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I know that in accident reports they will typically say the total number of hours the pilot had, but also the total hours in type and total hours in the last 90 days. I know from personal experience that landing an airplane can be a perishable skill (I recently went 60+ days since flying and my landings were not the picture-perfect examples they usually are...don't get me wrong, nothing unsafe, just wasn't proud of them...drifting off centerline, excessive float, etc :)

The FAA seems to know this with the 90-day passenger carrying requirement (3 take-offs and landings within 90 days to carry passengers during the day and 3 to a full-stop for night passenger carriage).

All this to say flying doesn't seem to be "just like riding a bike - you never forget it." But in what sense? The muscle memory goes? The "seat of the pants" sensation starts to feel foreign? I know charts can change, regs can change, but do you really "forget how to fly," or just "lose the touch?"

What skills go first, and what is the best way to self-assess your skill quality and mitigate the loss of it?

Jamiec
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Canuk
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  • I imagine the skills that go first vary depending on the pilot. The instrument scan and the precision required for IFR flight could certainly atrophy pretty quickly, the skills required for "normal VFR cruise flight" would probably be the last to go (keeping the wings level and holding a course is about as easy as it gets - you might not be graceful at it, blowing altitude or overshooting turns - but many pilots had on their first or second lesson and they should come back pretty quickly) – voretaq7 Aug 08 '14 at 07:25
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    Having not ridden a bike for over 15 years I have to say that riding a bike is not just like riding a bike. I had to relearn how not to fall when I tried teaching my son how to ride a bike. – slebetman Aug 11 '14 at 05:19

5 Answers5

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I have no hard data answers to your questions. Perhaps others will. I can, though, offer some personal observations.

My last two jobs were at 747 carriers. At the first we had two weeks on, two weeks off. At the second, we had 12 days off a month, which, with a little seniority, you could arrange to have as a block.

For me, the first thing to go was my instrument scan, and I used to joke that it took only 4 days of inactivity to lose that. The joking aside, I did notice a slight degradation the first day or two upon returning to work after time off. I should note that my habit was to hand fly the airplane to the first cruise level, and then to hand fly from the top of descent, so I perhaps would notice a bit of degradation more so than those who used the autopilot as soon as possible and until as late as possible.

I retired 15 years ago, and it had been 30 years since I had flown a light single engine airplane when, a few weeks ago, I decided to check out in a Cessna 172. After three sessions, the instructor said he was satisfied. I wasn't and we went out a four time, and he signed me off for my first-ever BFR.

In general, I did a little better than I had expected. In one area, landings, I did a worse. The problem was the sight picture I had in my head from 10 years of landing 747s. On the first landing, knowing that I'd want to flare high, I delayed rounding out until my gut way saying, "if you don't flare, you will crunch the airplane." When I started the flare, the instructor said, "No, you're way too high." I delayed again, then started again, and the instructor said I was still too high." I delayed again, then absolutely had to start again, at which time the instructor said something like, "Well, you're still high but go ahead." That landing was followed by three sessions of nothing but takeoffs and landings. Each session I improved, but, frankly, I have yet to get a really good landing. My next session will be solo and will be nothing but takeoffs and landings.

So, for me at least, I conclude that we don't forget how to fly, but we definite do lose the touch.

After I get the solo takeoff and landings session in, I'm going to go out with the instructor and shoot a couple of ILSs. I'm expecting my instrument scan to be terrible.

