Flight Training - January 2014 - 8

LETTERS

Talk back
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will be edited for style and space.

LAPSED PILOTS

NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN?

I

would like to comment on the articles about bringing lapsed
pilots back to the sky in recent issues. I was a lapsed private
pilot myself, single engine land, with only 184.6 hours total time
at the controls in 1977. My pilot logbook shows a gaping lapse of
flying fun and exhilaration between 1977 and 2007.
My excuse was that I got married and
my mind was on other things-among
them a new mortgage that didn't make a
lot of room for a lot of other discretionary
expenses. Playing with my new wife was
more important than flying. Happy wife,
happy life, right?
I took up flying again in 2007. I began
with taking a few flying lessons with an
instructor to test the water. The instructor
felt that I could become current again in
about five to 10 hours of flight time combined with a mini written exam to test my
theoretical skills.
To me it sounded reasonable and something worth pursuing. After 5.2 hours of
daylight flight instruction, and one hour
night flight instruction, and passing the
mini written exam with almost clean
flying colors, he signed me off to carry
passengers on my own. I felt also that I
was competent at the controls and was
ready to go it on my own without endangering man or machine. Since that time
I have passed the annuals with different
instructors and have am regarded as a
competent pilot. I also passed the instrument ground course, but decided not to
pursue an instrument rating because of
the expense, but it was a good theoretical
supplement because I was not up to speed
on the new regs and weather technology.
Based on my own experience I will take
issue with your assessment of currency
estimations for lapsed pilots. My 30-year
lapse would have meant that I would
require 30 hours of flight instruction. This
is far in excess of what the FAA requires for
a first-time pilot and does not seem reasonable at all for pilots who have had a good
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FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

flying record in the past. I strongly encourage a lapsed pilot to test the waters with a
not-for-profit instructor and make his/her
own decision based on his/her judgment.
Svend Strandbygaard
Falmouth, Maine
I'm a lowly CFI-S trying to make a business out of providing flight training for the
sport pilot certificate. I'm getting worn
out by the articles on "how do we grow
general aviation?" This deal is a huge
failure and it is not the general public's
fault and it is not the CFI's fault. It is the
FAA and the insurance companies and,
yes, I include AOPA itself in the failure
system. First off, the gross weight is too
low to include the Cessna 150, 120, 140,
152, and all of the other training aircraft
that we have. Next the FAA got rid of the
Experimental LSA exemption waiver,
which doesn't leave us many options for
training aircraft that are affordable. But
the single biggest problem is the insurance companies. If we CFIs cannot buy
liability insurance on our operations and
our aircraft, you for darn sure are going
to see a drop in the available lower-cost
entry level flight training.
Wolf Emonds
Portland, Oregon
I must be in the minority but I would
love to see an article geared towards
new "older" pilots and what careers are
available to us. I didn't realize my dream
of flight until I was 48 and would love to
explore possible careers, but it seems the
vast majority of information is only for
younger pilots. Is a second career even
http://www.catstest.com http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG
Flight Training - January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - January 2014
