Not everything can be blamed on COVID, but the (hopefully) fading pandemic is certainly one reason you may not have logged a lot of time in the left seat in the last year or so. I was a little surprised to see in my logbook that I’d flown 67 hours in 2020, and almost that much in the first half of 2021 – given that much of my flight time is usually as an instructor, and for a big part of 2020 not much of that was happening, I am fortunate to have flown much in the last year and a half at all.
But forget about global apocalypses (please). An extended illness, a change in business or employment, family or financial circumstances, or an extensive aircraft upgrade, modification or damage recovery can all result in a month – or three, or six, or more – away from the left seat. When the circumstances change and you return to the cockpit of your personal airliner, what might you do to smooth your transition back into the left seat?
The Usual Advice
Of course, your recency of experience may require something formal to restore your left-seat privileges. You may need a Flight Review or an Instrument Proficiency Check. If you’re flying Part 135 or 91K you may need even more. Depending on the type of aircraft you fly and the insurance company that financially backs both your airplane and your flying ability, you may have to take recurrent training, maybe even some time in a simulator.
But say you’re not captaining something with a regulatory or insurance-based training mandate, at least not one that expired since the last time you flew. With the right entries in your logbook, you may not need anything more than three new takeoffs and landings before carrying passengers in night IMC. Is that still a good idea?
You might consider bringing another pilot along on your first few trips to help out or simply keep an eye on things (i.e., you). Even if it’s only a desktop PC-based recreational device, some time on a simulator or Flight Training Device would certainly help you get back in the game.
The usual advice is still sound. If you’ve been away from the cockpit for a month or more, but not so long that you are required to take some training, it’s still a very good idea to engage a flight instructor and get a quality control check on your work. Make it a full Flight Review – that’s only two hours of your time, at minimum, so it’s a good, low-cost way to ease yourself back into the left seat. If you plan to fly IFR, you can combine this with or add an IPC or at least a few approaches, holds and missed approaches to re-sharpen your skills before turning yourself loose in the system. I’m always going to say that a little flight instruction as quality control will go a long way if you’re a little rusty.
But in preparation for that instruction, as an adjunct to “dual received” benefits, and in general to get you back up to the speed you enjoyed before whatever got you down, what more unique suggestions might you consider?
Seat Time
No matter what you fly, you have easy access to one of the best training devices – the airplane itself. Spend some quality time in the pilot’s seat getting reacquainted. Look around and review where everything is. Close your eyes and point to selected devices – the oil temperature gauge, the backup altimeter, the autopilot and electric trim circuit breakers. Touch an item, open your eyes and score your results. This “blindfold cockpit test” is a staple of military pilot training but is not often taught in the civilian world.
I had to pass such a test before I was permitted to solo the mighty T-41A Mescalero, the U.S. Air Force Flight Screening Program’s barely-militarized 1965/1967 Cessna 172s. I’ve included this level of familiarity for myself in my civilian flying, evaluating myself on it occasionally even now, and encourage you to attain this level of familiarity with your airplane as well. If you’ve been away from the cockpit for a while, this is a good way to get yourself back into the groove.
Take the control wheel in your hand. Grasp the throttles or power levers. Close your eyes and visualize a takeoff. Advance to takeoff power and add the right amount of pressure to the wheel. Think about what you’ll see – power comes up, oil pressure and temperature check, airspeed comes alive, you track the centerline with your feet, then rotation speed, pitch up, and establish initial climb. Stop short of moving the landing gear handle (you’re still on the ground, after all). But make a few mental takeoffs with as much kinesthetic feedback as possible (feeling and moving controls) to practice a few takeoffs before you actually fly them. Do the same with virtual landings. Get your head back in the flying game, even before you fly.
Now, do the same thing with emergency procedures. Run through the motions of emergency procedures memory items – engine failure, electrical fire, emergency descent, trim runaway and more. To the extent safely possible, actually move switches and controls to rebuild that muscle memory. Practice until you can complete the trim runway procedure with your attention still focused outside the windscreen or on the primary attitude display. Do the same with the procedure for an engine failure during initial climb, for an electrical fire, and for an emergency descent. Use your cockpit procedures trainer, the airplane itself sitting still on the ground. When you’re done, complete the Shutdown and Securing checklists to put everything back into place for the next flight, whether virtual or real.
