Eight years ago I retired from Part 121 flying. I currently have plenty of time in my logbook. At the airline I was flying over 500 hours a year and as a captain I had regular line checks and recurrent training events. I was at my peak skill as an instrument pilot, and with all that experience and proficiency behind me, I assumed I’d keep it. I was so wrong.
Like many of you, my insurance requires annual recurrent training. In previous years I’ve done acceptably, perhaps because I made sure to do some sim training on my own. This past year I flew enough that, other than one lapse during my avionics upgrade, I maintained my currency, thus I didn’t spend much time in the sim. That was a mistake.
