How to get started after long layoff?

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gbullman

Filing Flight Plan
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Feb 14, 2023
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gbullman
I earned my private license in 1982 and was quite active until we had our first child. In total I have a little over 150 hours with my last flight as PIC in 1986.

I recently updated my information with the FAA and have obtained a new certificate so I'm ready to start the process of getting current again.

How does one go about selecting an FBO / Flight School to ensure the best experience? I've been going through AOPA resources and that helps some but would really like to get some experience based feedback and recommendations.

I expect to be doing my flying out of Essex County Airport in NJ, so any recommendations located there are appreciated.

I have been spending time with AOPA's Rusty Pilot materials, what are other recommendations to best get up to speed on what has changed since I last flew.

Thanks in advance,
Gary
 
Done a bunch of these lately. GO FLY! Seriously, get the jitters out of the way, your path will become clear.

If the instructor seems at odds, walk away. If he smiles and says “let’s go commit aviation!”, scurry to the plane!

1) one guy 48 years! Took 18 hours..
2) another guy, 25… was ready in half an hour.
3) you? Won’t know till ya fly!
 
Good points! As of now my plan is to set up some interview / discussion time with one or more of the promising FBOs / Flight Schools and see where it goes from there. My rough going in estimate is I'm going to need 8 to 10 hours of instruction before someone will sign me off. My actual flying skills should be pretty good, I do a lot of RC model flying and my experience in the past is that carries over reasonably well to full scale. Going in I see my biggest challenges as; learning and getting comfortable with EFB resources, radio communications and being comfortable with the airspace around here.

Busy weekend coming up, hoping to at least have some discussions next week.
 
I just looked, isn't there 6 flight schools on the field? If so wow. How lucky are you? I'd take a look and see what planes they have available to rent for reasonable money and go there. Fly with a instructor until he signs you off. Heck you could get signed off by a couple three schools and rent their planes when available?
Good luck and like said, Go Fly!
 
gbullman said:
Good points! As of now my plan is to set up some interview / discussion time with one or more of the promising FBOs / Flight Schools and see where it goes from there. My rough going in estimate is I'm going to need 8 to 10 hours of instruction before someone will sign me off. My actual flying skills should be pretty good, I do a lot of RC model flying and my experience in the past is that carries over reasonably well to full scale. Going in I see my biggest challenges as; learning and getting comfortable with EFB resources, radio communications and being comfortable with the airspace around here.

Busy weekend coming up, hoping to at least have some discussions next week.
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I encourage you to throughly review a private pilot ground school. That could be enrolling in a ground school or purchasing a used video course. You have forgotten too much and a lot has changed in 37 years.
 
I had a 9 year hiatus (though now long ago). I was fortunate that the airspace classification change was just prior to the hiatus, so I learned that. More recently the shift to GPS and EFBs is a big change. So, you've got a lot of academics to catch up on. You are definitely going to need either a ground school or some substantial self study to catch up. Good news is today there are all kinds of options for that: videos, web based training, etc. Pick what suits you, and go for it.

An instructor my be able to help, but unless you find an instructor that has been around since the early to mid 80s, they are not going to know what gaps you have in knowledge.
 
FlyBoyAndy said:
Don't forget about your medical.
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This, I did this about 6 years ago, came back after 23 years. I had about 180 hours or so when I stopped, same story, new kid, money tight. I jumped in before my medical because I knew mine would require a review. So I took a few lessons, knew I wanted to come back, scheduled my medical, and got it about 2 weeks after the medical, no strings. I didn't care about hours, I was having fun flying, I specifically told the instructor I wanted to be comfortable flying cross countries to unfamiliar airports when I was done with him. I finished with him, started flying Cirrus, got my instrument, that was all done within a year after I started, been flying ever since. I'm going on a 2 day cross country tomorrow to FL from NH. Looking forward to it. So git it done, then get your instrument rating and fly!!!
 
You'll find you're very much not alone. My break was about 12 years, same reasons. You need a flight review (and medical) to make the FAA happy. That works effectively as a syllabus. I asked to go up for a mock FR to get an inventory of my shortcomings and things came back much quicker than I expected, I had the flight review in about 6 hours, but did some more dual to get confidence up. I was about 15 hours before I felt comfortable.
 
3rd class medical is on my list, found 2 AMEs pretty close by so expect to see one of them.

I plan to do a fair amount of ground school, studying activities before going up in the air. What I’ve reviewed so far has reminded me what makes up the workload of a pilot and I don’t want to be struggling with the other items and getting used to flying the airplane at the same time.

I’m pretty patient going into this, after all I’ve waited all these years a few more weeks or even months is not that big a deal.

Thank you for the suggestions and encouragement.
 
Take the AOPA flight review course test on the internet. I went back to the flight school that I used before I took the hiatus. Don’t be surprised if they try to give you an instructor that is close to moving to the airlines. Check with the school to see. If they have a study test to get you ready for the airplane. Get a current copy of the FAR/AIM. Good luck
 
I was in your position a couple of years ago. The biggest pita was airspace. It finally dawned on me that as long as your personal minimums were 3k & 10 vis, a lot of those issues melted away, since most rings around uncontrolled airports were to separate VFR from IFR in marginal VFR conditions. Don’t fly marginal VFR & you’re goldenI watched a lot of YT vids explaining airspace & Fly8MA finally clicked with me.

