Staying safe as a limited weekend warrior

J

JLenzy

Filing Flight Plan
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Mar 11, 2025
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JLenzy
Hi all,

I've recently returned to flying after more than 15 years. I did my private pilot, flew a couple extra trips, and then had to stop at 90 hours due to the costs and going to college. This past year, I've come back to flying and it has brought me so much happiness. I spent a lot of time regaining my theoretical knowledge, which combines the Sporty's BFR class, self-review of the PHAK / AFH, quizzing myself on various internet forums, and then ~3 hours of ground with my instructor. As for flying, we ended up doing four lessons together, totalling 10 hours of tach time. This included flight planning / execution (I got myself an ipad / sentry), emergency procedures, and of course lots of touch-and-goes, stalls, foggle work, etc.

When my instructor signed off the BFR I could tell he didn't feel 'great' - it seemed like he still had a bit of skepticism, even though I had wrapped up all the manuevers within very good margins and am consistent with my landings. I believe his main hesitation came from the fact that I am still falling behind the airplane - e.g. I overflew my descent point when we made an (unplanned) visit to an airfield with a 50-knot tailwind, and am missing my fuel tank switches (Cherokee).

My current goal with flying is to do fun trips with family and friends, but I am keenly aware that I fall in the 'most at risk' category of pilots. To make matters more complicated, I live abroad and realistically only have the opportunity to rent and fly about ~3 months out of the year. My current gameplan is to focus mainly on flying by myself to continue increasing my ADM, situational awareness and general flying skills. I've also set the following personal minimums:
- No night flight
- Max total wind 15, max gust 10, max crosswind component 10
- Minimum ceiling of 3,000 feet and 7SM visibility
- At least 10 hours in the past 90 days in current make/model if carrying pax

I am curious to hear if anyone has any feedback on this situation, and ideas as to how I can improve from a safety perspective. I take both the joy of flight and safety very seriously, and want to make sure I'm doing everything in my power (within reason) to make this a safe hobby for myself and my pax. Thank you!
 
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Frankly even voicing what you are seems to put you in a pretty good category in my opinion.

Personal minimums are good. Use them, stick to them, modify as you gain confidence.

Is there a EAA chapter or other flying group you can join or associate with? Observe others.

Have fun!!
 
Two suggestions... 1 - re-read and edit your post. Hint that one of the numbers isn't right. 2 - ask your instructor what you could improve on, and if there was anything they weren't comfortable with. Should be free to ask that.

And agree with everything Tools said.
 
No reason you can’t fly with a CFI after the BFR. It’s a small bump in cost after renting the plane. Or if your instructor is also a friend, do a burger run.
 
Agreed, when you’re back in country each time, make a cfi flight your first thing, then fly a couple times a week until you leave again


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Agree with all of the above. That switching tanks thing though. That will bite you hard if you don't get that into your scan and your flow. Set an alarm, use the clock-face method, make fuel-gauge checks a verbal call-out item every 30 minutes. Whatever you need to do to ensure you don't end up being the guy who has a forced landing due to "fuel exhaustion" with one wing full of fuel.
 
JLenzy said:
…My current gameplan is to focus mainly on flying by myself to continue increasing my ADM, situational awareness and general flying skills. …
Click to expand...
Given your window to fly appears to be three months on/nine months off, I would consider spending more time with an instructor or mentor pilot flying realistic to your mission flights.

Even if you flew every day for three straight months, there’s still going to be a knock to rust off period when you come back nine months later.
 
During your 9 months out.

1) Use a flight sim. Treat it like the real plane. That is, have your real checklist on hand or on your kneeboard or whatever you use. Run through it exactly as you would in the real plane. Start with the engine off at the ramp. Call out and “touch” each item (mouse cursor or just point to it on the monitor). Do everything as you would in the real plane. That will help thwart the decay of procedural tasks.

I did this during two separate 2-4 years-long hiatuses from flying (about 8 years total), and each time jumping back in the real thing felt like I hadn’t flown since like last month. The instructor said it seemed like I had never stopped flying. I attribute that to treating the home sim like the real thing.

2) Read often. I recommend Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I have it in text as well as audiobook. Feel free to re-read or relisten over and over. This will help you really learn the wing and AOA. I think I land more consistently, fly more efficiently, and feel overall even safer after reading/listening to this great text.

3) Learn from others’ mistakes. I used to spend most of my time on AOPA accident analyses and videos, and I still highly recommend those but now there are additional fantastic channels on YouTube from which you can *constantly* learn such as Blancolirio, Pilot Debrief, Flywire, and 74gear to name a few of the more safety dedicated channels that really break down accident chains.
 
AvNavCom said:
Agree with all of the above. That switching tanks thing though. That will bite you hard if you don't get that into your scan and your flow. Set an alarm, use the clock-face method, make fuel-gauge checks a verbal call-out item every 30 minutes. Whatever you need to do to ensure you don't end up being the guy who has a forced landing due to "fuel exhaustion" with one wing full of fuel.
Click to expand...

