Since I got my instrument rating in early October, I have gone up just three times. Twice more in October and once in November. True, flying in the winter months become more of a challenge, and the holidays take up big chunks of time. And, of course, there is real life to attend to. But I am clearly not flying as often as I would like, nor often enough to maintain my skills.
So, as part of new year’s resolution, I promise myself to try to go up at least once a week.
I’m also contemplating pursuing my commercial rating. Not that I ever intend to fly for hire or for a living. But I may just do it simply because that is what’s next. And whatever training/learning I do will only make me a safer pilot (one hopes). It will also give a bit more structure to my flying, and give me things to practice and concrete goals to pursue when I fly.
Looking at the requirements for the commercial certificate, I need a total of 250 hours of flight time, 100 hours as pilot-in-command (PIC), 50 hours of cross country PIC time, some night flight time with 10 take offs and landings, and 10 hours of PIC time in a complex high-performance aircraft. Basically, at this point, I would need about 90 hours of flight time, 40 more of PIC time about half of which has to be cross country, and some training in complex aircraft. If my flying over the last two years is any indication, this is about 12 to 18 months worth of flying. So as a medium term goal, it’s a pretty good one.
It would help in the short run if I had people to fly with (aside from my instructor who is a great guy, and from whom I’ve learned a lot, but who also adds to the cost of an already expensive hobby). My wife is still quite skeptical. She’s never been the adventurous type. She flies all the time for business, but the thought of small planes makes her uncomfortable. (If anyone has any spouse persuasion tips, I would love to hear them.) Not that I blame her entirely. At about 160 hours of total flight time, I’m probably approaching the point where I’m most dangerous---confident enough to want to go fly to various places, but inexperienced enough that I might do something dumb. And the GA fatal accident rate isn’t great---not terrible but about on par with motorcycles, another thing spouses generally don’t like. And of course many of my friends have been issued stern edicts by their respective wives that they are under no circumstances to go flying in a little Cessna. Sigh... (Well, academics and their spouses generally aren’t the thrill seeking types, so this is somewhat to be expected.)
Anyway, I need to find some motivation to go up more often.