I caution everyone who is older & has not had a medical in years, be careful how you go. The rule is: if you submit the online form & get a physical, and if you fail, then you’re out of flying…period. However, if you never ask the question OFFICIALLY, then you can at least fly LSA on a valid state driver’s license. The work around here is to schedule an “advisory” appt with an AME. If you pass, then fill out the online form at the FAA & reschedule a real medical exam. (Yes, you’ll pay for two appointments).

if the medical examiner has doubts during your first visit, or if there are meds or past conditions that OKC has to pass on, then you still have the LSA route open. Also keep in mind, SAs from OKC are painfully slow. In the case of surgeries, OKC often insists on hospital records, surgeon reports, copies of x-rays & MRIs for any major surgery within 2 yrs. I’d had a double knee replacement, an emergency gallbladder removal, & cataract surgery within the previous 2 yrs. Also, around 60 they start wanting ECGs.

So I built my own LSA kit instead of chasing paper.
 
I took a friend up last week who hadn’t been since the 70s. I’m in DC area so we flew through the SFRA.

When we landed he said “that’s nothing like when he flew before. You can’t get lost! I spent all my time back then looking for landmarks, now everything is on the panel. I almost never looked at the panel. All the radio calls diminish enjoyment though“

fwiw

depending on the plane, you might have adsb, carbon monoxide alarm, GPS, ForeFlight, Bluetooth and WiFi connections, engine monitoring, mandatory flight plans, etc.
 
I returned to flying about 18 months ago after a 20 year layoff.

Visit each school. Talk to an instructor or two, and it should be one that is available to take you on as a student. Look at their planes, do they look in good shape? Not perfect, but reasonable.. Listen to your guy reaction. If things don't feel right, move on.

What I did was schedule a dual flight. I told the instructor I was working on a Flight Review after a long layoff. I had no expectations of how many hours/flights it would take. So we would just go fly and see how it works out. So no pressure on either of us. Heck, even if I did not get signed off right away, it was flying. :D

In my case, we flew a 1.3 flight and about an hour of ground review and he signed off my Flight Review. So he felt I was safe. I was not happy with my flying, but it was more of just expecting more out of myself. Nothing bad, just not as precise as I like. But I worked out those kinks and polished my flying over time.

AOPA has a Rusty Pilot course. A very good review of the basic things you knew and will need to know. And it approaches it as a review, so not as long or involved as a PP course.
 
I started flying 15 years ago and quit training because my wife ran up $100k in college debt and we were trying to start a family. By the time we bought a house and paid on her debt, we had 2 kids in daycare, car payment, etc... I got back behind the helm last year. My first flight back was great, but I was flying a Piper Arrow and not used to the faster approach speed and the site picture compared to the C152 I flew in mostly years before. I've been doing solo cross countries lately and I'm definitely back. You just have to get used to the sensations again and remember how not to stall during takeoff and landing.
 
gbullman said:
I earned my private license in 1982 and was quite active until we had our first child. In total I have a little over 150 hours with my last flight as PIC in 1986.

I recently updated my information with the FAA and have obtained a new certificate so I'm ready to start the process of getting current again.

How does one go about selecting an FBO / Flight School to ensure the best experience? I've been going through AOPA resources and that helps some but would really like to get some experience based feedback and recommendations.

I expect to be doing my flying out of Essex County Airport in NJ, so any recommendations located there are appreciated.

I have been spending time with AOPA's Rusty Pilot materials, what are other recommendations to best get up to speed on what has changed since I last flew.

Thanks in advance,
Gary
Click to expand...
Welcome back, Gary. I recently returned after a 13 year layoff. You'll find the plethora of resources that can be found online absolutely incredible. I flew out of KCDW from 2002-2006, and I obtained my IR rating there after starting it at KTEB. Unfortunately, my old flight school, MacDan, no longer exists. However, there is at least one flying club based on field and several flight schools. KCDW is great for getting controlled field experience beneath the NYC Class Bravo, without the insanity found at Teterboro.
 
rhkennerly said:
… I caution everyone who is older & has not had a medical in years, be careful how you go. The rule is: if you submit the online form & get a physical, and if you fail, then you’re out of flying…period. However, if you never ask the question OFFICIALLY, then you can at least fly LSA on a valid state driver’s license. The work around here is to schedule an “advisory” appt with an AME. If you pass, then fill out the online form at the FAA & reschedule a real medical exam. (Yes, you’ll pay for two appointments).

if the medical examiner has doubts during your first visit, or if there are meds or past conditions that OKC has to pass on, then you still have the LSA route open. Also keep in mind, SAs from OKC are painfully slow. In the case of surgeries, OKC often insists on hospital records, surgeon reports, copies of x-rays & MRIs for any major surgery within 2 yrs. I’d had a double knee replacement, an emergency gallbladder removal, & cataract surgery within the previous 2 yrs. Also, around 60 they start wanting ECGs.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice, my plan is to do an “advisory” appointment with an AME to understand what documentation I may need for my medical history. I’m approaching this with ensuring I can get my medical clearance before diving in too far with getting current. Without a medical I won’t be able solo anyway so will dramatically changes my goals of getting back into flying.
 
After almost 20 years away, I did similar studies to catch up then scheduled some 're-familiarizing' flights at different schools.
Gave me a chance to go up for an hour and get a feel for each school and their equipment, and do some flying as well.
After a couple flights I knew which school I wanted to work with and had already begun knocking the rust off.
 
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