Coming back to flying after a long break, what you suggest is exactly what i do now. As part of my startup checklist, I’m I set a REPEATING 30 timer on my Apple Watch so it buzzes my wrist….insistently. I inspect the sight gauges each time. If x/c, i make a quick note of the amounts on my kneepad. This gives me a lot of information, like did I leave a fuel cap off & fuel is siphoning? Is my rate of burn abnormally high? Will I make it to the next fuel stop? (merely hypothetical in my case, since my plane has more endurance than my bladder).
 
The fact that you verbalized what you did, seems to me, that you are a safer pilot than many who are out there.
 
Aviator305 said:
During your 9 months out.

1) Use a flight sim. Treat it like the real plane. That is, have your real checklist on hand or on your kneeboard or whatever you use. Run through it exactly as you would in the real plane. Start with the engine off at the ramp. Call out and “touch” each item (mouse cursor or just point to it on the monitor). Do everything as you would in the real plane. That will help thwart the decay of procedural tasks.

I did this during two separate 2-4 years-long hiatuses from flying (about 8 years total), and each time jumping back in the real thing felt like I hadn’t flown since like last month. The instructor said it seemed like I had never stopped flying. I attribute that to treating the home sim like the real thing.

2) Read often. I recommend Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I have it in text as well as audiobook. Feel free to re-read or relisten over and over. This will help you really learn the wing and AOA. I think I land more consistently, fly more efficiently, and feel overall even safer after reading/listening to this great text.

3) Learn from others’ mistakes. I used to spend most of my time on AOPA accident analyses and videos, and I still highly recommend those but now there are additional fantastic channels on YouTube from which you can *constantly* learn such as Blancolirio, Pilot Debrief, Flywire, and 74gear to name a few of the more safety dedicated channels that really break down accident chains.
Click to expand...

Good advice. I’d also add regularly doing mock flight planning for an XC. You must master the tech before you launch a flight. Particularly during the winter, I’ll sit down with the iPad & ForeFlight once a week & plan a longish route for a week in the future, checking wx (I use a lot of sources including windy.app, pivot, 1800wxbrief, & the ForeFlight tools. And, since my plane is not IFR capable, I train on spotting big weather patterns a week out, looking for wx windows—there are subtle patterns when you watch). That’s the long range part.

The second part is immediate. I compute range, mark fuel stops, check availability of fuel, read the comments on lunch stops, scope out alts (hint: almost always better to go backward & fly where you’ve already seen the wx than chance a lateral change left or right). I send the route to “flights” in ForeFlight & complete the w&b, get the wx brief, complete & print the log.

And then I chair fly it with current conditions.

I pickup the ATIS freq at the appropriate point & select a runway. I check the wind & choose a runway, noting pattern altitude & direction. Get the tower freq. know where to call for flight following. Note TFRs & military routes & restrictions.

The point is, touch every tab in the program, know the program (ForeFlight, garmin, etc) implicitly. Practice with it. I recently had a local flight where I became distracted in the cockpit because I was fooling around trying to undo some feature I’d accidentally turned on. I was frightened to learn I’d failed the first rule: fly the airplane. I was 90° off course when I finally came up for air.
 
JLenzy said:
Hi all,

I've recently returned to flying after more than 15 years. I did my private pilot, flew a couple extra trips, and then had to stop at 90 hours due to the costs and going to college. This past year, I've come back to flying and it has brought me so much happiness. I spent a lot of time regaining my theoretical knowledge, which combines the Sporty's BFR class, self-review of the PHAK / AFH, quizzing myself on various internet forums, and then ~3 hours of ground with my instructor. As for flying, we ended up doing four lessons together, totalling 10 hours of tach time. This included flight planning / execution (I got myself an ipad / sentry), emergency procedures, and of course lots of touch-and-goes, stalls, foggle work, etc.

When my instructor signed off the BFR I could tell he didn't feel 'great' - it seemed like he still had a bit of skepticism, even though I had wrapped up all the manuevers within very good margins and am consistent with my landings. I believe his main hesitation came from the fact that I am still falling behind the airplane - e.g. I overflew my descent point when we made an (unplanned) visit to an airfield with a 50-knot tailwind, and am missing my fuel tank switches (Cherokee).

