How often to fly after getting pilot's license

N918KT

N918KT

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So I have done a couple flights so far solo after receiving my sport pilot license.

Right now I am thinking about 6 hours per month or 4 flights per month. Maybe at least 2 flights per month.

I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?

Once you guys got your private or sport, how often did you fly afterwards?
 
N918KT said:
So I have done a couple flights so far solo after receiving my sport pilot license.

Right now I am thinking about 6 hours per month or 4 flights per month. Maybe at least 2 flights per month.

I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?

Once you guys got your private or sport, how often did you fly afterwards?
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I just want to comment that I think it's cool that someone who has been on PoA for 13 YEARS and hundreds of messages just got their license. Way to stick with it and reach that milestone!
 
Ed Haywood said:
More initially. Once a week would be a great target. After 6 months or a year you'll know what you are comfortable with. After I got my PPL, I tried to fly once a month for a while and it never felt right.
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Yea that is what I'm doing now. One flight per week or if not at least every 2 weeks. I know I am still a low-time pilot about 190 hours, so I just want to do what I could to avoid the traps low-time pilot get into and fly as much as I could afford. Once I hit 500 hours I should be safe statistically speaking right?
 
N918KT said:
Yea that is what I'm doing now. One flight per week or if not at least every 2 weeks. I know I am still a low-time pilot about 190 hours, so I just want to do what I could to avoid the traps low-time pilot get into and fly as much as I could afford. Once I hit 500 hours I should be safe statistically speaking right?
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I think statistically speaking there’s actually a surge in accident rate at about 500 hours, but I can’t put my fingers on the stats now to confirm or deny.

One thing I would suggest is flying with an instructor a couple of times a year to get a second set of eyes on what you’re doing, and to make sure bad habits aren’t creeping in.
 
Checking my logbook, looks like 33 flights in the 9 months after earning my PPC. That comes out to a flight about 8.5 days.

(I didn't use a full year because I started by instrument training after 9 months, so that skews the numbers a bit.)
 
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MauleSkinner said:
I think statistically speaking there’s actually a surge in accident rate at about 500 hours, but I can’t put my fingers on the stats now to confirm or deny
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There was a discussion of this with Paul Craig (author of "The Killing Zone") on a recent Sporty's Pilots Discretion podcast. Craig indicates the danger highest between 50 and 350 hours.

And yes, like you, I've heard the 500 number too.
 
I was working towards my instrument,so I tried to fly at least 1 a week.
 
172andyou said:
I just want to comment that I think it's cool that someone who has been on PoA for 13 YEARS and hundreds of messages just got their license. Way to stick with it and reach that milestone!
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Absolutely!!!!
 
Get a good flight simulator setup - that can help, depending on what skills you think are perishing during down time
 
N918KT said:
So I have done a couple flights so far solo after receiving my sport pilot license.

Right now I am thinking about 6 hours per month or 4 flights per month. Maybe at least 2 flights per month.

I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?

Once you guys got your private or sport, how often did you fly afterwards?
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Congratulations on the license.
IMO I think once a week minimum to keep learning.
I rented at least once week at first.
Then I found a 172 to fly from a older friend who owned multiple planes and lost his medical at like 82. Most of his planes were just sitting waiting to be put back together except this 172, he wanted to keep it flying because he was hoping to get his medical back. Sadly he never did before he passed.

He rented a hangar at the local airport so folks/pilot friends didn't have fly out of his dragstrip. It was a little tricky getting into and out of.
Turned out I was the only pilot flying it. I started flying it almost everyday.

I started flying it at about 200 hrs and learned so much on my own flying it. I was too nervous at first to take anyone with me.
I bought it from him at about 6 months in.
I don't fly as much as I used to but still fly it couple times at week.
I once flew 27 days in a row and 56 days in a row is my personal best.

My wife and I just got back from the airport, pulled the plane out of the hangar, got in and the front tire went flat! Used a jack and dolly to get it back into the hangar. That's a job for tomorrow to repair the tire/tube. First time in years I have been broke down.
 
Salty said:
I disagree. Save your time and money for flying an airplane. Sim is fine entertainment, but it is not the same.
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Works for me :dunno:

Of course it's not the "same" but there are many aspects that are replicated very well, and are a fraction of the cost of real-world hours.
 
Baked Potato said:
Works for me :dunno:

Of course it's not the "same" but there are many aspects that are replicated very well, and are a fraction of the cost of real-world hours.
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And since there is generally no biofeedback and controls can be funky, it can greatly increase you hand flying scan.
 
N918KT said:
Yea that is what I'm doing now. One flight per week or if not at least every 2 weeks. I know I am still a low-time pilot about 190 hours, so I just want to do what I could to avoid the traps low-time pilot get into and fly as much as I could afford.
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Unless you're trying to hone something specific, try not to make it the same flight repeated week after week.
 
