A long time ago (about 1980?) someone told me a special rating was
needed to fly over the outback, that my USA Private SEL Instruments
wasn't good enough. Did he have it backwards? It sounds like the rating
needed for flying in uncontrolled airspace there is easier to get than
one that might be used for controlled.

I would guess a bit less than hour a week could keep you pretty sharp
for VFR flights, but if it was 3 hours once a month it might be a
different story. One of my flying friends is pretty good at telling if
I've not been at the controls for three or four weeks, and if he flies
with me after I've just returned from a 10 or 15 hour flying time trip
he claims I'm almost as good as a real pilot like him. All's fair,
because we fly safety and check pilot for each other, and the game is
to put the pilot being tested head down under the hood, try to
disorient him, then say "the airplane is yours."


On Jan 26, 3:30 pm, "d&tm" wrote:
"Tony" wrote in ooglegroups.com...





I've checked my log book, and it looks like almost all of my flights
are XC of one sort or another. That is, the airplane is pretty much
used the way I use my car. It's a convenient way to make a trip that's
a few hundred to a thousand miles long. Not all of the trips are
necessary (just as not all of the car trips I make are necessary,
either). Very few flight legs terminate at the same airport as where
the flight started.

If you're a fairly experienced pilot -- say 300 plus hours -- what is
your usage profile like?

My sense, and it could be very wrong, is that we use GA as a tool:
there's no doubt we like flying, and probably like me you're happy to
be flying, but you have other things to do when you land. For instance,
a typical non-business flight for me to Nantucket Island (off Cape
Cod, MA, USA) and that brings back memories of cobblestone streets and
flowers in gardens behind fences, rather than the CAVU conditions of
the flight. It might bring back different memories if required an
approach to minimums in fog, but that would be the exception.

I expect glider pilots will have a different take -- as best I can
tell, that tribe makes no excuses, they fly for the sole pleasure of
flying.Perhaps we are the poor cousins but down under a lot of us PPLs are what we
call weekend warriors, who might go out every other week for a 1 hour
joyflight from the same airport. with hopefully a couple of x country trips
every year. Many of you US posters would probably doubt we can keep up the
necessary skills with maybe 40 hours per year but you need to bear in mind
much lower traffic density, generally good weather and a fairly open
terain. I have an outside controlled airspace license which lets me fly
anywhere in the country apart from the controlled airpace around the major
centers ( which still have smaller outside controlled airspace fields so it
is not much of a restriction at all). I dont have to worry too much about
ATC procedures... just being sure to stay out of the controlled airpsace. I
just love the freedom of flying .. the journey is unimportant.
terry.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -