what to do for my first BFR?

what to do for my first BFR?

  • hp endorsement in a 182

    Votes: 9 17.3%

  • sr20 checkout

    Votes: 6 11.5%

  • fly a champ

    Votes: 14 26.9%

  • spin endorsement

    Votes: 18 34.6%

  • grass strip work

    Votes: 5 9.6%
  • Total voters
    52
GeorgeC

GeorgeC

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GeorgeC
I'm up for my first BFR this fall. Choices, choices.
 
weirdjim said:
What are the choices? Last I looked, your only choice was the instructor. The INSTRUCTOR has many choices.
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You could also do the FAA Wings program, or get an additional rating or higher level pilot certificate. But if you look up, you'll see the poster created a poll listing five possible choices, none of which by themselves qualify to meet the 61.56 flight review requirement. Of course, a flight review could be done in conjunction with any of those five rather disparate choices, but given the very wide range of possibilities listed, it's really a matter of what the OP wants to do with his flying, and there is no clue about that.
 
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I think what he's asking is what do WE think would be the most rewarding (or have been the most rewarding) - thus, the poll.

There are lots of things you could think up. I once got a float plane rating and had convinced myself, through warped pilot/economic logic, that by spending eleven hundred bucks I was actually saving two hundred. :dunno: Another time we stopped in Starks Twin Oaks Oregon on the way to Yakima and I did a BFR there just because they had a J5 and well, there aren't many J5's around for rent.

Another option that doesn't take any special planning or arrangements is to just tell the instructor that you want him to put you through the wringer :yikes:
 
I would want HP, Complex, Twin and maybe tail dragger......pretty much in that order but my logic is based on ability to fly locally rental aircraft (except tail dragger). Not particularly interested in float plane.
 
weirdjim said:
What are the choices? Last I looked, your only choice was the instructor. The INSTRUCTOR has many choices.

Jim
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Yes, the instructor has many choices, but I try to tailor the flight review to something the pilot feels rusty in completing or had not done before.

AC61-98A provides the guidance the instructor should follow.

I agree that all of the options listed in and of themselves does not meet the requirement to count as a flight review. The instructor could taylor a HP checkout in a flight review with a little extra effort.
 
weirdjim said:
What are the choices? Last I looked, your only choice was the instructor. The INSTRUCTOR has many choices.

Jim
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Since the late 1990s, Mary and I have tried to make each BFR unique. Our CFIs have always played along -- which is good, since their future employment depends on it. :D

Last year, it was Mary's turn to fly into OSH, so she practiced slow flight, and very tight right hand patterns -- just like you get at Oshkosh.

I, on the other hand, felt rusty on emergency procedures, so we noodled around the sky practicing engine out approaches.

The last completely worthless BFR I did was in 1998-ish. I failed to make my desires clear to my CFI, and ended up spending nearly the entire flight tracking VORs. I vowed to never let THAT happen again, and it hasn't.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Since the late 1990s, Mary and I have tried to make each BFR unique. Our CFIs have always played along -- which is good, since their future employment depends on it. :D
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I don't mean any offense, but if playing along with what you want to do doesn't let me fulfill my obligations with a sig in your logbook, then I'd tell you to find another instructor. All of us spent WAY too much time for that little plastic card to let the student dictate the extent of the flight review (I think "BFR" bit the dust about ten years ago).

Not that I don't try to accommodate, but we WILL cover all the stuff in the guide. Now, having said that, I have an ONLINE "ground school" that takes care of the one hour of oral, and the local feds have given me a nod on that. We all have our unique ways of fulfilling the requirements.

Jim
 
Pick the one you are going to use/need the most!

You going to rent the cirrus, get the checkout

Going to do a bunch of Tailwheel flying, get the endorsement

Planning on switching your saddle to something 200+hp, get your HP

If you didn't do spins before your PPL and don't feel good about them, do that

Pass on the grass strip though, there really isn't much to teach, airplane don't know the difference and it's actually easier then hard surfaces.


Second thing to note, a 5-10hr tailwheel endorsment does not make you a safe or smart Tailwheel pilot, many places will take your money, sign your logbook after 5-10hrs, but laugh their ass off if you ask to rent their plane solo.
 
I got a multi for my last one,

The one before I went up into night, MVFR after a 12 hour work day and fought low ceilings, low vis, darkness, fatigue, turbulence, and the occasional rain shower.

It reinforced both that I didn't want to be in such a situation, and also that if I got myself backed into that corner I could safely conclude the flight.

For you I voted the HP endorsement, you already have the TW and complex, get the next one!
 
If it were my personal review, I'd pick the Champ because I've never done tailwheel, but that's just me. If you think you'll be renting the 182, or SR20 in the future, maybe do that. I have never heard of a spin endorsement, is there such a thing?
 
Dav8or said:
If it were my personal review, I'd pick the Champ because I've never done tailwheel, but that's just me. If you think you'll be renting the 182, or SR20 in the future, maybe do that. I have never heard of a spin endorsement, is there such a thing?
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Yep, you need it for CFI, however you don't need it to do spins.

It's a damn shame spins aren't practiced for the PPL.
 
GeorgeC said:
I'm up for my first BFR this fall. Choices, choices.
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I like the approach of doing something out of the ordinary that I don't do
often. This last time I went up to Lockwood and flew a Tecnam. I'd never
flown one.

RT
 
weirdjim said:
I don't mean any offense, but if playing along with what you want to do doesn't let me fulfill my obligations with a sig in your logbook, then I'd tell you to find another instructor. All of us spent WAY too much time for that little plastic card to let the student dictate the extent of the flight review (I think "BFR" bit the dust about ten years ago).

Not that I don't try to accommodate, but we WILL cover all the stuff in the guide. Now, having said that, I have an ONLINE "ground school" that takes care of the one hour of oral, and the local feds have given me a nod on that. We all have our unique ways of fulfilling the requirements.

Jim
Click to expand...

Jim, I'm sure you would do whatever we asked, times ten. And then you'd slip all the boring stuff in there in ways that we wouldn't even notice.
:D
 
Today I did 7 or 8 spins over the DEALE intersection, got the endorsement.

Since my mission at the moment is XC PIC time building, I suspect I'll do my BFR along with a 152 or 162 checkout, if only to reduce my hourly rate a bit.
 
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Since I already got checked out in the 162, I ended up doing my BFR in an Arrow IV; it seemed to have better glide characteristics than the Arrow III.
 
My flight reviews have always consisted of a watered down rehash of the private pilot checkride. On this last one, though, I asked the instructor if we could do an IFR XC since that's what a large percentage of my flights entail, so off we went. It was the first time since my IFR checkride that I had a CFII in the right seat observing my enroute and approach procedures in IMC. I'm glad I did it. I did learn anything new regarding those procedures, but it was validation that my technique was reasonable.
 
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