Staying Sharp While Flying Less
By J. Mac McClellan
October 2008
 Everybody is flying less these days. Flight time in piston-powered personal airplanes is probably off the most due to the high fuel prices, but the economy and fuel costs are trimming flight hours for airlines and corporate operators, too. The noise office at my home base, Westchester County Airport just north of New York City, sends a monthly activity report to the owners of all airplanes based there. The primary reason for the report is to note noise complaints and the number of violations of the voluntary curfew. But all traffic movements for the month, and cumulatively for the year, are included.
The report divides traffic into scheduled airline, corporate and light general aviation. Corporate is a code word for turbine-powered airplane, and light GA is piston powered. Whether the airplane is based at the airport or is a transient is also noted. Touch-and-go landings are counted separately so only actual departures and arrivals make the normal traffic count.
The number of piston operations at Westchester has been in decline for more than two years. The piston traffic count for 2006 was off nearly 30 percent compared to 2005. Movements were down again, almost 20 percent in 2007. And for the first half of 2008 piston traffic is off again. And for the first time since 2001 turbine-powered airplane traffic is down, and so are the number of scheduled airline flights.
With less flying it can become a challenge to keep your skills sharp. It's less of an issue for jet pilots because the rules demand a significant level of recurrent training just to be qualified for flight. But for the pilots of personal airplanes the rules for currency are almost nonexistent if you are not carrying passengers. Even with passengers you need only three landings and takeoffs in the past 90 days, and a flight review in the past two years, to qualify as current. The requirements for IFR currency are a little more stringent but they stretch over six months, so you can go half a year without any time in the system and still be legal to fly in the clouds.
So, without any really useful guidance from the FARs, what should a pilot whose flying has been slowed by fuel prices and the economy do to maximize the usefulness of the time in the airplane still available?
This will sound like heresy but the first thing I recommend is to stash the checklist out of sight. Without consulting the checklist do the most complete and thorough preflight inspection you have done since your first check ride. It has probably been some time since you lowered the flaps and looked closely at the exposed track and mechanism. Probably haven't examined the brake pad wear real closely for awhile either. And maybe you never checked to make sure all required documents, including those "quick reference" guides for the nav systems, are onboard and within reach of the pilot as often required.
When you have completed the preflight then you get out the checklist and check that you didn't miss anything. If you use the checklist as a "do list" you don't learn much, and more importantly, you don't notice what you have forgotten because you read each item off of the list. But when you go back and use the list to actually check your completed inspection any errors or omissions will stand out.
Climb into the cockpit and do the same thing. Hide the checklist and use a flow pattern to prepare the cockpit for each phase such as preflight, engine start and taxi. When you believe you have completed each phase, consult the checklist and you will quickly see how "current" your knowledge is of what needs to be accomplished. Many operators use the checklist as a checklist instead of a "do list" in normal operations and I like the technique, but it is an even more important tool to measure proficiency when you are not flying as much as you like.
As for the actual proficiency flying, try to select a day and time when your airport is going to be the least crowded. It's a given that you are not going to learn anything sitting and waiting to takeoff, or being stretched out in a big pattern full of airplanes.
For my gas money I'm going to practice the flying techniques and procedures that I actually use, not everything in the practical test standards guidebook. For example, I can't remember the last time I landed on a sod runway, so I'm not going to waste fuel practicing soft field takeoffs. The same goes for short field takeoffs. There is no such thing for my Baron as a short field takeoff procedure, but every piston single I can think of has some recommendation that you don't need to practice if you don't use short runways. If a trip to a minimum length runway comes up, then you can practice on a longer runway before that trip.
What to practice in flight depends on what type of flying you do. I always fly IFR so for meaningful practice I would file a flight plan and operate in the system. Practicing instrument approaches or holds on your own can be useful, I guess, but I find that it is the rhythm of the air traffic control system that I miss when I haven't flown recently. For me good IFR practice is to file a flight plan and fly the trip. The controllers will supply the surprises, and maybe the weather will too, and you can fly an approach at the destination even if the weather allows for a visual procedure.
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