due to family, home payments and stuff I ran out of money for flying at about 85 hours.
18 1/2 years later and the hormonal surges that bring about the midlife crisis were undeniable. so I decided to but the urge to use and get back flying.
I spent a year reading pprune before trying any flying.
I also re read all the theory (trevor thom series).
oh in australia at the time the bull!!!! of having to totally requalify if you hadnt flown for 3 years had been abolished and pilot's licences had become perpetual.
two months later I found an instructor.
I would do a training flight, then spend the rest of the day and the next day analysing the problems and researching the solutions.
we continued like that for 4 flights.
after shutdown at the end of the 4th flight I was feeling pretty good. nothing had overwhelmed me during the flight and I'd even contended with a near miss in the circuit.
the instructor turned to me in the cockpit. he said dont let this stroke your ego but you are pretty
incredible. you next flight will be with the CFI for final sign off. I have students that havent flown for a year and 10 hours later they are still hopeless. you are back up to speed in 4 hours after 18 years away from it.
incredible.
at 4:45 back into it the CFI signed me off with a pat on the back.
I have now flown 400 or so hours in a W8 Tailwind and am restoring 2 austers.
I must say that pprune was the key to it all. the diversity of subjects discussed pushed my memory back into all the corners and blew away all the cobwebs.
pprune isnt all frustrated vitriolic pilots, there are some gems here.