How to Winterize Your Flying

There are may ways to preserve and protect skills if you have to take a break from the cockpit.

Meg Godlewski

Monday, December 29, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

If you take a break from flying for the winter months, you not only lose currency, you lose proficiency. [Credit: Meg Godlewski]

Key Takeaways:

Winter weather significantly challenges general aviation, with IFR conditions, shorter days, and potential for icing demanding enhanced pilot awareness and specialized night flying skills.
To maintain proficiency and currency, pilots should proactively utilize resources like Advanced Aviation Training Devices (simulators), seek rental flights, or engage in ground study and online courses during unfavorable weather or aircraft downtime.
Increased safety measures are paramount for winter flying, including allowing extra time for preflight (de-icing, preheating), ensuring reliable carbon monoxide detection, and thoroughly studying routes and obstructions.

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When you tell someone you are a pilot and live in a state that has predominantly IFR conditions November through March, they inevitably make a reference to all flight training ceasing in the winter because of the weather. And there is some truth to this, as I learned as a student pilot in the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle leads the nation in cloudy and foggy days, according to weather statistics gathered by Currentresults.com, coming in with 226 cloudy and 165 foggy days per year, followed closely by Portland, Oregon, with 165 cloudy and 125 foggy. Combine a low ceiling with a low freezing level, and you will find a great many general aviation pilots opt to stay on the ground, planning to fly on a better weather day.