MedEwok wrote:
No excuses eh? You obviously don’t have a family with two little kids, a wife sceptical about flying and a demanding job with lots of shift-work and overtime. Nor do you need to rent your plane with restricted availability.
Yes that is the single most prominent reason why people quit flying or any other hobby.
You see a lot of people who take up flying young and quit when they marry and have kids to come back once the kids are grown up.
Euroflyer is right: currency below 50 to 80 hrs a year will exactly do what you describe, but foremost it destroys your confidence. It destroyed mine so for now I have stopped flying. I have no time and will have none for the foreseeable future. Children alone are a full time job and having shift work is another.
Maybe you should think about it.
One thing missing in the currency discussion IMHO is that this is not about annual hours! Of course, total hours per year is a measure often used by pilots to talk about average currency. But you could have flown 80 hours in the beginning of the year and not be current at all at the end of the year. Likewise, even if you don’t get the 50-80 hours, I think it is perfectly ok to fly less on average and then fly more either during a set season (like many pilots do in the summer) or regain currency just ahead of a planned family trip. Regaining currency after a hiatus (like winter) will probably require a conservative approach, like taking an hour or two with an instructor, then doing some flights, some pattern work alone, then doing the trip.
I think the average currency on euroga is higher than the general average SEP currency. Don’t let that keep you from doing things, like @Mooney_Driver said. You also don’t gain currency by sitting at home and thinking about how uncurrent you are.
Come to Texel next weekend for a start. 
Very good point Patrick. What we see a lot is people who scrape their 12 hours before their Sep lapses in several days and then are not seen until 24 months later.
We have the internal rule of 3 landings in the last 3 months or you need a check flight with an FI.
Good decision MedEWok! Mut zur Feigheit.
Do you have any friend that is experienced and could mentor you on your first further trips?
Doing two or three trips that way can be very positive for your future flying plans.
EuroFlyer wrote:
Relax, I didn’t want to sound cocky, all I’m saying is, in the situation you’re in (which I am still in as well, although the kids are a bit older now), take a smaller plane, and fly more often, to stay in practice ;) Maybe 30 will do. Shift work, two little kids, a sceptical wife (like mine) is a challenge to that and to many people. Yet, you still can do it and gain practice and keep it up. I told my wife flying is what I like, it’s what I need to do to stay happy, and she had to accept it, just as I accept her hobbies. It’s not selfish. There is a life beyond the pampers.
No offence taken. You are certainly right on all accounts, I just wanted to point out that it’s not a lack of will to fly that’s causing me to fly so little. I also don’t take the FIs with me for my comfort but because the rental companies mandate it. Can’t wait to get rid of meddling FIs, they are not exactly helping me to get confident although none of them are really bad at their job.
Snoopy wrote:
Good decision MedEWok! Mut zur Feigheit.
Do you have any friend that is experienced and could mentor you on your first further trips?
Doing two or three trips that way can be very positive for your future flying plans.
Patrick wrote:
I think the average currency on euroga is higher than the general average SEP currency. Don’t let that keep you from doing things, like @Mooney_Driver said. You also don’t gain currency by sitting at home and thinking about how uncurrent you are.Come to Texel next weekend for a start.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
You see a lot of people who take up flying young and quit when they marry and have kids to come back once the kids are grown up.
Yup. I was there exactly and took a break for 17 years.
Is there a mentoring programme in Germany like the LAA have here in the UK?
Personally I find that my lack of currency has almost no bearing on my ability to manage the three dimensional part of flying (speed, height and direction) but I lose a lot of confidence in the one dimensional stuff (planning and paperwork).
My ideal flying partner would be great at flight planning and rubbish at aircraft handling!
LeSving wrote:
How to increase the riskFly with an aircraft with fixed gear, that for sure will end up upside down
That’s not true. We’ve even had video on EuroGA of a light single (a Pawnee) ditching, and it did not end up on its back. In fact there’s several photo sequences and videos online of fixed gear aircraft ditching and not ending up upside down.
alioth wrote:
there’s several photo sequences and videos online of fixed gear aircraft ditching and not ending up upside downIf done right yes, but how many of us ever train this to do it right under the stress of an actual ditching?