Terry
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  • Thanks. I know my scan goes quick as well. What I've found is that I mitigate this a bit using a sim, even something like FSX or X-Plane. How do you think your cross-country planning and decision-making skills are? – Canuk Aug 08 '14 at 00:07
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    @Canuk Not good. The Garmin GNS 430W in the 172 is totally new to me. For the last 10 years of my career, I used the old Carousel inertial systems that had to physically spin up before use. They put in a small GPS update box for the inertial systems during the last year or so. So far, I've only mastered what's necessary for communication on local flights. Insofar as flight planning is concerned, that was primarily something dispatch did. Captains were consulted only for unusual situations. So, I've a lot of work to do there. I may have to buy an iPad. lol – Terry Aug 08 '14 at 02:58
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    This is basically my "Well I'm *WAAAAAAY* not current..." routine -- if you're not sure of your skills go up with an instructor to make sure you're bare-minimum safe. After that you can drill yourself to meet the Practical Test Standards which is a great way to knock off rust. You can always grab an instructor again for anything that you're not able to polish back up to standards. – voretaq7 Aug 08 '14 at 07:28
  • Did you try to look down sideways before flaring? This has helped me most in judging the actual height and works great in a high wing plane. Only looking ahead does not help, and all it takes is a split-second glance sideways. – Peter Kämpf Aug 08 '14 at 12:29
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    @PeterKämpf Oh, yes. In fact after lining up on the runway for the very first takeoff and for a few subsequent takeoffs in later sessions, I paused on the runway to look sideways for a bit and try to get that perspective in mind. I talked to an instructor who had checked out a couple of 737 pilots and she said even they had a bit of a problem with flaring too high at first. I think the problem is one of having to unlearn an internalized reaction in favor of the new situation. Don't know if that last statement really makes sense. – Terry Aug 08 '14 at 17:06
  • @Terry: I understand the unlearning thing - after having flown ASH-25 and SB-10, I paused a few months, and then the fist glider I flew was a Schweitzer 2-33. I came in VERY low and almost landed short of the field. But what I meant is to look sideways just before you think it is time to flare, at the end of the approach. – Peter Kämpf Aug 09 '14 at 01:02
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    It very much depends on the person. My landings and scan seem to stay pretty well, but I forget how to communicate with ATC, how to run the GPS modes, and I have a much harder time figuring out headings, and I also tend to make very steep approaches to landing (VFR) after not flying for a few months. – Brian Knoblauch Aug 12 '14 at 16:15
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The Killing Zone: How & Why Pilots Die by Paul Craig (excellent book) has the results of an FAA study of this question, called Private Pilot Flight Skill Retention 8, 16, and 24 Months Following Certification. This table from the study lists the 27 skills they examined and the percentage of pilots who could perform them to PTS standards:

enter image description here

Based on this data, the first skills to go are accelerated stalls and magnetic compass turns: both were at 51% after 8 months. In some cases it seems obvious why the skill degrades: most pilots rarely - if ever - need to make magnetic compass turns so it isn't surprising that that particular skill goes away quickly. On the other hand, after 2 years only 60% of pilots could take off properly, only 51% could land properly at an uncontrolled airport and only 54% at a controlled one. That's all rather worrying considering that pilots usually take off and land at least once per flight.

As for how to assess and improve these skills, you could systematically work through this list in practice flights (like this guy has been doing in his last couple of videos), and/or get a regular review with an instructor. Just because the FAA requires a review once every 2 years doesn't mean that you have to wait that long: every 12 months or even every 6 may be more useful, especially for new pilots. Additional flight training of any kind will also help you to keep your skills sharp: get an instrument rating, commercial license, tailwheel endorsement, seaplane rating, glider rating, checkout in a new aircraft model etc.

But whatever approach you take, the first step is to critically review your own performance after every flight and make notes about what you did well and what you need to improve. If you don't do that, you have little or no chance of coming up with a good self-improvement plan.

Pondlife
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  • Great information, really, BUT it doesn't consider currency which is what this question is about. Pilots can be very current or way out of currency at the 8/16/24 month points. – Lnafziger Dec 03 '14 at 21:37
  • @Lnafziger It's true that currency is important but I think the OP mentioned it mainly to make the point that it's well understood that skills degrade, hence the need for legal currency in some cases. However, his basic question is which skills go first and fastest, regardless of formal currency requirements. At least, that's my take on it, hopefully the OP will clarify if I misunderstood. – Pondlife Dec 03 '14 at 21:45
  • I guess my point was that this includes people that fly every day as well as those that took the check ride and hung up their hats shortly thereafter. Some subsets of this group will be current while others are not, and their skills most likely stack up differently, while averaging out to what is in the table. I wish that we had access to the underlying data along with currency information. It would be interesting to analyze! – Lnafziger Dec 03 '14 at 21:53
  • @Lnafziger Yes, absolutely! The raw data isn't in the Craig book and I couldn't find a free copy of the original study online. The book is entirely based on an analysis of accident statistics and he spends a lot of time talking about currency and total hours, so there's a lot more information there. – Pondlife Dec 03 '14 at 21:59
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    Really interesting. This is the first time I've actually seen some data on this. I would be interested in knowing if there were any currency qualifiers like @Lnafziger suggests. However, I thought this comment was interesting "Pilots' ability to predict and evaluate their own skill retention levels for specific flight tasks was negligible." Maybe it's best to just systematically work on each of these tasks whether you think you need them or not. – Canuk Dec 05 '14 at 07:07
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    Sorry to necro an old question, but looking at this chart, to me it really says that the level of instruction is just not as good as it should be. The high checkride scores followed by a pretty steep drop in performance in some situations shows that CFIs may be teaching to the test rather than teaching people how to fly. When I started my Instrument training, I used the AI and DG only for the first couple of hours. Then the instructor took them away. It was turn indicator and mag compass from there on out. Was it required? No. Did it make me a better all-around pilot? I think so. – Shawn Apr 15 '15 at 16:27
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    And all that said, my primary instructor focused heavily on the fundamentals. Though I think it helped I learned out of a field that was 1900'x25' with trees and cows. Anyway, I've always said that you really teach a person to fly an airplane in the first 10 hours. That's the easy part. Every thing after that is how to handle the bad stuff. Good fundamentals will go a very long way, and any CFI should really pay attention to the above chart. – Shawn Apr 15 '15 at 16:33
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I agree with @Terry, but to add a couple points. If I go without flying for an extended period, some skills that I am rusty on are:

  • Emergency Procedures.