I’ll take a different take on this. Fly as often as you can within your personal go/no go limits. Gradually increase your experience range. Maintain muscle memory. But most of all, keep your mind in aviation. Read all accident reports, maintenance issues on all planes, watch all weather reports. Your development of good judgment will be more valuable than anything in the air. Keeping checklists in memory too. The actual skills aren’t always the things that keep us safe. Actually they are pretty automatic. But poor judgment and over estimating your risks or abilities can creep in and that is the biggest risk. Many accidents start before the drive to the airport. And many weather accidents have perfect weather the day after when they pick up the pieces. Aviation is your religion.
 
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Congrats on your new ticket!!

Suggestion: This is learning process and you need to begin from a relatively safe spot. Consider the number of hours per month you were flying during your most recent training prior to your checkride and try to maintain that same pace at first. That's a rate that has already been proven to maintain your proficiency well enough to meet checkride standards.

Over a little time, you'll find that weather, aircraft availability, and life in general will get in the way of staying with that rate and you'll notice when your skills begin to degrade, and you'll learn how to adjust your personal minimums to a more conservative level when you've been away for a while.
 
Congrats! Others have spoken to the numbers really well. I'll bring up two things on content that might help.

First is from my CFI, when I asked about maintaining skills. More or less, he suggested that everybody has different things that they took longer to learn or that you know fade quicker. So make an effort to spend a bit higher percentage of time working on those things. I knew what they were for me, asked him, and he said "yep, that's you".

Second is online training trip for shooting from Jerry Miculek's daughter, who tossed out the thought that you should "practice what you hate." I think it's a good observation, because typically the things you don't like you're not comfortable with, perhaps because you haven't done them enough. We do what we like, we get better at it, so we like it more, it's a circle. That builds skills, but it can leave behind the weak areas. I think it can apply to flying and other areas as well.
 
N918KT said:
So I have done a couple flights so far solo after receiving my sport pilot license.

Right now I am thinking about 6 hours per month or 4 flights per month. Maybe at least 2 flights per month.

I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?

Once you guys got your private or sport, how often did you fly.
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It’s not all about how often as what you do when you fly. You can drive your car all you want, but if you never parallel park you won’t be able to when needed.
 
Albany Tom said:
Second is online training trip for shooting from Jerry Miculek's daughter, who tossed out the thought that you should "practice what you hate." I think it's a good observation, because typically the things you don't like you're not comfortable with, perhaps because you haven't done them enough. We do what we like, we get better at it, so we like it more, it's a circle. That builds skills, but it can leave behind the weak areas. I think it can apply to flying and other areas as well.
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That’s an interesting perspective. I’ll add the thought. “Don’t refuse to practice when an opportunity presents itself.” If you were planning to fly today, but the weather isn’t ideal (wind is stronger than you’re comfortable with clouds or visibility a little lower), don’t cancel…get some practice. Take an instructor if necessary, but fly.

As an example, when I was a fairly new pilot, I started working ground crew for an aerial sprayer. If the winds were under 10 or 15 knots, I was working. I only got to fly when it was windy, and I did. Oddly enough, it seemed like the stronger the winds, the further they were from runway heading. But I’m pretty decent at crosswinds in a taildragger.
 
Lawson_Stone said:
I think that's great as well. I"ve been on here a pretty good while and I'm likely going to start taking lessons toward the PPL this summer. Fingers crossed!
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If you haven't already, get a discovery flight in. If you find yourself smiling uncontrollably 1-2 hours later, it might help confirm that flying is for you.
 
I felt sick when the instructor pointed the plane toward the ground to land during my discovery/pioneer flight. It took me at least a couple hours for that feeling to fade.
It took about a week to decide to go back and take flying lessons. I still felt sick during bumpy days until I got a few hours. Luckily I never barfed in a plane.
 
Albany Tom said:
Congrats! Others have spoken to the numbers really well. I'll bring up two things on content that might help.

First is from my CFI, when I asked about maintaining skills. More or less, he suggested that everybody has different things that they took longer to learn or that you know fade quicker. So make an effort to spend a bit higher percentage of time working on those things. I knew what they were for me, asked him, and he said "yep, that's you".

Second is online training trip for shooting from Jerry Miculek's daughter, who tossed out the thought that you should "practice what you hate." I think it's a good observation, because typically the things you don't like you're not comfortable with, perhaps because you haven't done them enough. We do what we like, we get better at it, so we like it more, it's a circle. That builds skills, but it can leave behind the weak areas. I think it can apply to flying and other areas as well.
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I hate pulling the airplane in and out of the hangar. I just call a line guy to help.lot easier than practicing.
 
Thank you guys for the advice, honestly if getting a medical and money was not going to be an issue, I would look at going for my PPL to fly at night and an instrument rating. I tasted flight and I only want more of it.

Maybe at some point I may look into gliders.
 
N918KT said:
Thank you guys for the advice, honestly if getting a medical and money was not going to be an issue, I would look at going for my PPL to fly at night and an instrument rating. I tasted flight and I only want more of it.

