How often I should fly to stay sharp.

nickporter15

nickporter15

Pre-Flight
Joined
Aug 24, 2014
Messages
32
Display Name
Display name:
Nick
I am a newly licensed private pilot with around 55 hours. I passed my checkride about a month ago now, and went up for my first first flight last week (3 weeks after checkride). I flew over my house and did a couple maneuvers and quickly noticed I was a little rusty. How often do you think I should be flying to stay sharp?
 
How often are you able to fly?
Fly as often as you can.

If you are going 3 weeks between flights, that is a bit long at 55 hours IMO
If you can break it up into shorter more frequent flights, that is better than doing 1 long flight every 3 weeks.

You are the only one that can answer the question for sure though.
 
More is better. I logged 200 hours in 8 years. But in the last 12 months I've logged 100 hours. Yes, I can tell the difference. I totally respect the pros ...
 
My most nervous takeoff was after my longest break of 45 days of no flying...Kept thinking..."crap, hope I remember how to do everything!"

...more so than my first solo!
 
It's really subjective. I had a layoff of 17 years. I got back behind the yoke in a plane type I was familiar with, and within 20 minutes, it was like I never left. The CFI complimented me and didn't believe I hadn't flow for that long.

My daughter is a pro gymnast. She loses muscle memory, and skill level if she takes off more than a few days between training days.
 
Just for reference.
I am a new pilot (just under a year)
I managed to cram in 200 hours in that year + year of training

If I go more than 3 weeks w/o flying, I can tell my confidience is lower as I am taking the runway. It comes back quickly but I notice it.

I notice it didn't take long for my night flying confidence to degrade. I flew at night a lot last year w/o thinking twice about it. This year, just enough to stay current so bare minimum. Last time I flew at night I wasn't digging it at all.

I would guess there are people that have a ton of hours or have been pilots for many years that can take longer breaks from flying and not be as affected.

So your threshold for how frequent you need to fly may change as you grow too.
 
jordane93 said:
Everyone is different. Nobody can really answer that question except you.
Click to expand...
I'll challenge that... and then agree. ;)

An answer is "as often as you can".

It also matters what you do and what you fly when you fly. The more challenging the the flights, the sharper you will be.

It's probably why working towards another rating or certificate is so often the choice.

Everyone is different...

...in terms of how often they fly, what they fly and what they do when flying. To stay sharp and get sharper you have to do as much as you can.

Nobody can really answer that question except you.
 
I try to get up every few days. At least once a week, if I can.
 
I took a 4 month break in my training and within an hour of flying could fly the PTS.
My CFI had just flown with someone who hadn't flown in two months but had a little more experience than me and said he was gonna need several more lessons to get back to solo proficiency.
Point being everyone is different.
 
Cowboy your the extreme exception.

I can only budget 2 - 3 hours per month for now. I fly every other weekend. Every other flight is practice the PTS flying stuff to keep my skills sharp. The in between is sight seeing with pax.
 
I have 250 hours right now and I try to fly every week if I can. Longer than 2 weeks and I start feeling less sharp. I will say that the more experience I get, the longer I feel comfortable going between flights. When I passed my PPL check ride, I felt off if I went longer than a few days. I would suggest at 55 hours that you try to fly at least every week if possible and see how comfortable you feel.
 
evapilotaz said:
Cowboy your the extreme exception.
Click to expand...

It felt weird. The plane was a Grumman AA5 with castering nose gear. I taxied out and tried not to over control it, and did only fair. I said to the CFI he should stay on the rudders with me just in case. Lined up, slow throttle advance, and a few stabs with the feet, just like old times. When we got to the landing, I made a squeeker on both gears. He asked for a go around, and I did the same thing the second time. Really thought I was going to need a few hours, but the actual plane handling was easy. New air space regs was not.
 
Depends not only on the individual, but also what plane the individual is flying. In a 15x, 17x, 18x, etc one could go much longer than a hot plane such as my Lancair.
 
I try to fly every week. That's much better for the engine too, and since this annual I had the classic Lycoming camshaft problems that likely started with corrosion from before I bought the plane I'm acutely aware of exactly how expensive NOT flying can be when you're an owner pilot. I also notice a difference in my flying skills when it's been 2-3 weeks instead of one or less.
 
I've got around 1200 hours over 14 years (300 hrs in tailwheel RVs) and I don't like to go longer than 2 weeks between flights. The "rust" builds up quickly after that, especially for landing this little RV-6. Funny thing though, is that if I do go several weeks without flying, then my very first landing in the RV-6 afterwards is almost always a perfect "greaser" but my next couple after that one always stink. :mad2: :lol:
 
docmirror said:
It's really subjective. I had a layoff of 17 years. I got back behind the yoke in a plane type I was familiar with, and within 20 minutes, it was like I never left. The CFI complimented me and didn't believe I hadn't flow for that long.

