Get Back into Flying

Pilots' Guide to Getting Back Into Flying

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Finding an Instuctor
• What Will You Fly?
• Flight Review
• A Current Medical
• The Plastic Pilot Certificate
• The English Proficient Endorsement
• Recent Flight Experience
• GA Airport Security
• AOPA’s Airport Watch
• Notams and TFRs

Significant Changes in 2007 and early 2008

• eAPIS – Electronic Advance Passenger System
• Washington D.C. ADIZ Becomes Permanent SFRA
• ELTs

Articles from AOPA Pilot and AOPA Flight Training

Are You on Your Game?
10 places where your skills will slip first
By Dan Namowitz
AOPA Flight Training, February 2008
What are the first things to slip once a pilot puts the Practical Test Standards back on the shelf and vows never to look at it again? Here's a checklist of 10 items, in no particular order, that tend to slip the most and the quickest

Light Sport
Two Years and Counting
By Alton K. Marsh
AOPA Pilot, April 2007
Two years ago the Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) category began with a promise of inexpensive pilot certificates after only 20 hours of training, and less expensive 1,320-pound, two-place, 120-knot airplanes that can be flown on a driver's license in place of a medical. Has the promise been kept?

Pilot Counsel
The instrument proficiency check
By John S. Yodice
AOPA Pilot, May 2007
Just recently the FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that has deep within it some helpful language clarifying this uncertainty. The rulemaking itself, which is quite extensive, may not become final for months or years to come. The FAA's clarification is helpful now.

Getting back in the game
All you need to knock off the rust is a plan
By Wally Miller
AOPA Flight Training, September 2005
Regardless of your pilot certificate and any ratings, there is much more to know now than there was when you got it. Airspace has become more complex. It's more and more time-consuming than ever to keep up to date on information, not to mention the basic stick-and-rudder proficiency we all need to maintain. Not keeping up with changes or maintaining proficiency can cause big problems nowadays. How do you know if you're getting rusty? What will it take for you to get back in the game?

Special Report: The State of General Aviation
Seeking answers among conflicting signals
Coordinated by Machteld A. Smith, Senior Editor, Special Publications
AOPA Pilot, June 2005
Flying over early summer's lush green hills and valleys and viewing the world from our aerial perch, we may feel insulated from the vagaries of the stock market, the status of the federal budget deficit, the whims of the aviation security agencies, and the health of the general aviation industry. But we're not. Truth be told those influences and more impact our flying in innumerable ways.

Legal Briefing: More to know
Be sure to check for temporary flight restrictions
By Kathy Yodice
AOPA Flight Training, July 2004
Now, with the proliferation of uncharted and unanticipated temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) — some stemming from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and others "popping up" with more frequency because of this year's presidential election campaign travel — you must check notams as often as feasible, including immediately before takeoff and en route, too.

Keeping Track of TFRs
Tips for avoiding temporary flight restrictions
By Wally Miller
AOPA Flight Training, March 2004
Many temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) are short-term and are scattered across the country. Others, such as these four around Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington, have been around since 2001. AOPA has been lobbying aggressively to shrink or eliminate such "temporary" restrictions.

Commentary: President's Perspective
Saving your bacon: New ways for avoiding restricted airspace
By Phil Boyer
AOPA Flight Training, January 2004
How do you avoid becoming a headline? In November, the pilot of a Mooney made national news when he moseyed into the Washington Metropolitan Area Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and then proceeded into the flight-restricted zone (FRZ) at its center, passing within seven or eight miles of the White House. How did he not know about the ADIZ?

When Legal Isn't Safe
Know Your Limitations and the Airplane's Before You Fly
By Marc K. Henegar
AOPA Pilot, April 2002
Would you take off on a clear day in a Cessna 172, when you haven't flown anything smaller than a Citation X in more than two years? (Hey, they're both Cessnas, right?) Would you take off in low visibility into hard IFR, with an instrument competency check that is five months old and no other instrument time to your credit in the past year?

A Currency Confession
Making an IFR Comeback at Comair Flight Academy
By Alton K. Marsh
AOPA Pilot, April 2002
Admitting the truth about your current state of instrument competency requires guts and a full confession. In my case, it went something like this: "Forgive me, Father, for it has been eight months since my last approach."

Back to school
CFIs Must Remain Current
By Julie Summers Walker
AOPA Pilot, June 2001
"I am a long-since-lapsed flight instructor (ASEL) and have not flown in 11 to 12 years. I am in the process of getting checked out in some back-to-basics flying in a Citabria. Two flight schools have urged me to get my CFI reinstated as well. Since it has been so long since any active involvement, I would like to take some formal and intensive training to get up to date on the required maneuvers, regs, complex airplane, etc."

Tough Love
An Uncompromising CFI is Your Best Friend
By Dan Namowitz
AOPA Pilot, April 2001
I have an admission to make concerning my flying, or in the recent context, my lack of flying. The fact is that an unsightly layer of dust lies upon my aeronautical skills. Excessive contact with the ground has left me oxidized as an aviator, rustier than an old piece of scrap iron.

Staying Sharp
Solo Practice Maneuvers to Keep Your Skills on the Cutting Edge
By Alton K. Marsh
AOPA Pilot, June 2000
Maybe your funds for the $100 hamburger went for a new clutch, or a home appliance, or college tuition, or closing costs. And then Christmas came, followed by lousy winter flying weather...has it been awhile since you flew?

Answers for Pilots: Starting Over
Getting Back Into Flying
By Julie Summers Walker
AOPA Pilot, November 1999
When you first became interested in flying, your life was probably a lot simpler. But, life costs a lot more time and money than you ever anticipated, and that private pilot certificate looks good in your wallet but is only a memory of great times and great expectations. The good news is that your pilot certificate never expired.

Coming Home: How To Return To Flying
By Greg Laslo
AOPA Flight Training, May 1997
Like too many pilots do every year, Rookstool put his flight bag in the back of the closet because life's other challenges overpowered the challenge of flight. Then he discovered the airplane that inspired him to fly — a turbine-powered Maule MX7 — was for sale, and he figured it was time to start flying again.

February 27, 2008