Returning to Flying

“I haven’t flown for quite a while,” starts the conversation. “I was wondering if you could brush me up a bit and get me back in the air.” Invariably, the interval being estimated by the lapsed pilot turns out to be diminished by memory loss, a few years being more like a decade. “We can try, and see how it goes,” I’ll tell them. “You’ll need a flight review as well as proficiency.”

Rebuilding a former pilot is rather like rehabbing a run-down house; the bones may be good, but it can take a lot of work to bring it up to current code. Quite often, the individual will respond with “I’d just like to see if I can still do it,” and we’ll take them up on a sort of “Rediscovery Flight.” Sometimes that brief excursion is enough to satisfy their curiosity, and they’ll be content to come by the airport once in a while and take a half an hour of dual with an instructor, more for enjoyment than serious training.

But, more hopefully, the fire will reignite and the former pilot will say “Why didn’t I do this a long time ago?” Then we can talk about making an appointment with the AME to get a fresh medical certificate and begin the process of scraping off years of rust. It’s an enjoyable process, to watch a resurrection take place. 

Relearning flight requires special instructional techniques. Unless the returnee is truly starting over with a zero-time skillset, there will be some residual knowledge and muscle memory, albeit flawed and frozen in time. The instructor must dig deep to find just what the pilot can recall and what will best serve to update it, rather than insist on checking the boxes of a Part 141 syllabus. Some older individuals will want to work with a CFI of an age similar to their own, instead of submitting to the tutelage of a “young whippersnapper.” That might be a mistake; were I restarting my career, I would seek out an enthusiastic recently-trained instructor who’s up to date on today’s aviation system, not necessarily a set-in-his-ways oldtimer.

More Than Just The Stick And Rudder Part

One of the biggest mistakes in retraining pilots is concentrating primarily on flying the airplane. Getting used to modern navigation and flight planning needs to be covered in ground school, along with the regulatory changes and procedures that have evolved from the last time the person flew. Weather is eternal, but the acquisition of METARs and TAFs, and their interpretation, is not what it once was. The various types of TFRs need to be understood, and the rapid-fire delivery of taxi route clearances will require interpretation as well as readback. Checking for NOTAMS before a flight is required, but since the FAA issues four million Notices To Airmen every year, digging them out and deciphering their code isn’t easy. The point is, do not neglect ground training in favor of the fun part.

I’ve learned the hard way to never assume a returning pilot still knows the basics. Even at the risk of being repetitive and simplistic, it’s best to go back to the beginning and start from there. Check for understanding by frequent quizzing, requiring a response. Merely lecturing and observing an agreeable nod from the recipient is no guarantee of learning. Confirm that he or she actually heard and understood. “I thought he knew that,” uttered after the mishap, can be the result of a mistaken assumption.

Spreading out a paper sectional chart and looking at the new symbols and nomenclature is a great way to reacquaint a returning pilot who’s coming back after years away from the cockpit. Reassure them that most of the map hasn’t changed, but stress that there are differences that need to be brought out. During one recent flight review, the pilot couldn’t tell me the significance of the magenta circle around an airport, or the difference between it and a blue-tinted one. He knew all this at one time, but hadn’t had to interact with it recently. Radio use is another perishable skill. I find that a lot of out-of-currency pilots will be using the PTT button as a push-to-think device, struggling to come up with the words they used to rattle off in daily use. Spend time role-playing the ATC interactions and make sure the pilot can compose thought prior to transmitting.

Most returning pilots want to tackle taking off and landing right away, because they consider meeting those challenges as defining them as a pilot. While pattern work is well and good, it’s better to go out to the practice area and work on the bits and pieces of the takeoff and landing, things like clearing the airspace and executing coordinated turns in climb and glide modes. Maybe they were taught to push some rudder while twisting the yoke, but they’ve probably forgotten it, leaving the slip/skid indicator free to wobble to and fro. Entering and recovering from slow flight teaches the technique needed to land and go-around. Only after basic flight skills are reestablished will they be ready for the traffic pattern.

Once-pilots often hate to do stall practice, but as a basic response to a life-threatening situation, stall prevention and correction shouldn’t be overlooked. Perhaps they never got comfortable with full stall and recovery technique in their student training days, and consider it an unnecessary something from their past, but when I call for a departure stall demonstration I expect to see a break of the pitch attitude and a smooth deliberate recovery action. One older pilot recently demonstrated how not to recover, with a quick power application and only a slight change in nose attitude. After hearing the stall warning wail interminably while we slowly mushed back into level flight, I showed him the proper aggressive use of forward stick, recovering in less altitude loss with a silent stall horn.

Even if the brushing-up pilot insists they are only going to be flying under VFR, I consider hood work to be vital. A few minutes out of each practive period needs to be spent on reacquiring basic survival instrument flying skills. Make sure they can hold a heading and altitude for a minute or two, make a 180-degree turn that will get them back to clear airspace, and keep control while making a descent. If you see a graveyard spiral dive developing, let it proceed before prompting a correction, as a worthwhile teaching exercise.

Modern Panels

Avionics use may require lengthy retraining, given the complexity of today’s instrument panels. Gone are the days when all radios worked pretty much alike and getting a swing off a VOR station guaranteed instant orientation. Pilots coming back after years of not flying will need help learning the button-ology of a modern nav system. In many cases, the pilot will find a glass panel. While GPS has freed us from the zigging and zagging of tracking VORs, it takes some understanding of how to set up even a simple direct-to route. I have found, however, that older-trained pilots frequently have a better grasp of orientation, and are less dependent on the magenta line.

Do not inundate the returning pilot with all the fancy tricks available in newer comm radios and GPS nav units. Just make sure they can handle basic frequency selection and know how to return to the home screen. Let them get comfortable meeting their rudimentary avionics needs at first, and if they want to learn more details later, go into them then.

Helping a lapsed pilot return to the skies is a rewarding experience. I have learned a lot from those once-active aviators who came to me for brushing up, who gave me insights into an earlier age of flight training. It may be us seeking retraining someday. 

This article first appeared in the 2026 August Issue of KITPLANES magazine.