Book a Flight
Take this opportunity to get back in the books. Read Section VII, Systems Description, of your airplane’s Flight Manual or Pilot’s Operating Handbook. I guarantee you’ll learn something new, or at least re-learn something you knew but have forgotten. Most pilots are very familiar with the Normal and Emergency checklists, but far fewer have taken the time to thoroughly read the Systems Description. Even if you had, they call it “refresher” training for a reason. Refresh your memory, and learn something new, but reading Section VII.
Similarly, make a good review of the AFM/POH Supplement for your airplane’s autopilot system and the number one navigation device (usually a GPS/COMM). You shouldn’t need an excuse to review these occasionally, but if you do need one, here it is…you’re returning from hiatus to the cockpit.
Reset Your Personal Minimums
Don’t try to be a hero. For at least the first few flights back in the left seat, be extremely conservative with your personal minimums. If at all possible, get a few flights under your belt in visual conditions before attempting any IMC alone at all. You can file and fly IFR (assuming you’re still current or just earned an IPC), but do so in clear air to help ease you back into the system. When you do resume flying in IMC, hold yourself to higher minimums until you are fully comfortable and competent back in the clouds.
Return Flights
As you return to actual flying, focus on these techniques to restore your flying skills:
Checklists: Use your checklists like you were taking your Airline Transport Pilot checkride. If anything, exaggerate your use of printed checklists. Checklists do three things. Checklists reinforce:
- The actions you take for each change in airplane configuration and phase of flight, in other words, what you do when;
- The sequence of those actions, that is, the order in which you do them; and
- The pace of your actions in each operation or flight-phase change – how quickly, or more often, how deliberately you perform those steps.
Checklists can be used to attain and retain skill. You don’t need to do checklists as challenge-and-response, read-a-step, do-a-step. In fact, that’s a strategy for failure in a single-pilot cockpit as it distracts you from your primary job of flying the airplane. But once you have the skills don’t throw the checklists over your shoulder onto the back seat. Take the actions you’ve learned, in the order and at the speed you’ve learned them, and then as time permits, reference the printed checklist to ensure you haven’t forgotten something – which is even more critical when you’ve been out of the cockpit for a while.
One more thing about checklists. One of their greatest benefits is often overlooked, especially by experienced pilots who are very current in the airplane they fly. Checklists protect against complacency, with that last quality control check to catch when you miss something precisely because it’s all so familiar to you. So as you use your checklists to help you regain your flying skills after some time away, commit to continuing to use them like a professional to guard against complacency as well as simple forgetfulness.
Skill-building: As you begin flying, practice some specific tasks to regain and add to your skills. Use the flight director for an initial pitch reference on takeoff. Make a short- or soft-field takeoff. Done right, this won’t overly unnerve most passengers, and it sharpens your skills without any additional flight time or cost. Use your navigator’s VNAV function. Consistent with actual ATC requirements, give yourself a crossing restriction and fly to achieve it. Aim for a specific touchdown spot on landing (you should do this all the time anyway). If you’re flying a leg without passengers, throw in a steep turn and a go-around. When you’re done, grade yourself on your performance – what you did right, what you need to work on, and what you’d do differently next time. Just as with checklist use, use your return to the cockpit to spur making this kind of practice and self-evaluation a normal routine no matter how often you fly.
Emergency procedures: Find that stack of old 5×7 index cards you have in the back of your desk that you’ve not used since the introduction of the Palm Pilot. On one side of each card write an emergency condition: engine failure, engine fire, emergency descent, electrical fire, pressurization loss, whatever applies to the airplane you fly. On the back of each card list the memory steps of the appropriate checklist. If your handbook does not specifically identify them in bold or red print, use your judgment to select those things you think must be done from memory because there isn’t time to pull out the checklist at the onset of each emergency.
Keep this stack of cards in your airplane where you can reach them while strapped in. During your cockpit procedures, practice on the ground, pull a card at random and perform the memory steps. Do the same in cruise flight. Don’t actually move switches and controls in flight, of course, but move your hands (and head) through the motions of each emergency. Do this once or twice during the low-workload en route phase of normal trips to turn some of the in-air downtime into productive emergency skills enhancement.
For most experienced pilot’s it’s not difficult to get back up to speed quickly after a period of flying inactivity if you’ve been well trained and have good personal operating procedures. The re-immersion process will go much more quickly if you use deliberate practice techniques to overcome the effects of being out of the left seat. And a period of downtime might be just the push you need to sharpen your skills even more, not only for your immediate return to the cockpit but to become an even more professional pilot for as long as you fly.
