A road map for rusty pilots

The sky is calling. Actually, Rusty Pilot, it’s been calling since the day after your last flight, whether that was three years ago or 30.

But now you’ve heeded the call. Whatever got in the way of your flying has charted a course elsewhere — the kids have finally left the nest, there’s some money in the bank at the end of the month, and you actually have time — so now, it’s time, once again, to fly.

Great! Now what?

Well, all you need to do to become unlapsed, as a pilot, is to complete a flight review. Depending on how long it’s been since you last flew, you may never have heard of a flight review or you may still think it’s called the “biennial.”

Either way, you don’t need to take a checkride. I’ll say again: You don’t need to take a checkride. Once a pilot, always a pilot. Legally, all you need to do is get current by taking that flight review.

But current is not the same as proficient and proficient isn’t necessarily safe.

So let’s talk about what is required, as well as what is realistic, for you to get back in the air.

There are four different steps you’ll need to complete prior to the review, along with a few decisions and a proviso or two. I’ll break them all out for you, but first, let’s talk a little bit more about what a flight review is and what it isn’t.

The Path Back To The Sky

The flight review, defined in 14 CFR 61.56 (a), requires a minimum of one hour of ground training and one hour of flight training for all pilots every two years. The flight training must come from a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). The ground instruction can come from the same CFI, another CFI, or a Certified Ground Instructor.

What’s done in the air? Well, the regulation really leaves that up to the instructor. It says the pilot being reviewed just needs to demonstrate “the safe exercise of the privileges” of his or her certificate.

So a rusty private pilot would be expected to fly to private standards, while someone with a lapsed commercial ticket would be expected to fly to commercial standards.

In a perfect world, the CFI would chat with the pilot about their background, experience, and plans, then develop a personalized flight review that would provide useful training to expand the pilot’s skill set. Such was the goal of the Air Safety Institute’s “Focused Flight Review” of a few years ago.

However, a large number of flight schools conduct “boilerplate” flight reviews that are the same for every pilot.

While not everyone is on the same page on personalized vs. boilerplate flight reviews, there is universal agreement on one thing: When it comes to getting a rusty pilot back in the left seat, one hour isn’t going to cut it.

Recall that the regulation stipulates that one hour is the minimum. So how many hours of dual will it take you to knock the rust off and get ready to demonstrate the safe exercise of your certificate?

Experience has shown that there’s a reliable formula to predict that. Simply take your rusty years and divide by two. You’ve not flown in 10 years? Expect to need five hours with a CFI sitting right seat.

“Take your rusty years and divide by two. You’ve not flown in 10 years? Expect to need five hours with a CFI sitting right seat.”

Most rusty pilots report that flying is like riding a bike — you never really forgot how.

That said, my return to a bicycle after a decade-long hiatus was much more terrifying than my return to the cockpit after a similar-length break. But speaking from experience, it does come back really fast.

Also from experience, there’s no high like the first liftoff after a long break from flying.

And there’s more good news: You can’t flunk a flight review.

Remember, this is a requirement for on-going training, not a test. If you aren’t demonstrating safe exercise of your privilege, the CFI just logs the flight as dual.

But assuming all goes well — and why wouldn’t it? — the CFI makes an endorsement in your logbook that says you satisfactorily completed the review and you are good to go, with all the privileges of your certificate fully restored.

And that’s it. Welcome back.

Ground School

Of course, if you haven’t flown in many years, there are two other problems. The first is that you probably forgot a bunch of stuff. Which is actually a good thing, because the second problem is that a bunch of stuff has changed.

For instance, if you were last flying prior to 1993, we now have an entirely different airspace. Yeah. I’m not thinking one hour’s ground instruction is going to get you up to speed on that and, in fairness, the required one hour of ground set forth as part of the flight review is viewed as what’s needed for a ground instructor or CFI to ensure that you’ve stayed abreast of changes, largely regulatory, while actively flying.

So how much ground does a rusty pilot need? That depends on you.

Some rusty pilots do nothing more during their flying hiatus than wear an oversized watch and tell people at parties that they are a pilot (guilty as charged).

Others keep their flying organization dues paid and every month devour every page of every aviation magazine printed.

Either way, the good news is that you can get your ground knowledge up to speed on your own by hitting the books or by attending a Rusty Pilot-focused seminar. Or better still, both.

What is a Rusty Pilot-focused seminar, you ask? Since 2014 the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has offered various incarnations of a three-hour ground school to help rusty pilots navigate the steps back to the flight deck, and brush up on some basic knowledge.

AOPA didn’t originate the moniker rusty pilot, but it sure as heck popularized it. Popularized it to the point you actually hear it on the radio: ID’ing yourself as a rusty pilot in your first transmission to a frantic ground controller at a busy towered airport slows down the transmissions comfortably. (All you certificated pilots who pretend to be students can now use this trick too.)

In its current incarnation, rusty pilot seminars exist in two flavors: A live webinar and a live, in-person event. They’re both good, but I strongly encourage you to attend one of the in-person events, even if you have to travel to do so. [Editor’s note: The author is one of the 16 contractors who teach live events around the nation.]

