If You’ve Been Grounded For A Few Years Or A Few Decades And Need To Scratch The Itch To Get Back In The Air, It’s Not Hard To Do

Life sometimes gets in the way. If you’re one of those that have a pilot license but haven’t used it for years, the regulations actually make it pretty easy to get started again. Your pilot license never expires and there are lots of new options out there for using it.

There are 3 main issues to deal with, and the first is making sure that you actually have your pilot certificate. The second consideration deals with medical certification, and the third is what type of checkout or training is needed to become legal.

Your pilot certificate has no expiration date but you must find it or get a new one. If you still have your paper certificate it must be converted to the new plastic certificate. If you can’t find your certificate at all, it just takes a little time on the FAA website to have a new plastic certificate issued. It can also be reissued by mail or by visiting an FAA Flight Standards District Office. It will cost you a whopping two dollars.

You may have heard of something called sport pilot that allows you to fly using a valid state driver’s license as medical certification. If that’s the way you’re going to go, you need to get together with someone that can explain how the sport pilot system works. Otherwise, simply contact an FAA Medical Examiner and take the physical.

Just in case you heard about new rules regarding private pilots not needing a 3rd class medical, those rules are not in effect yet. They may show up somewhere around June 2017 but, even then, if you’ve been more than 10 years without a medical, a new 3rd class medical will be required.

Becoming current is easily done by complying with the FAR 61.56 flight review requirement. In short, the requirement specifies one hour of ground training and one hour of flight training. In case you’re concerned about not “passing” a flight review, it’s not a test and there is no pass or fail. In all probability, you’ll want to spend more than just a few hours in ground and flight training to feel comfortable in today’s regulatory environment and to assure your pilot skills are up to snuff.

There is also the issue of meeting the recent experience requirements in FAR 61.57, but the instructor who performs the flight review will probably make sure you comply with this regulation in the process. If you are returning to exercise sport pilot privileges, you can perform the flight review in any aircraft category for which you are rated on your original pilot certificate because you already hold a pilot certificate of a higher rating than sport pilot.

It’s easy to get back into the game and the aviation community will welcome you with open arms.

(Image from File)

FMI; www.faa.gov/pilots/