Around the Patch

What to do? While you may think it’ll never happen to you, thousands of people stop flying after achieving their hard-earned pilot certificates. Sometimes the cause is a lack of money to remain proficient. Sometimes it’s because family issues or job schedules take over our lives. In those situations, I like to say that staying on the ground needn’t be forever, and that flying will be there for you when you’re ready to come back to it.

Then there’s something that affects me personally and some of you (not you, Florida and California). I call it midwinter malaise. The days are short. The temperatures are freezing. It’s dark when you get up, and dark when you finish your daily duties and can reclaim some time for yourself. Add in an airplane down for maintenance, and you could find yourself grounded for months, as I did in 2020 (see “Around the Patch: Rusty and Dusty,” January/February 2021 Flight Training).

I can see the malaise creeping in on little cat feet again. The Cessna 182 that I fly has been out of operation since October, getting an overhauled engine installed. Then, the airplane needed an annual inspection—and our maintenance shop, like many, struggled to balance a reduced number of mechanics against its customers’ demands to get their airplanes back. Oh, and we also needed a new battery because the airplane sat for so long while its engine was overhauled.

What’s scary is that the prospect of not flying doesn’t distress me the way it once would have. That tells me I need to get my mojo back—and quick. Here are some strategies I’m going to take. Feel free to adapt to your current situation, and if you have any additional ideas, I would love to hear from you.

Hang out with pilots—in person if you can. Hitting “like” on your friends’ “Wingtip Wednesday” Facebook photos is just not enough to keep you motivated. Go to the airport. If the weather cooperates, join the gang outside critiquing landings. Or, find a local EAA, The Ninety-Nines, or Women in Aviation chapter and stop by one of their meetings. You may get a chance to turn a wrench and make some new friends in the process.

Plan a trip. It’s never too early to think where you want to go when the weather warms up or the dang airplane finally gets back in the air. How about Sun ’n Fun, or the Triple Tree Aerodrome Fly-In, or EAA AirVenture, or the Valdez Fly-In, or the High Sierra Fly-In, or…?

Find a simulator. Practice instrument procedures or just fly an Airbus A350 across the Atlantic Ocean to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. It’s less expensive than flying an actual airplane (heck, it’s less expensive than flying commercially). The FAA allows up to 10 hours credit in a basic aviation training device and up to 20 hours in an advanced aviation training device when working toward an instrument rating. Advanced aviation training devices can be used to satisfy training for higher-level certification such as flight instructor, commercial pilot, and airline transport pilot. Hey, maybe it’s time to get working on that next certificate or rating.

Fly something new. Just because you have all your time logged in a Cessna 172 doesn’t mean you can’t play the field a bit. Try a low-wing aircraft, or a light sport, or a retractable gear airplane, or a twin, or a taildragger. You needn’t commit to a checkout or go for the full endorsement or rating. And I promise your regular airplane won’t get jealous. Just fly as your wallet and heart dictate, and see where it takes you.

That’s all the preaching I have for this choir. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make a date with a Cessna 140 and a brand-new-to-me tailwheel instructor.