There’s nothing like the energy you get from spending a morning with your peers, hearing, touching, and smelling airplanes, and — most importantly — seeing that you are not alone in being a rusty pilot. In fact, since its inception, this innovative program has led more than 10,000 pilots back to the cockpit.

Of course, simply taking a seminar isn’t going to teach you everything you really need to know, even though it satisfies (three times over) the legal requirement for the ground portion of the flight review. But there are a ton of other options, too.

Companies such as King Schools, MZeroA, Rod Machado, Aviation Supplies & Academics (ASA), and Sporty’s Pilot Shop have rusty pilot-focused training and all of the major online pilot shops have pages dedicated to rusty pilots.

AOPA’s Air Safety Institute also has a ton of educational resources aimed at returning pilots to the skies.

To get your knowledge up to where you need it to be at — at a minimum — read the latest versions of three key books from the FAA library: The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK); the Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH); and the newest version of the FAR/AIM, which might have next year’s date on it if you buy it in the summer.

And don’t feel you need to limit yourself to official publications. There are many other great books (and videos, and apps, and websites) that are worthy of a place in your studies.

And any modern discussion of pilot ground school would be incomplete without a shout-out to the good folks at Boldmethod, who have some of the clearest explanations of just about everything in aviation available, for free, at their website — and their paid courses are excellent, too.

Medical

Of course, a pilot certificate and $5 will buy you coffee and a scone at Starbucks, but other than that, the certificate is pretty much worthless without a medical.

The good news here, Rusty Pilot, is that you now have a number of options, and it’s possible you don’t need a medical at all, at least not in the traditional sense. This day just gets better and better, doesn’t it?

Naturally, the first option is to visit an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) and just get a fresh 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Class Medical, depending on your needs and desires. To do this in the modern world, you must first go online to the FAA’s MedXPress website to fill out the virtual version of the traditional 8500-8 application.

That said, you might want to pay for a pre-consult with the AME to discuss your health prior to filling out the required online forms at MedExpress. Sometimes a choice of words makes a world of difference in the hassle-free issuance of a medical.

And, if you have a… complicated… relationship with health, either current or past, AOPA has your back. Join, renew, or upgrade to the highest level of membership (which at $189 a year is $110 more than the basic membership, which is still less than the cost of an hour of flight training) and you’ll have access to the free services of the association’s medical certification specialists, including a complete review of your records before you submit them.

The second option, instead of a traditional FAA Medical, is BasicMed, which you can think of as an alternative to the 3rd Class Medical — although technically, it’s not a medical at all.

The BasicMed process empowers pilots who qualify to fly private VFR or IFR flights up to 18,000 feet MSL in any airplane with a ramp weight under 6,000 pounds, and carry up to five passengers with them. In other words, it allows you to do the vast bulk of private pilot GA ops. Which is not to say you can’t use BasicMed with a rusty commercial ticket, just know that if you do, you can’t be paid or compensated to fly. That still requires at least a 2nd Class Medical.

What makes BasicMed an attractive option for many rusty pilots is the fact that it’s both faster and cheaper than the traditional route if you have an even slightly complicated health history, which most older pilots do.

The vast bulk of the medical conditions that require a special issuance for a traditional medical fall comfortably into BasicMed. Pretty much the only exceptions are serious heart stuff, epilepsy and related conditions, some mental health disorders, and substance dependence. These all require a fresh one-time medical with Special Issuance before entering BasicMed.

To get BasicMed, you need to take an online AeroMedical Factors class from either AOPA or the Mayo Clinic, then you meet with your family doc and discuss a long laundry list of health issues, and then…well, that’s it.

To qualify for the BasicMed route, you need a current driver’s license and you had to have had a valid FAA medical (of any class) after July 14, 2006. Special issuance back in the day? Not to worry, those are automatically included, too.

Now, if your medical expired prior to the 2006 date, or was either denied or revoked, you’ll need at least one fresh 3rd Class Medical before going the BasicMed route in the future, but not to worry if your health is… you know… less than that of a Naval Aviator. The FAA medical branch is probably more pilot friendly than at any point in the past, with health issues that were deal-killers just a decade or two ago, now being issued — some directly from the AME’s office.

Lastly, rusty pilots also have the option of returning to flight in Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), which do not require a medical, only a valid driver’s license, so long as you never had a medical that was revoked or denied.

Finding an Instructor

As the flight portion of a flight review can only be given by a CFI, and all rusty pilots need a number of hours of refresher training, you’ll need to find a CFI. To be honest, this isn’t as easy as it used to be. CFIs are starting to become in short supply. Finding one at all can be hard in some places, and finding one that’s the right fit can be even harder.

Of course, if you went to a Rusty Pilot seminar, you probably met a CFI or two at the seminar, which is another good reason for attending one. Otherwise, how should you proceed?

Well, to be honest, distance will likely be the biggest factor in choosing a CFI. The best CFI in the world will do you little good if she’s 2,000 miles away, so Google is one way to see what flight schools are in your area.

But this approach often misses independent instructors, those who don’t work exclusively with one school.

