When I was recently asked to fly from my home in Los Angeles to Paso Robles, I experienced an unfamiliar nervousness. Flying used to be second nature. It didn’t feel much more challenging than stepping into my car to drive to the grocery store. But I gave birth to a son in the summer of 2009, and flew fewer times in the past year and a half than I previously did in a week. I had lost my confidence and my proficiency.
A good friend was kind enough to lend me his airplane — a Grumman Tiger — for the flight to Paso Robles. I had helped him out with a biannual flight review about two months prior in the same airplane and I had about 15 hours of total time in that aircraft type. But prior to the most recent flight it had been four or five years since I had last flown a Tiger. I was definitely legal to fly and carry passengers, and I was also qualified under my friend’s insurance policy.
