I believe that currency is important. Flying a C172 on a windless CAVOK day is not all that challenging but there may not be many of such days where you live. So you need to be prepared for less optimal conditions, like a X-wind, and fly as much as possible which seems like a challenge for you for the next couple of years.
Like your wife said, an option is to pause for a while. Accept the hassle of getting in again. Not sure what the hassle is though, your theory does not expire, it’s just a matter of some retraining and an exam I suppose?
Some other ideas, based on the idea that you won’t fly with family for now anyway:
1. Keep on flying, even if sporadic, but always with a safety pilot. Share costs.
2. Let your licence lapse, but offer yourself as a front-seat pax. I may seem as a bit of a watered-down way of flying but at least it keeps the connection with aviation. Share costs.
@Airborne_Again has been in a similar situation and may have some ideas.
MedEwok wrote:
She has suggested “pausing” flying for 10 years until the children are grown up and I must say it is not a completely unreasonable suggestion but I am not sure if I will ever get back into GA if I do (especially if the hassle involved is high and I have to redo everything by that time).
I’ve done this, twice now. As you are a simple PPL with SEPL and nothing else, it is very easy to go back as your LICENCE never lapses under EASA Part FCL, only your rating. Gaining your rating back in my case was a question of 8 hours dual including a Skill Test last time I did it, this time it will probably be less as I know the airplane (last time I also did the difference training for the M20) and I’ve flown some dual in between.
Getting back into a C172 will never be very hard, particularly if you keep in the loop about what happens on the aviation side. On my first hiatus I had the job simming for a magazine and stayed active in forums, which kept me more than adequately informed about the changes (which at the time were profound, JAR to EASA and so on). So the main thing would be to not completely get out of it, maybe do a dual or two a year and get back once the hassle of being short of time and permanent demands on your time are gone.
Much better however would be to keep the SEPL alive with min hours.
It is a totally normal kind of thing to see that fathers of families disappear from flying (and any other activities such as sport, social life, e.t.c) once kids are born and re-appear 20 years later. Rising kids is a 24/7 comitment and very tough on spare time to do any kind of hobby. Many of us get totally eaten up by the attempt to organize family time vs work time to the point where any outside interests are inexistent for years on end, particularly if there are no grand parents or friends to take care from time to time. In such cases it is also very hard on relationships, as there is no time for anything, cinema, theater, couple time. None. That flying or any hobby has no place in such a phase of life is logical, the first thing that has to stop are such things. In the first 6 years of my daughter’s life, I have not had any time for myself, neither has my wife. It’s just normal but also I would not want to miss the time. Kids grow up fast and once they do, the time to spend with your kids are gone. And if your spouse does not support flying as a family, then that time is spend differently. Many women become extremely risk adverse once they have kids, even if they were totally different before.
So yes, it is not an unreasonable suggestion. Flying is a very time consuming hobby compared to others. And even those are usually cut back to zero in those first years. Some people would do simming as a compensation, but in my experience, simming is not much less time intensive if you want to do it seriously, so that is no option either. I have not had my simming PC on once since I stopped working for the mag. Reading some books on my phone or being active in the fora is all I’ve managed for myself since. And recently to be involved one afternoon a week in the 737 sim.
What I would suggest however is to stay active in the fora. That way the dream never dies. That is how I’ve kept my motivation to go back “one day” active.
Let your licence lapse, but offer yourself as a front-seat pax. I may seem as a bit of a watered-down way of flying but at least it keeps the connection with aviation. Share costs.
That is what I did for years where other financial and professional priorities comes in (I mostly flew gliders and joined aeroplanes with other owner pilots most of it was for free, some share in fuel or lunch)
I had lot of random “free time” tough, if one can’t make “free time” that won’t work neither and it’s better to find another hobby (e.g. flight simulation or motring) and come back to flying later
aart wrote:
@Airborne_Again has been in a similar situation and may have some ideas.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
It is a totally normal kind of thing to see that fathers of families disappear from flying (and any other activities such as sport, social life, e.t.c) once kids are born and re-appear 20 years later.
Yes, that’s exactly what happened to me. I quit completely and didn’t even sit in a SEP for 17 years. Getting the license back was surprisingly easy – just like riding a bicycle, really. I did about 4 hours of training before getting my license back. I did have around 500 hours at the time which of course helped. At that time licenses were time limited, but I got two levels of grandfathering which let me keep the theory but I read up on air law anyway.
A year later I renewed my IR which was much more hard work, obviously. I had to redo the whole theory (which turned out to be more extensive than when I first got the IR in the 80’s – this was just before the CB-IR). Fortunately I didn’t have to take a complete IR theory course – the ATO allowed me to read up on the material myself which took a few evenings a week for the better part of six months. I spent about 40 hours in front of an (unapproved) PC simulator at home, then 10 flight hours and 6 hours in an approved simulator at the ATO.
I stopped flying less than a year after getting my PPL due to rising cost. I could have got a check-out and done just enough to keep my licence, but didn’t think that was sensible. After 21 years of boats, I regained my licence, and have kept current for 36 years.
I regret allowing my licence to lapse. There were cheaper flying options I didn’t know about.
(There are good reasons why I didn’t go on the internet in 1965.) :-)
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Much better however would be to keep the SEPL alive with min hours.
Technically legally one doesn’t need the min hours, if one revalidates with a proficiency check with an examiner. Whether one will pass the proficiency check with so little experience/currency as to not have min hours is another question.
MedEwok wrote:
Having my own aircraft would solve this problem but the wife has said no as it’s too expensive and I’m “not flying enough” (which is true but also the main reason for getting your own airplane if you do not have easy round the clock access to rentals…)
What keeps you from flying more? It is non availability (or non-short-term availability) of rental planes, or “other stuff” like family pressure, cash flow, time availability, …? In one case “your own plane” is a solution to the reason you are not flying “enough” in the other case it is indeed “not justified”.
She has suggested “pausing” flying for 10 years until the children are grown up and I must say it is not a completely unreasonable suggestion but I am not sure if I will ever get back into GA if I do (especially if the hassle involved is high and I have to redo everything by that time).
In general, I share your doubts, the counterexamples on this forum notwithstanding.
Another way to see it is that, wife/partner distaste notwithstanding, possibly it is your children that will want to go flying with you :) Is that a possibility, have you tried it, or is the “other co-parent” vetoing that?