A better way to find instructors is to use one of the industry search engines from the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) or the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) — the nation’s two premiere professional organizations for flight instructors and ground instructors. It also wouldn’t hurt to check the AOPA or Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) flight school databases as part of your quest.

Of course, you can always hang out at your local airport and talk to other pilots about who they like in the area. Not to worry, the active pilots won’t look down on you for being rusty. Most pilots have a rusty spell or two in their logbooks. You’re still family.

Oh, lastly, when you meet your instructor, don’t let that baby face, wet-behind-the-ears look fool you. While the bulk of instructors are young, it’s not an easy certificate to get. They know their stuff.

Finding an Airplane

Ideally, try to locate a rental training plane that’s as close to what you have the most hours in as possible. This will make the training go faster, as much of what you will be doing is remembering, rather than strictly learning — and that includes muscle memory.

Most of your time in a Cessna 172? Then look for schools, clubs, or FBOs renting those. Most of your time in a Cherokee? Then look for schools, clubs, or FBOs renting those. Most of your time in Stearman? Well… uh… yeah… good luck with that.

Now, if you just won the lottery, or worked hard and saved most of your money, purchasing an airplane is always an option, but it’s not for the faint of heart, and it’s rarely as big a money saver — especially for rusty pilots — as you envision it might be when you’re ogling airplanes in the classified ads. The fact is, the old 3-F Rule applies to most of us: If it Flies, Floats, or… well, you know… it’s cheaper to rent.

Glass

Hey, what about all that scary glass? When you last flew, state of the art was round gauges. Lots of round gauges. Now, an airplane on the ramp looks dead with all its displays at rest when you peek inside — until someone hits the master switch, and then the cockpit looks like the control room of a nuclear power plant.

Here’s the deal: Despite what you may think today, you’ll come to love glass, in one form or another.

Myself, I’m not wild about in-panel glass. With my clear overhead canopy on Race 53, my 1947 Ercoupe 415-CD, I got a ton of reflections off my newly-installed panel-mounted glass instruments, so (at some cost) I ended up un-retrofitting… or maybe de-retrofitting… re-retrofitting? Anyway, I went back to steam gauges for flight instruments and engine status, but you won’t catch me flying without an iPad. In fact, I forgot mine one time and I felt like I was flying naked!

That said, glass avionics have a steep learning curve, and you already have new rules and regs to learn, and stick and rudder skills to recover. I strongly recommend that you return to flying where you left off. If that was round gauges and an E6B, then that is how you should return. Go to eBay and score a lightly-used E6B (they have a million of them), and find a plane that looks familiar. There is plenty of time to learn glass later. And you should. Just not right now.

Now, despite what you might see in the aviation press, finding a traditionally-equipped training plane is not overly challenging. FSANA estimates that 60%-70% of GA training airplanes still have “steam gauges.”

Oh, speaking of paper or plastic, which we sorta were, do you still have one of those paper pilot certificates? The one they told you was good forever? They lied.

Our traditional paper pilot certificates are extinct, so you’ll need to upgrade to plastic. Contact the FAA to upgrade. The cost is $2, probably the smallest amount of money you will spend in aviation for the rest of your life.

One warning, however. The new certificate will have the date it is issued on it, not the date of your original hard-earned certificate.

What To Do First…

So now that you know the steps, what order do you do them in? Hit the books first? Get a fresh medical? Find a CFI? Find an airplane?

There’s no 100% right or wrong order, and you can be working on several of the steps at the same time.

For many rusty pilots, starting with the medical as the first step makes sense, in case there is a show-stopper there, but I’d start with a seminar to both motivate you and guide you on where your knowledge is weak and strong, then hit the books.

During your self-study, move forward on the medical or medical equivalent.

Next, look for an appropriate airplane, then lastly, go hunting for your CFI (unless you met a “keeper” during Step 1).

The logic to that is that you’ll save money on the expensive part (the plane and instructor) if your medical paperwork is squared away and ground knowledge is up to snuff first. Flight instruction has never been cheap, and it didn’t get more affordable while you are away. You want to be maximally prepared to make every minute of it productive.

Lastly, should you consider a sim? So long as you are computer-savvy, or have access to, you know, a young person, modern sims are both remarkably realistic and affordable, and can be a great way to rebuild basic skills.

Combining a home sim with home study makes it more fun, and, for many, a more effective learning experience. And no, you can’t log time in a home sim, but that doesn’t make it less valuable to your re-learning.

Keeping the Rust Off

Once you have completed your flight review and are current, stay current. Fly often to keep those hard re-earned skills sharp.

Consider joining a flying club. If you are considering buying an airplane, consider joining a club instead. It will give you access to the most affordable flying, and a social network of like-minded people.

Speaking of social, I bet you missed your flying family, didn’t you? Stay connected. Join a state or local pilot’s association. Attend regional fly-ins and airshows — even if you have to drive to them.

And if you need a mission, look into the various organizations like Angel Flight, Civil Air Patrol, or Pilots n Paws that leverage volunteer pilots for good works.

It’s not just the sky that’s calling. So to are organizations that need pilots.