Page 13 - September21T

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY AUTHOR
STEPS FOR RETURNING TO THE COCKPIT AFTER A BREAK
by Thomas P. Turner
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 employ- ment, family or financial circumstances, or an extensive aircraft upgrade, modification or dam- age 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?
BACK IN THE
LEFT SEAT
September 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 11