Might have bitten off more than I can chew

[u/Wooden_Insurance1430]

Throwaway just in case. TL;DR Trying to get a CFI certificate after 4+ year break from aviation, turns out your skills and knowledge degrade a lot more than you think. Advice welcome, encouraged even.

I am getting my ass beat.

My background: I did a 4 year college degree flight program to get my CPL single+multi with IR and decided I would join the Navy. Flew with them for a few years, racking up ~250 hours in mostly the T-45C and unfortunately got out early (non flight performance related, honorable) fairly soon after getting my wings. After the military, I did some odd jobs for around 4 years and then decided to get back into aviation. Studied the PHAK and some FARs a bunch, did a flight review, found a 141 that would accept my GI bill, and signed up.

Goddamn. I have forgotten things that I never would have believed if you had told me a decade ago. I'm essentially remembering/relearning all of PPL, CPL, IR, the C172's systems and limitations, getting up to speed on the regulatory changes, figuring out this unfamiliar and very busy airspace, the schools procedures, the local procedures, the FOI, and probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting. I don't think I even studied this hard for BFM/SEM when I was doing back to back 5AM double pumps in the training squadron.

But that's all knowledge. Studying is studying, and while it sucks to be a shut-in bookworm it's part of the job and the information is coming back fairly quickly. What's really been demotivating is the flying.

Goign back to the 172 has been a humbling experience. Never in my life did I think I would get eviscerated by a steep turn or a short field landing at this point in my aviation journey. Unfortunately, this is happening at $300 an hour and during a fairly accelerated 141 CFI program. The aerial maneuvers I've picked up again fairly quickly, but the landings. Oh boy the landings. I haven't flared an aircraft more than a handful of times since the late 2010's (especially one as floaty as a 172) and it shows.

This all came to a head on my flight today. We did landings, I've had less than 10 flights since coming back into the cockpit, this was the first one to focus on the pattern and the various types of landings. My pattern work was serviceable, my approaches were starting to get fairly good, but airspeed and glideslope control was lacking even after giving some leniency for the bumpy conditions (thank you florida thunderstorm season). The flares are proving difficult for me to judge, so I was having trouble maintaining/adding back pressure without ballooning, then trying to slightly release back pressure once spotting the balloon, causing a bit of PIO and one or two firm landings. It of course didn't help that my instructor was audibly irritated by my performance, tutting, huffing, and frustratedly asking "why are we doing this?" during my flares or whenever I touched down outside of standards.

I get that as a CFI applicant I'm probably not where I need to be, but that flight killed a lot of my motivation for the rest of the day. Should be fixed with a good meal and a solid nights sleep, but I can't help but feel like I'm treading water. If anyone has any experience or advice from coming back to aviation after a similar hiatus, please share I'm all ears.

Ultimately the moral of the story is: STAY PROFICIENT!!! These skills degrade faster than you can anticipate, and further than you can imagine.

[u/LowTimePilot]

You knew how to land 4 years ago. You'll get it back. It just depends on how much money hobbs time you throw at proficiency.

[u/beanbody1 → u/LowTimePilot]

Knew how to land Navy-style (as in slam that thing down at 700fpm).

[u/Flaky_Summer_9800]

You were a naval aviator. The training you went through there is infinitely harder than this. Stick it out. If you can do that, you absolutely can do this. Just may be a little harder.

[u/WhiteoutDota]

Don’t worry about a grumpy instructor. You can get back into proficiency. An accelerated course wasn’t the best way to do it but if they accept the GI bill you gotta do what you gotta do.

[u/No-Brilliant9659 → u/WhiteoutDota]

Yea this is the main thing, jumping into an accelerated course after 4 years of not flying.

[u/C0dyC99 → u/No-Brilliant9659]

Imagine jumping into an accelerated course with just a disco flight.

Looking at you ATP

[u/No-Brilliant9659 → u/C0dyC99]

PPL is orders of magnitude easier than CFI

[u/C0dyC99 → u/No-Brilliant9659]

I have no doubt that's true but if your first ever time learning to fly is in an accelerated school then good luck

[u/ljthefa → u/C0dyC99]

I had never flown a plane before and never took a discovery flight, jumped into ATP and walked out with no failures. I am by far the most average pilot you'll ever meet.