Maybe at some point I may look into gliders.
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Life is long and many options will present themselves over time.
 
N918KT said:
So I have done a couple flights so far solo after receiving my sport pilot license.

Right now I am thinking about 6 hours per month or 4 flights per month. Maybe at least 2 flights per month.

I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?

Once you guys got your private or sport, how often did you fly afterwards?
Click to expand...
I don't know what you're feeling, but after I passed my checkride, I experienced a strong "what now" for a long time. The reason for flying was no longer there. I would come out, practice basic skills, make some cross countries to interesting places, but it didn't feel like a real reason to fly.

It's fun. Just pick some place and go somewhere.
 
bflynn said:
I don't know what you're feeling, but after I passed my checkride, I experienced a strong "what now" for a long time. The reason for flying was no longer there. I would come out, practice basic skills, make some cross countries to interesting places, but it didn't feel like a real reason to fly.

It's fun. Just pick some place and go somewhere.
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That's what I'm feeling a little bit. I'm starting off at doing some local short hops for $100 hamburger food runs. And maybe simply just flying to another nearby airport and back.
 
N918KT said:
So I have done a couple flights so far solo after receiving my sport pilot license.

Right now I am thinking about 6 hours per month or 4 flights per month. Maybe at least 2 flights per month.

I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?

Once you guys got your private or sport, how often did you fly afterwards?
Click to expand...

Instead of flying for the sake of proficiency, make a trip to somewhere, overnight if possible. I did a bunch of such trips after my private pilot certificate, and that made the flights feel a lot more purposeful.
 
In the ~1yr after I got my private, I flew about 4 hours and then took 20 years off. Don't do that. As others have said, fly as much as you can afford to. Start finding excuses to fly. For me it was trying out barbecue joints in all the small towns I'd never drive to.

And do take an instructor up every so often to make sure that you're maintaining and reinforcing good skills. After a little while, start thinking about your next rating. Whatever it is, learning new skills will improve your existing ones as well.
 
I became friends with the standards check airmen pilot next to my hangar.
He has been flying 44 years, 25K hours.
Learn a lot from him when we fly together. I am very lucky to have met him.
 
bflynn said:
I don't know what you're feeling, but after I passed my checkride, I experienced a strong "what now" for a long time. The reason for flying was no longer there.
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I experienced the same feeling, so I started to gamify my flying by checking off experience requirements for 61.65(d) and 61.129(a) despite never having intended to go any further than Private-ASEL. If you're going to fly for proficiency anyway, why not earn another certificate or some WINGS credits along the way?
 
Baked Potato said:
Works for me :dunno:

Of course it's not the "same" but there are many aspects that are replicated very well, and are a fraction of the cost of real-world hours.
Click to expand...

For sure... during the 10-day instrument PIC "crash course" my instructor, following each day of flying, came to the house with his portable analog desktop flight simulator. Got to shoot 77 approaches (including NDB). Practiced it at home, then flew it the next day.

For me, the simulator was an invaluable and important learning tool. Verbal instruction was noise and ATC distraction free while learning the 5-T's (turn, time, twist, throttle talk), and everything else needed for building a solid foundation in instrument flying.

Complete with cookie trails, this desktop unit really helped comprehension of wind effects, intercepts, crab angles and many of the nuances of instrument flight that would be harder to grasp and much more expensive to learn while flying around between airports.
 
Glider pilot. Which is seasonal in the upper Midwest USA.

First season (working on certification and Bronze) : ~6 months ~ 70 launches (auto and aero) ~ 30 hours, half solo.
..... Lots of short, low, auto tows to practice breaks and landings mixed with higher release aero tows.
Second season (working on Silver): ~ 6 months ~ 50 launches (auto and aero) ~ 40 hours, 95% solo.
..... More of a mix, many short, low, auto tows to practice breaks and landings, many longer aero tows (some for altitude or distance).
Third (ongoing) season (working on Silver): ~ 1 month, 7 launches (4 auto, 3 aero) ~ 6.75 hours (~6 solo).
..... Multiple practice flights plus one 5+ hour flight with 5,000+ ft and multiple 3,000+ ft climbs.
 
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N918KT said:
I am wondering how often should I fly to maintain proficiency?
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I'm with the others on trying to fly at least every weekend for now. We're getting well into the Spring with Summer and Fall Wx ahead. Sure, there will be some weekends you can't fly, but take advantage of every one you can. Take advantage of all your friends that can now go FLYING!! with you to some lake, town or just an Airport hundreds of miles away for lunch and... they can split the cost! Be sure to emphasize the GO FLYING!!! when you talk to them. :cool:

The Fall may have lots of gloomy days, but once Winter hits, you'll still be able to do a fair amount of flying in the NE, so that will still keep you current. You'll just have to be watching the long range Wx and see when those winter highs with often bright blue skies will be coming through. (Well... as long as the Wx isn't what you guys had last year!:D)
 
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