My daughter is a pro gymnast. She loses muscle memory, and skill level if she takes off more than a few days between training days.
Click to expand...

evapilotaz said:
Cowboy your the extreme exception.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. I did the same thing three times after layoffs of 5, 3, and 5 years each. But I will readily admit that that was just basic aircraft-handling stuff. In each case I had forgotten a lot of FAR stuff and there were many new changes that I needed to learn. But I was able to make turns and land and do most of the PTS stuff without much trouble.

I will add that IFR knowledge and skills degrade quickly for me, but then I am relatively new to all those procedures.
 
As a new pilot, I would make an effort to fly at least once every two weeks for some period of time. Even doing touch-and-gos is fine, just something that keeps it going as you build time and experience. best would be to do some $100 hamburgers. Try to make sure it's 50nm or more so you build XC time towards your instrument.
 
petrolero said:
Not necessarily. I did the same thing three times after layoffs of 5, 3, and 5 years each. But I will readily admit that that was just basic aircraft-handling stuff. In each case I had forgotten a lot of FAR stuff and there were many new changes that I needed to learn. But I was able to make turns and land and do most of the PTS stuff without much trouble.

I will add that IFR knowledge and skills degrade quickly for me, but then I am relatively new to all those procedures.
Click to expand...

I agree. As far as feeling "sharp", I'd probably need to fly once a week or so. However, I had hiatuses of a few years in between flights and had no issues maintaining the aircraft to PTS standards. Was I comfortable with all of my skills? No. Was I safe enough to run around the local area VFR like usual? Absolutely. I wouldn't be jumping in the bugsmasher on a 500 mile XC in low visibility, but doing a local burger-run is perfectly fine. Each person will need to know their limitations and apply them appropriately to the type of flying they intend to do.

I don't do any cloud busting, so IFR skills are nil, lol.
 
It depends. I went through a few year period shortly after my ticket where due to time and money I went into "skills maintenance mode". I only flew 12-15 a year, but was able to maintain reasonable proficiency. That was because every flight was between .6 and 1.1 hours, and about half involved just manuevers, slow flight, stalls, etc., and pattern work (practice area was close). The other half was typically taking friends for rides. That meant a flight every two to three weeks. Later I was able to increase my hours by flying as a safety pilot to more experienced members in a flying club I joined, which was helpful as well.

During my "skills maintainence mode" I logged next to no XC time, but I did keep myself feeling reasonably comfortable in the cockpit. For example, .6 hours doesn't seem like a lot, but when its spent staying in the pattern doing x-wind landing after x-wind landing, you get a fair amount of acquired confidence for the money and time invested.
 
It's all relative. This should work for everyone:

* If you feel rusty - You need to fly more often than you have been.
* If you have less experience, you'll need to fly more than you will when you have more experience.
* If your experience is mostly recent, you'll need to fly less than if your experience was mostly long ago.
* The faster and more difficult to fly your airplane is, the more often you'll need to fly.

I would say that at the stage you're at, you'll probably feel at least a little rusty if you don't get up once a week for a while, and once every other week at least for a much longer while. I have over 1200 hours plus over 300 in type, and I've been flying ~ 150 hours a year recently, but hadn't flown in about 3 weeks until the other day, and I made a stupid (though not dangerous) mistake. Were I flying a simpler airplane I wouldn't have made the same mistake.

Excuse me, I need to go fly now. :D
 
As mentioned the more the better.

I would fly every day if I could, but that's not practical.

If I don't have any where to go or anyone to go with, I will grab the plane and go find somewhere to do cross wind landing practice for an hour.

I had be averaging about 4-6 hours a month since passing my test, but managed 8 hours in the last 3 weekends !.

I feel less rusty now if I don't fly for 3 weeks then I did if I skipped a week during training.. more experience, more muscle memory, more knowledge and a lot more space in the wallet :wink2:
 
Seanaldinho said:
I took a 4 month break in my training and within an hour of flying could fly the PTS.
My CFI had just flown with someone who hadn't flown in two months but had a little more experience than me and said he was gonna need several more lessons to get back to solo proficiency.
Point being everyone is different.
Click to expand...

That guy was likely never all that great to begin with. I saw tons of those examples at my old job on flight reviews and aircraft checkouts and it kinda makes me shiver a bit to know that some of those types are out there flying their families around and what not...
 
Sharp? Quite often. Like at least once a week. Sharpest possible would be every day.

