot flying for fun in the local area, you may be the type of person who retains enough physical and mental skills to be safe flying infrequently. Flying cross-country trips ups the ante a bit, especially if you are flying rentals for which you may not have good familiarity with the avionics suite in front of you, or know well the flight planning characteristics of the plane. Owning your own plane makes those considerations a little easier to deal with. Flying IFR? Nope. Get some recurrent training and/or IPC.
 
Also depends on the individual make up of the person, how is their SA, risk tolerance, humility, IQ, etc Some stuff that can not be trained
 
Jimmy Doolittle, in his autobiography, tells how he got moved to a management position, and once his flying decreased to less than 25 hours a month he no longer felt proficient or safe. So he quit flying. That's 300 hours a year. That seems high, but that was his opinion. And we're talking Jimmy Doolittle here!
 
RussR said:
Jimmy Doolittle, in his autobiography, tells how he got moved to a management position, and once his flying decreased to less than 25 hours a month he no longer felt proficient or safe. So he quit flying. That's 300 hours a year. That seems high, but that was his opinion. And we're talking Jimmy Doolittle here!
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Keep in mind you’re talking about a guy who apparently considered flying a high powered conventional gear fighter though an aerobatic routine with two broken ankles to be a necessary level of proficiency. ;)
 
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