My current goal with flying is to do fun trips with family and friends, but I am keenly aware that I fall in the 'most at risk' category of pilots. To make matters more complicated, I live abroad and realistically only have the opportunity to rent and fly about ~3 months out of the year. My current gameplan is to focus mainly on flying by myself to continue increasing my ADM, situational awareness and general flying skills. I've also set the following personal minimums:
- No night flight
- Max total wind 15, max gust 10, max crosswind component 10
- Minimum ceiling of 3,000 feet and 7SM visibility
- At least 10 hours in the past 90 days in current make/model if carrying pax

I am curious to hear if anyone has any feedback on this situation, and ideas as to how I can improve from a safety perspective. I take both the joy of flight and safety very seriously, and want to make sure I'm doing everything in my power (within reason) to make this a safe hobby for myself and my pax. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Definitely get a handle on the switching of fuel tanks. I like to start, taxi, take off and climb on one, then switch at TOC, TOD, and every time I get bored in between. ;) I also make it a challenge to myself to burn the same amount of fuel from each tank despite the different burn rates in different phases of flight.

If you have a 9 month off/3 month on rotation, get a new flight review every time you come home. Even better would be to rotate instructors, as a new one might find some different weaknesses for you to work on. Then, after you've got the signoff, either go with a CFI or solo for a few more hours and do some practice. Somewhere, AOPA had a great article on how to keep yourself as safe and current as possible when you have a limited amount of flying time, it had an interesting rotating regimen of things to practice on your flights. This isn't it, but it's another relevant article: https://www.aopa.org/training-and-s...ency-the-mystic-art-of-being-a-low-time-pilot

Hmmm... This might be it:

Proficiency

Staying sharp when time is short When we posed the question of proficiency to AOPA members, we asked what specific procedures and maneuvers they would practice to stay proficient if they only had an hour, or a single flight, in which to accomplish these tasks every month. Let's set aside the...
www.aopa.org

And there are a number of good articles on the subject linked at the end of this one:
www.aopa.org

Currency vs. Proficiency

www.aopa.org

One final thing I would add: Take notes when you notice that you make a mistake or do something that's substandard, and debrief every flight. If there's a weakness, come up with a plan to address it. And think about flying as often as you can, even when you're not able to do it.
 
JLenzy said:
This is what I get for posting later at night, but I've re-read 3 times now and can't find any wrong numbers o_O
Click to expand...
I'm the one that read it wrong... I read 50 knot tailwind during cruise, as 50 knot tailwind at landing, and concluded you didn't do that. I don't plan my descents to pattern altitude tight enough to have noticed that, but I'm not saying that's not a bad plan. Sorry about that!
 
If your CFI had any reservations, he should not endorsed you for a flight review. How many flight hours was involved in the review and what maneuvers did it cover?
 
Aviator305 said:
During your 9 months out.

1) Use a flight sim. Treat it like the real plane. That is, have your real checklist on hand or on your kneeboard or whatever you use. Run through it exactly as you would in the real plane. Start with the engine off at the ramp. Call out and “touch” each item (mouse cursor or just point to it on the monitor). Do everything as you would in the real plane. That will help thwart the decay of procedural tasks.

I did this during two separate 2-4 years-long hiatuses from flying (about 8 years total), and each time jumping back in the real thing felt like I hadn’t flown since like last month. The instructor said it seemed like I had never stopped flying. I attribute that to treating the home sim like the real thing.

2) Read often. I recommend Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langwiesche. I have it in text as well as audiobook. Feel free to re-read or relisten over and over. This will help you really learn the wing and AOA. I think I land more consistently, fly more efficiently, and feel overall even safer after reading/listening to this great text.

3) Learn from others’ mistakes. I used to spend most of my time on AOPA accident analyses and videos, and I still highly recommend those but now there are additional fantastic channels on YouTube from which you can *constantly* learn such as Blancolirio, Pilot Debrief, Flywire, and 74gear to name a few of the more safety dedicated channels that really break down accident chains.
Click to expand...

I would second the flight sim advice. Invest in a good setup with yoke, throttle, rudders etc.. It will be worth the investment. But understand its limitation. It's unlikely to help you with stuff like landings, but you can use it to maintain your proficiency in the workflow.
 
What you brought up here don't seem like super serious issues and you can make changes or put in compensating controls to deal with them. For example, write down the times of the tank switches (if you use the same clock each time, it doesn't even have to have the correct time). If you miss one, fix it on the next switch. I imagine I'd have to develop a different system if my MFD didn't nag me to switch tanks. If you miss any waypoint, exercise good judgement correct it. You're flying VFR, if you weren't where you expected to be at the end of your descent, make a 360 and come in again where you expect to be. If you're behind the airplane, put yourself in a safe position to catch up, don't chase it. Don't create an emergency where one doesn't exist.

As just one example, I was taught that I should descend on the 45 into the pattern and reach TPA just as I'm turning downwind. I was also taught to not extend the landing gear until in the downwind. I found I was behind the airplane when I was reaching abeam the numbers, often going too fast, which was translating to my entire approach being high as I tried to slow down. I decided there was no hard and fast rule saying I couldn't hit TPA sooner or extend my gear while on the 45. Made a night and day difference to my approaches because I am setup when I reach abeam the numbers every time.
 
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