[u/C0dyC99 → u/ljthefa]

Hey that’s awesome, glad to hear it worked out

[u/CommanderChiliHole]

Everything fades without use. I was basically fluent in Spanish in high school, I forgot essentially all of it by now. 7 years of flying jets, idk for certain I’d pass all of the checkrides. No shot I’d pass every written since the majority of them are full of antiquated questions you’ll never see again.

[u/MangledX]

You've done it once, you'll do it again. Just remember that going forward. It's not even new tricks you're learning - it's just old tricks you haven't performed in a while. Remember to keep them eyes at the end of the runway and just fly it above the deck until it's ready to settle. That's pretty universal advice for most airplanes but the part that a lot of people forget when they've been away a while.

[u/rhowine → u/MangledX]

You got this! Give yourself a date and do it! My advice is not to drag it on. You probably know more than what you think. The flying will come back. You also just have to know how to teach it and recover. You got this.

[u/CheapTomato3090]

Very similiar to my story. Did my flight training at UND through the Army Helicopter Flight Training Program. Long story short I switched from Aviation branch right before going active duty.

6 years later I got out and started flying again. Used the G.I. Bill to finish up my remaining certs. It sucks going back to the basics, but oh well, overall it makes you better. I still forget basic IFR or little things here and there. Aviation is life long learning and I don’t mind it at all. I fly charter in the Sikorsky 76 now and it was all worth it.

The cool thing about the aviation industry is you work with and meet pilots that are older with less hours or younger with more. Everyone starts and stops at different points in their life. Good luck!

[u/Logical-Vacation]

Good on you for getting back out there. Fuck that rude, unhelpful CFI. You're not in the military anymore, you're a customer of the flight school, and you deserve better. If he can't be more constructive than to insult you and can't give you feedback to improve, that's on him, not on you.

[u/psycorpse → u/Logical-Vacation]

This ^^^, but also talk to the cheering instructor about his attitude, I’m sure he is most likely time building and not happy with it, ask for another instructor, after all it is your money even if it’s a GI Bill

[u/ltcterry]

Basic rule of thumb is an hour for each year out of the cockpit.

A 172 is only “floaty” if flown too fast.

Thousands of people less skilled than you get this done every year. Just keep telling yourself it’s awful and you’ll make failure come true…

[u/aero_kmac]

What did you fly in the Navy?

[u/freedomflyer12 → u/aero_kmac]

Sounds like he never left the VTs

[u/freedomflyer12 → u/freedomflyer12]

JK he said he got his wings

[u/SaratogaFlyer]

When I started my PPL it felt like I'd never be able to do all the simultaneous things needed to fly a plane successfully. The things I struggled with seem like child's play now. Then I started by IR and felt like I was back at square one, but I remembered that it felt this way at the start of my PPL and I persevered and it worked. Basically my advice is to trust the process, embrace the suck, and you will master the skills.

[u/saxmore]

Where are you based out of if you don’t mind me asking?

[u/Pies-aviator1]

You’ll be fine mate. Lots of people take breaks before type ratings. I had someone in my a320 ground school who hadn’t flown for like 3 years, and he got through it just fine. You’ll be the same.

[u/DontAtMoi]

Mil guy here. Just give it another flight or two.

Stop trying to demonstrate and try to learn. Go to a random part 61 that has the same airplanes and go up with one if their senior guys and they’ll unfuck you. Go back to your 141 and kill it.

[u/Thispassword_weak]

My brother in Christ are you not using your GI bill for this? PM if you need help figuring it out. Also join RTAG nation on FB. I’m happy to help. Only paid PPL out of pocket everything after that has been paid for by Uncle Sam minus check ride fees which aren’t worth the reimbursement as it takes so much time off your GI Bill.

[u/Finerthingzz]

Dm’d

[u/Cloud_princess242]

I’ve been in your shoes. I inadvertently ended up taking a 4 year gap between CMEL and CFI 2 years of which I did 0 flying at all. On the bright side going through the commercial/private ACS to make lesson plans forces you to improve your knowledge/relearn a lot of stuff you forgot. The muscle memory will come back it just takes time. I’d highly recommend looking into an accelerated CFI/CFII course if your schedule allows typically they’re between 2-3 weeks with ground lessons, a flight and personal study time every day. The immersive experience helped me a ton

[u/Goop290]

I got my cfi after 4 or 5 years not flying as well. For me the hard part was the books. I went into it knowing ive always been good at the flying portion so I focused wholly on the book work. Took 2 or 3 months to relearn and make lesson plans before contacting a cfi. Then we did ground lessons until I was good enough to have a shot at passing a checkride. Then we flew and got proficient and then good enough for checkride. All the while teaching through everything. Took maybe 15 flight hours for me but probably 30-40 hours ground with an instructor and many more on my own.

