AVCANADA

I'm not really at my best, unless I'm flying at least once a week

The higher the level of skill that you have, the less practice you will require, to maintain a basic level of skill.

I am sure I will be attacked for daring to opine this, but in my experience it is the low-time and older pilots that need extra flights. If you're 40 with 5kTT, you won't need much recurrent training to stay safe. But if you're 20 with 100 hrs, or over 70 with a gazillion hours, you're probably going to benefit from extra flights. For very different reasons.

I have long maintained - again, attack away - that anyone with less than 1kTT needs to fly twice a day, wx permitting, to develop their skills and experience. It has been my experience that by the time someone has 1kTT they should be reasonably proficient - the learning curve is starting to level off - and by the time they've hit 3kTT they've shown you what they've got. The curve is flat, and extra hours don't really help a whole lot past that point, if you're doing the same thing over and over again.

I would not state that a 20kTT pilot is twice as good as a 10kTT pilot. In fact, as he ages, his performance is going to decrease. He was probably at his peak in his mid-40's with 10kTT. Once you get into your 50's and 60's your physical performance simply isn't what it once was. Mind you, you can still be a damned good pilot at 65 and 30kTT, but you probably won't react as quickly (or as well) to a new, challenging situation as when you were 40 with 10kTT. Fact of life.

Personally, I like to fly every day to stay sharp. Two or even three flights a day - preferably in very different types of aircraft - is even better. And they don't need to be long flights - I often fly 15 minute flights which are very busy and challenging, that leave me drenched in sweat at the end of them. You don't need to spend hours and hours on autopilot, even though I guess it looks good in the logbook, it really doesn't help much.

Crap away from a great height.

The higher the level of skill that you have, the less practice you will require, to maintain a basic level of skill.

I am sure I will be attacked for daring to opine this, but in my experience it is the low-time and older pilots that need extra flights. If you're 40 with 5kTT, you won't need much recurrent training to stay safe. But if you're 20 with 100 hrs, or over 70 with a gazillion hours, you're probably going to benefit from extra flights. For very different reasons.

I have long maintained - again, attack away - that anyone with less than 1kTT needs to fly twice a day, wx permitting, to develop their skills and experience. It has been my experience that by the time someone has 1kTT they should be reasonably proficient - the learning curve is starting to level off - and by the time they've hit 3kTT they've shown you what they've got. The curve is flat, and extra hours don't really help a whole lot past that point, if you're doing the same thing over and over again.

I would not state that a 20kTT pilot is twice as good as a 10kTT pilot. In fact, as he ages, his performance is going to decrease. He was probably at his peak in his mid-40's with 10kTT. Once you get into your 50's and 60's your physical performance simply isn't what it once was. Mind you, you can still be a damned good pilot at 65 and 30kTT, but you probably won't react as quickly (or as well) to a new, challenging situation as when you were 40 with 10kTT. Fact of life.

Personally, I like to fly every day to stay sharp. Two or even three flights a day - preferably in very different types of aircraft - is even better. And they don't need to be long flights - I often fly 15 minute flights which are very busy and challenging, that leave me drenched in sweat at the end of them. You don't need to spend hours and hours on autopilot, even though I guess it looks good in the logbook, it really doesn't help much.

Crap away from a great height.

I find myself torn by what the colonel has said. Judging by the reaction of others, it appears he has summarized the currency / competence equation quite nicely. Yet, if that is true, I am saddened by the fact that I am destined to be a mediocre if not incompetent pilot, since I know I will never be able to afford to get into a plane even once per day, let alone twice.

Perhaps his comments are more directed at the CPL. Is there any hope for a casual PPL pilot to be safe and competent with only a weekly or biweekly flight ?

I find myself torn by what the colonel has said. Judging by the reaction of others, it appears he has summarized the currency / competence equation quite nicely. Yet, if that is true, I am saddened by the fact that I am destined to be a mediocre if not incompetent pilot, since I know I will never be able to afford to get into a plane even once per day, let alone twice.

Perhaps his comments are more directed at the CPL. Is there any hope for a casual PPL pilot to be safe and competent with only a weekly or biweekly flight ?

Perhaps his comments are more directed at the CPL. Is there any hope for a casual PPL pilot to be safe and competent with only a weekly or biweekly flight ?

Of course there's hope, as BPF said it also depends somewhat upon your own attitude towards the activity. With a flight at least once a week, or sometimes every other week, you'd be a head above 95% of the other private flyers out there.

I am destined to be a mediocre if not incompetent pilot

Intensive flight training will build skill. Periodic flights afterwards
will maintain it.

who's been into their notes and books

When I fly a weird type, I like to
jot notes in my logbook - important speeds, power
settings - so the next time I fly it, I can quickly review
what I need to know. You don't need to write a
goddamned essay - just the important stuff.

Just because you have aged doesn't necessarily make you a dangerous or less capable pilot than "average".

you can still be a damned good pilot at 65 and 30kTT, but you probably won't react as quickly (or as well) to a new, challenging situation as when you were 40 with 10kTT. Fact of life.

I think you just need to temper your opinion of aged pilots

I know a little about this subject. I regularly fly formation with an 80 year old that I know very well. I'm sure he can land a Pitts better than 99% of the pilots in Canada, but is he really still as good as when he was 40 and at the top of his game as a test pilot at CEPE?

how much longer have you got until the son surpasses you?