Checkflights and keeping current

[Pete Dog]

Just wondering what the normal gap allowed between flights is before you have to do a short checkflight? I've heard some schools require at least one flight every 30 days (if a longer gap then a circuit checkflight is required) and a full checkflight every 6 months. Is this the norm? Just trying to keep my costs down in the current financial climate:ok:

Thanks
Pete Dog

[BackPacker]

My club requires a clubcheck once every year, regardless of hours flown, and no other currency rules other than what's legally required. A prof check doubles as a club check every other year, and a (successful) checkout on a new type also counts as a club check.

We operate four different brands of aircraft (Piper, Robin, Diamond and Cessna), 9 types (all non-complex), 17 aircraft in total. One yearly clubcheck is sufficient for all the types you've ever been checked out on, although common sense prevails: most people restrict themselves to two or three types they know well, and will not fly any other type, at least not to the limits of the envelope.

Furthermore we have 3 more complex aircraft, including a twin, for which a different regime applies (and rightly so).

[Mr Grimsdale]

Sounds like a normal requirement to me.

I'm with a club at Biggin and they specify 28 days as time after which a check flight is required. There seems to be some flexibility though depending on length of time with the club and experience.

I'm with another club at Headcorn and they have a similar take on this.

[expedite08]

It differs among clubs. Where I fly some individuals need very close supervison and need a check out pretty much each time before they fly! Others, myself included who hold a CPL and are current, only get a quick circuit when changing to a different a/c type. Im part of the furniture at the place I fly from, been heavily involved since my teens. Its all in the trust, I can go in anytime and take an aircraft up, even before the place is open/ or after its closed. Evening and early morning flying is magical!! Give it a try! :ok:

[bjornhall]

Normal, or UK-normal?

Where I fly, in addition to the legal currency requirements; check flight required if you haven't flown the club's aircraft in the last 90 days; familiarisation training must include a flight with an instructor (CRI or FI); new members who did not join the club's flight school need a check flight.

Is there any other country where things like "check flight every 28 days" or "the club decides how much supervision you need based on how good they think you are" are considered reasonable club requirements? :confused:

[rotorcraig]

I've heard some schools require at least one flight every 30 days (if a longer gap then a circuit checkflight is required) and a full checkflight every 6 months. Is this the norm?
That's exactly what my school go with.

Just trying to keep my costs down in the current financial climate
I always find that when they think a checkflight would be useful, I think the same. I've never felt that I'm being asked (required?) to spend money on something that's not of use to me.

RC

[bigfoot01]

Check flight required after lapse of 21 days if you have less than 50 hours P1 and Every 28 days if you have more than 50 hours P1!

[Pilot DAR]

As said, different clubs different rules. You should expect though, that with a consistent demonstration of good skill and judgement on your part, and loyalty to one club, that there will be some flexibility. It is my opinion that once you have a hundred or so hours of good experience with the club, on a steady basis, they should be willing to bend the rules. One way, which I used to do long ago, was to maintain currency on the club's most complex aircraft, and then be exempted from the need for checkouts on all simpler ones. This worked fine... unitl one day....

I went to rent the 172RG to take a date flying. It had just gone off the line, so I said "no problem, I'll take a 172 then". The dispatcher then informed me, and my passenger, that I "could not fly the 172". Wrong thing to say.

I excused myself, and had a chat with the chief instructor, which somewhere contained the phrase "that's never going to happen again, right?". He promptly entered my name on a blue card I had never before seen. He told me that upon presentation of this card to any dispatcher, I would not be required to have a checkout. I could rent whatever I wanted without worrying. That problem never reoccurred at that club.

Certainly you would expect a checkout if you were not known at that club, and you should appreciate this opportunity to have your skills assessed AT ANY POINT IN YOUR PILOTING CAREER. Often, when I have to fly someone's aircraft, I ask for a checkout. Sometimes I get one, often there is nobody to do it. When I've had checkouts in the last few years, Either I have had to ask to have the other pilot to go for longer when they have told me I was fine, or in some cases, the instructor has started to ask me to demonstrate things for him to experience. I was once asked (decades later at the same club as before) when I was doing a check out so I could test fly one of their 172's, to demonstrate a roll. "No" was my reply. "...but this plane will do it, won't it?", "Yes, I replied, but not while I'm flying it!"

Until you have a few hundred hours, enjoy the checkouts. The instructor should be using the opportunity to provide you with a few extra hints and skills (but not rolls in a 172!)

Pilot DAR

[Pete Dog]

Thanks for so much advice. I only have 80 odd hours so still early days. My last checkflight lasted 2hrs and one is expected every 6 months. I thought that 2 hours is a bit long. Surely it should just include a nav, diversion, manouevers, pfl and some different approaches.

[S-Works]

My last checkflight lasted 2hrs and one is expected every 6 months.

Then someone turned you over and used you as cash for either the school or for the purpose of them gaining hours at your expense or you were of such a shocking standard that you had to do what amounted to a new skills test.

I do a lot of check flights as an Instructor and they rarely last more than a couple of circuits. A good instructor will know straight away of the candidate is competent or not and if they are then job done. If they are rusty and need a little polishing that may take an extra few circuits but generally never more.

I had a guy come back to flying after 15 years recently and he only needed 10 hours to get up to speed and pass a skills test.

[Rod1]

The problem is knowing what is required to enhance safety and what is a cash generation exercise dressed up with a safety excuse. Most private owners based on strips fly with an instructor once or twice in a two year cycle.

Rod1

[Charles Sierra]

6 weeks where I am ........common sense.

[Fuji Abound]

I had a guy come back to flying after 15 years recently and he only needed 10 hours to get up to speed and pass a skills test.

Having done a few check rides I find this interesting and something I have wrestled with. I have asked the question before how long does it take for the average person to become rusty.

Personally I reached the following conclusions:

1. It varies really quite significantly between individuals, but in general the more flying they have done the longer period of lapse they can have. On the whole someone with 500+ hours is significantly better than someone with 200 hours. There are some common denominators. It is evident those who were well trained in the first place. It is evident those who have flown a few different types.

2. For someone with 500+ hours if they have had three months off flying, in fact the 28 day rule or whatever it is many clubs impose is nonesense. After three months there is hardly any detectable loss of skill,

3. Between 3 and 6 months for the high hour pilot there is some degree of skill loss,

4. Instrument skills go much more quickly, and, the more complex the aircraft, the more likely the pilot is to struggle with some situations,

5. Much responsibility actually remains with the pilot. In some respects a circuit or two only proves (usually in benign conditions) the pilot can pull off a reasonable landing and handle the aircraft without immediate risk. However, it says nothing about his skills to deal with more difficult approaches, more challenging flying or an in flight emergency. For those reasons a check flight is often paying little more than lip serivce to currency. A pilot who, having been checked out, sets off on a long flight in poor weather with a new and more challenging approach at one end, and is unlucky enought to have to deal with an in flight "situation" may well find he is stretched to or beyond his limits, whereas the guy who has been flying regularly is more likely to be able to cope.