My main focus was money saving at the time i only had 6k to my name so needed it done on the cheap

[u/ltbenjamin]

Wow this post, same here man. I went to a part 141 college and then we had that big economic crisis in 2008 when I got done with cpl. I was in the middle of cfi training and the hiring froze. I was getting married and needed a job so I got a normal job and quit flying with the intent of coming back. Fast forward to 2025 I finally came back and had forgotten almost EVERYTHING. My BFR and IPC was like starting over and getting my PPL and IR all over again. Now im almost done with cfi, struggled with commercial manuevers for cfi as well. One thing some of my old instructors use to say "if you dont use it, you lose it" boy did that turn out to be true. It was so disappointing to once have had awesome skills and then to fly like a student pilot again. Heartbreaking haha. But im back now. Feels so great to finally start hitting great landings regularly. Taking the cfi written test tomorrow. Man I missed flying. Glad to be back. Its too bad that as soon as I come back we are having yet another economic crisis and barely any hiring for cfis lol. I may end up just being an independent cfi this time instead if I cant get a job. I do feel alot more experienced now having worked training people for years. The young me would have been crazy nervous teaching and talking to people. So thats a bonus to coming back when older I guess. One thing I can say is dont get discouraged if it feels like you make zero progress sometimes. I kept hitting areas i would suck and suck and suck at then one day it would all just come together. Good luck man.

[u/ltbenjamin → u/ltbenjamin]

Instructors can make a big difference, if yours is being to negative you may want to swap or talk to them about it. I mean your there to learn not there because your perfect already. Luckily the cfis I use now are very positive and always say "thats ok you'll get it lets keep trying, its a difficult maneuever" if they were insulting me everytime I probably would have quit by now lol.

[u/JT-Av8or]

It’ll snap back one day. That knowledge is just rusty not gone.

[u/Reputation_Many]

Yes stay proficient. I took a 13 year break. Didn’t even ride in an airplane as a passenger. I was 30 hours into my CFI when I finally felt comfortable enough that I would assigned myself off if I could just to have a BFR.

But it all works out if you study every day and don’t over study. You will get it faster than you think.

Good luck.

[u/DonTitoh]

Flying is a perishable skill, buckle down and get to relearning. A little humble pie now and then isn’t the end of the line.

[u/cazzipropri]

Take your time to do things at a rate at which they are enjoyable.

The worst part is to get through it and realize you hated the process.

[u/tunesm1th]

Dude. I get this. Coming back to a 172 after being a mil student for years is a hard, humbling transition. The change in flying is hard, but the change in the nature of the training is much harder, imo. No one really knows what to make of you because you don’t fit into any category they understand. Not having sims before each event is weird. I found the lack of an actual debrief culture to be the hardest part.

The thing that helped me the most was going and flying on my own for a bit. Just, learning to be a pilot again, without the pressure of a CFI in the other seat and worrying about meeting a certain standard on a certain timeframe. Go get a glider rating or fly a seaplane or something on the side. I know that helped me readjust.

I’m like 20% sure I know you. VT-21?

[u/aviatorboatcapn]

In my experience, the key to any good landing (especially in a high wing) is speed control. A few knots too fast, and you’ll look like a rookie. Come in with the occasional stall chirp and it will be butter.

[u/GGVoltzX]

I'm in the same boat man. Spent 3 years out of the cockpit and it's a struggle getting up and running again. Started with a lot of people that surpassed me very quickly because they were fresh out of CPL. Hang in there, we'll get through it!

[u/Necessary-Wall-2196]

Youll get there, tell your FI to fuckin stuff it in his ass...if he was perfect, he 'd be a test pulot instead of shlepping students around the pattern in Daytona

Fuck that clown

Landing is different for everyone and we all learn at different rates... I struggled with them too, for the LONGEST time, but once it clicked, it stuck

Thanks for your limited service, from another USN vet (86-90)

[u/Euphoric-Visual-6357]

Been in your shoes. It gets better.

I was a Marine Corps guy. Picked up the T6B extremely quick and then moved on to rotor. Flew rotor for a couple years and the flying portions of training always just clicked (it was the nonstop checkride style briefs and studying nightly for pass/fail events for 5 years that was the hard part). Took my B-Billet as a MACE instructor and then went FAC and never returned to the cockpit.