  • Getting the feel of the airplane again.

As far as emergency procedures, if I'm flying everyday I find it beneficial to do a take-off briefing (failed engine before/after lift-off). When I come back from a hiatus of flying, these take-off briefings take a bit to remember and get back in the groove, reaction time is critical. Sometimes I will practice forced-landings when landing at home (when proficient, it's no big deal hitting your mark). When I'm rusty - it's a bit more sloppy.

As far as getting the feel of the airplane again, some things I notice are landing too fast, maintaining coordination takes a bit more work (muscle memory). Basically, just general flying skills.

The best way to mitigate the loss is to fly at least once a week, even if it's just a trip around the pattern, that will help tremendously.

fbynite
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  • Once a week would be really nice, but doesn't seem terribly realistic for most. Even when I was in training I was only able to fly about once every other week (between airplane breakages, weather, work, etc). Now, once a month is a LOT, I'm frequently out of currency just from not being able to get to the airport every 90 days! – Brian Knoblauch Aug 12 '14 at 16:18
  • @BrianKnoblauch, my personal opinion is if you only fly once a month, you will never be proficient. – fbynite Aug 14 '14 at 08:03
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“If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.”

-- Jascha Heifetz

This is a big question to unpack and I don’t know if it has ever been studied. I would guess this really depends on the pilot in question and their personal strengths and weaknesses in their airmanship. Some people need constant practice in certain areas to remain proficient where as other skills are not that much of a struggle.

What I’ve found is, with lack of practice the first big thing to go is what I call “being in the groove”, that is being unconsciously competent with all aspects of the operation of the aircraft so I can control it with brain stem flying and leave a lot of my higher cognitive capacity free to handle higher order tasks and unexpected happenings. If I haven’t flown for a while, I feel like I’m stumbling, getting behind the airplane and really have to concentrate on basic flying tasks like attitude, power settings and coordination in turns. I can be behind the ball on checklists and ATC work as well.

One of the earliest things to go can be technical proficiency on complex maneuvers, for instance Lazy Eights, Eights On Pylons, etc. that require a lot of control finesse that can only be maintained with constant practice. Crosswind takeoffs and landings skills, especially in gusty conditions also atrophy quickly.

As Terry points out a lot of proficiency is airframe dependent. Switching between airframes to one which you have not flown in a while can cause proficiency problem, even if you are current and qualified on another airframe due to the quirks or each type.

Emergency procedures are another area that can really languish if not practiced on a regular basis. This is especially true of twins that demand a high degree of readiness an proficiency in the event of an engine emergency during takeoff and landing operations.

If you have been out of flying for a period of time the best advice is start easy and work progressively more complex. You don’t want to just straight into an instrument flight in a new airframe in busy airspace, even if you are current. But som trips around the pattern first of a good weather day with light winds would be a good warm up. Also consider making the first flight dual with a flight instructor to get you back up to speed.

As for skill assessments, you can use the ACS guide for your level of pilot certificate as a basic yardstick. Fly a task listed therein and then review what you did against that standards set there. Can you meet both the knowledge, risk assessment skills and performance requirements listed? If not what went wrong and how can you fix it? Also go up and fly with a CFI or flight examiner and see what they think.

The only way to mitigate the degradation is with constant practice. There is no other way to stay proficient and current.

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Romeo_4808N
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  • "I don’t know if it has ever been studied" from an accident causing perspective at least, it seems that it has been studied - see pondlife's answer. – FreeMan Apr 28 '20 at 15:40
  • Well, kind of. The answer is a kind of metric on some skills but I really don’t see an understanding of the psychology of perishable skills. – Romeo_4808N Apr 28 '20 at 20:15
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its says "aircraft," so I will answer for the categories and ratings I hold:

  1. Airplane Single Engine Land/Sea -- landings
  2. Rotorcraft/helicopter -- autorotations
  3. Gliders -- tow rope breaks
  4. Tailwheel -- wheel landings
  5. Complex + high-performance -- managing cowl flaps, wing flaps, rudder trim, engine cool-down, gear, etc.
  6. High-altitude -- emergency descent to 10,000ft
  7. Instrument/airplane -- partial panel
rbp
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  • Having never been in a glider, how often does the tow rope actually break? Is it pretty common? – Canuk May 11 '20 at 15:24