Competent. Once a month.
 
GCA319 said:
That guy was likely never all that great to begin with. I saw tons of those examples at my old job on flight reviews and aircraft checkouts and it kinda makes me shiver a bit to know that some of those types are out there flying their families around and what not...
Click to expand...

I was still a student at the time (took my check ride about a week after the above story), I believe the other fellow is still working towards his. This occurred back in August.
 
I'm happy and comfortable if I go once every 3 weeks. I back it up with at least 1-2 hours of simming a week at home, though.
 
Once a week,seems to keep me comfortable. Now that I'm retired I try to fly twice a week.Enjoy lying to different airports and diners.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Just for reference.
I am a new pilot (just under a year)
I managed to cram in 200 hours in that year + year of training

If I go more than 3 weeks w/o flying, I can tell my confidience is lower as I am taking the runway. It comes back quickly but I notice it.

I notice it didn't take long for my night flying confidence to degrade. I flew at night a lot last year w/o thinking twice about it. This year, just enough to stay current so bare minimum. Last time I flew at night I wasn't digging it at all.

I would guess there are people that have a ton of hours or have been pilots for many years that can take longer breaks from flying and not be as affected.

So your threshold for how frequent you need to fly may change as you grow too.
Click to expand...

My night flying "digging it" was inversely proportional to the time I spent on PoA.
 
Brad Z said:
It depends. I went through a few year period shortly after my ticket where due to time and money I went into "skills maintenance mode". I only flew 12-15 a year, but was able to maintain reasonable proficiency. That was because every flight was between .6 and 1.1 hours, and about half involved just manuevers, slow flight, stalls, etc., and pattern work (practice area was close). The other half was typically taking friends for rides. That meant a flight every two to three weeks. Later I was able to increase my hours by flying as a safety pilot to more experienced members in a flying club I joined, which was helpful as well.

During my "skills maintainence mode" I logged next to no XC time, but I did keep myself feeling reasonably comfortable in the cockpit. For example, .6 hours doesn't seem like a lot, but when its spent staying in the pattern doing x-wind landing after x-wind landing, you get a fair amount of acquired confidence for the money and time invested.
Click to expand...

I did nearly the opposite. When I was newer, I always had somewhere to go and someone in the airplane. So there was no opportunity to practice maneuvers. One really does need to practice both ends of the spectrum to stay sharp.
 
At least once a month if you afford the time and money.
 
Jaybird180 said:
I did nearly the opposite. When I was newer, I always had somewhere to go and someone in the airplane. So there was no opportunity to practice maneuvers. One really does need to practice both ends of the spectrum to stay sharp.
Click to expand...

True, although often the (three) hundred dollar hamburger runs are done in non-challenging weather, out and back the same day using GPS direct hardly present a challenge. Buth then again, they're also the fun flights that we can bring along passengers.

I'm always most worried of the guy who flew 15 hours all year, with one of those flights being the 8 hour flight to Oshkosh. While a long cross country is a great experience, it's the other stuff that gets rusty if not practiced.
 
nickporter15 said:
I am a newly licensed private pilot with around 55 hours. I passed my checkride about a month ago now, and went up for my first first flight last week (3 weeks after checkride). I flew over my house and did a couple maneuvers and quickly noticed I was a little rusty. How often do you think I should be flying to stay sharp?
Click to expand...

I tell my wife that it's absolutely critical that I fly daily.:lol:

I fly about 80 hours a year and try to get up weekly.
 
nickporter15 said:
I am a newly licensed private pilot with around 55 hours. I passed my checkride about a month ago now, and went up for my first first flight last week (3 weeks after checkride). I flew over my house and did a couple maneuvers and quickly noticed I was a little rusty. How often do you think I should be flying to stay sharp?
Click to expand...

You should be flying minimum twice a week until you hit 100hrs if you want your skill set to settle in. There is a reason insurance rates drop dramatically at 100hrs in type regardless the type. If you can only afford an hour a week, make 2x.5hr flights, or one 45m and one 15, heck, if money is real tight just do 2 10-15 minute flights, just a quick 2-3 laps around the pattern breaks the loss cycle.
 
Henning said:
You should be flying minimum twice a week until you hit 100hrs if you want your skill set to settle in. There is a reason insurance rates drop dramatically at 100hrs in type regardless the type. If you can only afford an hour a week, make 2x.5hr flights, or one 45m and one 15, heck, if money is real tight just do 2 10-15 minute flights, just a quick 2-3 laps around the pattern breaks the loss cycle.
Click to expand...

I would do just that if driving to the airport + removing and installing the darned cover wasn't such a PITA.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top