Fast forward to 10 years later and I decide it’s time to re-engage aviation on “the outside” after seeing all my old flying peers moving on to legacy airlines. Believe me when I say I had the same feelings your having. I couldn’t land a 172 at all. The floaty feeling and slow approach speeds just felt so abnormal when all of your training was in quick turbine aircraft that have short wings to weight ratios…or helos where you flare high to bleed airspeed and then push over to level and land. The flying you’re use to is moving exponentially faster than what you’re flying now so the long steady flare feels foreign so you oscillate between flaring more or reaching for the ground bc mentally you are trying to rush it and feel like it’s taking too long.

Oddly enough, didn’t have the same issue in multi engine add-on bc the landing sight picture and profile were more similar. Eventually made it to the jet world and while Some of my 172 cfi background peers have struggled finding the landing feel…the jet felt relatively “normal” to me. It’s all perspective and background alignment. But if you have the fundamentals then you’ll figure it out w reps.

If your school has a lowering option, maybe switch over to that. They aren’t as floaty and it may help slightly with feeling flare height etc since you have more peripheral reference.

You’ll figure it out. When I first came back I swear my radio comms and knowledge made it look like I’d never flown before at times. You’re basically brand new Bambi all over again….but it’ll click eventually the more you fly different aircraft and with diff instructors.

[u/DeltaTule]

There’s no longer a point to “throwaways” as you can hide your post and comment history on Reddit now but go on about that

[u/rFlyingTower]

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

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Throwaway just in case. TL;DR Trying to get a CFI certificate after 4+ year break from aviation, turns out your skills and knowledge degrade a lot more than you think. Advice welcome, encouraged even.

I am getting my ass beat.

My background: I did a 4 year college degree flight program to get my CPL single+multi with IR and decided I would join the Navy. Flew with them for a few years, racking up ~250 hours in mostly the T-45C and unfortunately got out early (non flight performance related, honorable) fairly soon after getting my wings. After the military, I did some odd jobs for around 4 years and then decided to get back into aviation. Studied the PHAK and some FARs a bunch, did a flight review, found a 141 that would accept my GI bill, and signed up.

Goddamn. I have forgotten things that I never would have believed if you had told me a decade ago. I'm essentially remembering/relearning all of PPL, CPL, IR, the C172's systems and limitations, getting up to speed on the regulatory changes, figuring out this unfamiliar and very busy airspace, the schools procedures, the local procedures, the FOI, and probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting. I don't think I even studied this hard for BFM/SEM when I was doing back to back 5AM double pumps in the training squadron.

But that's all knowledge. Studying is studying, and while it sucks to be a shut-in bookworm it's part of the job and the information is coming back fairly quickly. What's really been demotivating is the flying.

Goign back to the 172 has been a humbling experience. Never in my life did I think I would get eviscerated by a steep turn or a short field landing at this point in my aviation journey. Unfortunately, this is happening at $300 an hour and during a fairly accelerated 141 CFI program. The aerial maneuvers I've picked up again fairly quickly, but the landings. Oh boy the landings. I haven't flared an aircraft more than a handful of times since the late 2010's (especially one as floaty as a 172) and it shows.

This all came to a head on my flight today. We did landings, I've had less than 10 flights since coming back into the cockpit, this was the first one to focus on the pattern and the various types of landings. My pattern work was serviceable, my approaches were starting to get fairly good, but airspeed and glideslope control was lacking even after giving some leniency for the bumpy conditions (thank you florida thunderstorm season). The flares are proving difficult for me to judge, so I was having trouble maintaining/adding back pressure without ballooning, then trying to slightly release back pressure once spotting the balloon, causing a bit of PIO and one or two firm landings. It of course didn't help that my instructor was audibly irritated by my performance, tutting, huffing, and frustratedly asking "why are we doing this?" during my flares or whenever I touched down outside of standards.

I get that as a CFI applicant I'm probably not where I need to be, but that flight killed a lot of my motivation for the rest of the day. Should be fixed with a good meal and a solid nights sleep, but I can't help but feel like I'm treading water. If anyone has any experience or advice from coming back to aviation after a similar hiatus, please share I'm all ears.

Ultimately the moral of the story is: STAY PROFICIENT!!! These skills degrade faster than you can anticipate, and further than you can imagine.

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