Rusty Pilots program works
We’ve helped 15,000 pilots return to the sky
In 2007, David Wing was just starting his commercial training when the economy turned, his flying club started selling off its airplanes, and work got too busy for him to fly regularly.
Like many lapsed pilots, these factors conspired to have him stop flying. He hoped he would get back into the air, perhaps in retirement, or, he says, “perhaps not, time would tell.”
But: “Spoiler alert! I took the Rusty Pilots seminar a month before retiring last year, and I’m back flying!” he said.
Wing (an appropriate name, right?) is one of 15,000 pilots the AOPA Rusty Pilots program has helped return to the skies. Funded by the AOPA Foundation, the Rusty Pilot program is a fun, interactive study that gives you all the information you need to get current again. AOPA offers three Rusty Pilots learning tracks. You can attend an in-person Rusty Pilots seminar, a live Rusty Pilots webinar, or you can take the self-paced, online course. You can also participate in any combination of these tracks. Rusty Pilots tracks are free for AOPA members.
Pilot certificates never expire. Once a pilot, always a pilot. You never have to take another test or worry about another checkride. All you need is a flight review.
Wing attended an in-person seminar at Waltrip Williamsburg Executive Airport in Williamsburg, Virginia, sponsored by the Tidewater Flying Club in Newport News (PHF), which he joined. After 17 years away from flying, and after 8.4 hours with a CFI, he regained currency as pilot in command. Another 5.3 hours restored his instrument currency. In all, 14 weeks elapsed between his first flight back and completion of his instrument proficiency check. “It was faster than I thought,” he said. “Before I knew it, I was a pilot again.” He bought a 2017 Cirrus SR22T G6 four months later.
“You never really forget your passion. If aviation resonated with you earlier in life enough to become a pilot, you’ll be amazed how quickly it becomes familiar all over again once you immerse yourself back in it,” he said. “My advice: really do the immersion and commit to it. The resources now available to you to help with the re-familiarization are immense compared to what they used to be. Take advantage of them.”
Wing now has 442 total hours, and he recently flew for Sky Hope and Pilots N Paws.
“I got my instrument rating in 2000 but never used it. Twenty-five years later, my IPC this past year was in actual IMC, and it was the first true instrument experience I have had (except for a surprise encounter early in my instrument training). Now I fly almost every flight under IFR.”
