Getting Back Into It: Need Advise/Insight

[flybub]

Hey everyone. I have been out of aviation for about 7 years. I came out of FlightSafety Academy in April of '02 with SEL/MEL Commercial. During my ME training my wife got pregnant (oops) and after I completed my SEL commercial ride we moved back to Ohio where we were from and where our family is. Neither of us had jobs in Vero so that was the major reason for the move since we were living off my Key Education Loan. The wife now is a Physical Therapist Asst. and I am a Supervisor in a family owned manufacturing company. My dream of becoming an airline pilot has come and gone unfortunately, but my passion to fly is still there. I still have alot of my material/books from FSI but I'm wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a syllabus to start studying again since I have more or less forgot everything. I don't want to just do random topics I'd rather have an outline to follow. Nothing will come of this job wise unless there is a need for an aerial photo flight or something, this is strictly recreational. With 3 kids now and my FSI loan I cannot afford to dump alot back into training. Thanks for any help.

 

[David_L_Wilson]

Just get a BFR and get back into any single engine used for training. Your skills will come back quickly. Its like riding a bike. You never forget. I started flying about the time you quit and nothing has really changed.

 

[flybub]

Hey David, thanks for the response. They flying part I'm not concerned about, it's getting back all the knowledge I had when I was at FSI. You don't realize how much you had until you have forgotten all of it.

 

[avbug]

You didn't have as much knowledge as you think. Let's face it, at 300 hours and fresh certificates, you were just getting started. It won't be that difficult to pick up where you left off.

Anything you need to know now, that you needed to know then, will come out of basic pilot handbooks. You can even view them for nothing online, or download them at no cost.

http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/pilot_handbook/

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/

 

[JAFI]

Flying is an expensive hobby.

You may consider becoming a CFI (If you want to teach that is). This way you can fly, get paid to teach, and have some one else pay for the flight time.

 

[hangar7guy]

Just an idea, having stumbled across your post while surfing: Try Gleim's materials, this one in particular for Instrument stuff.

http://www.gleim.com/aviation/instrument/online/

I've been using & recommending their products to my students as a backup to the regular Jeppesen syllabus that we use, largely because their presentation is so to-the-point, without a lot of excess wordiness to wade through. This IFR one isn't too pricey; their other things seem reasonable too, especially compared to King.

I've used their online CFI revalidation course, which provided a lot of PDF downloadable material. (No, I'm not connected to the company -- just a satisfied customer ).

Good luck getting back into it.

 

[Way2Broke]

I like David's enthusiasm about flying, but none of his responses to posts or threads he creates ever take into account the financial realities of most pilots. In Flybub's post he even acknowledges his financial hardships caused by the love of flight. Like stated before, this is a expensive hobby, and a very expensive career. I like JAFI's idea about becoming a CFI, but listening to AVBUG's advise about getting back to basics should come first. Good luck.

Remember, books are cheap. If you havn't been already, you will be shocked at how expensive GA and flight training has become. The only good news is that this might actually cause a shortage of pilots in the future, and lead to the american loved term of "correction" AKA: The bottom falling out of something.