Returning to soaring after long time away...best BFR/refresher study material?

Hello, I was last an active (licensed) glider pilot 15 years ago at White Sands Soaring Association in Alamogordo NM. Due to a busy military career, I put soaring on hold--but no more! I recently retired from the military and moved to Tucson AZ. Today, I just drove back from El Tiro gliderport where I applied to the Tucson Soaring Club. I am giddy at the thought of soaring again!

I have a lot of refresher training to do, and a lot to learn about FAA changes since I was last current ~2005. Although I held a CFIG years ago, that means little right now--I am non-current in many ways. I don't just want to 'pass' a BFR, as there also a whole lot that I am sure I forgot and I need to find & fill those gaps. I want to find that love of flying and enjoy it again--and be a safe, proficient & knowledgeable pilot.

Question is: what robust Biannual Flight Review or "long dang time since you last flew" study material is out there just for this kind of purpose? What will get me current again on glider FARs and overall flying changes over the last 15 years?

Open to any and all suggestions, and thank you for your inputs.

Mark Rose

Just fly til you are comfortable. Not much has changed. No more paper student certificate. Did you let your cfi expire? It's a shame these days with online refreshing available...but a checkride will boost your confidence!

Welcome back!
The Soaring Safety Foundation offers abundant info (lit and videos) for you to re-familiarize a number of topics (for CFIG's as well). For additional suggestions and help in tailoring a rusty-pilot program, Burt Compton (an SSF Director) is one you might want to contact: (previous post)

Feeling Rusty?
YOU choose the topics / maneuvers that you feel that you need to work on to become proficient.
Aerotow, accuracy landings, thermaling, reading the sky and more.
May qualify as a Flight Review.

Marfa is on a grassy plateau at 5,000' airport elevation in southwest Texas, near the scenic Davis mountains and Big Bend National Park. No oil here, just a huge aquifer of water underground.
Tourist info: www.visitmarfa.com
Closest airline terminals are El Paso, TX or Midland, TX.
Let's discuss details and dates by E-mail:

I am another glider pilot who has returned to soaring after many years of not flying. In my situation I had a 35 year absence from flying due to work and family obligations were more important. Now that I am retired, I have all the time I need to resume soaring flight.

The first thing I did was to locate my old logbook and paper license. Even though an FAA license is good for life, you need to get a current plastic FAA license because nobody accepts the old paper licenses any more. I don't care if Orville Wright signed your original license, you need a new license card.

The next thing I did was to go to a local commercial glider port and take lessons just like any newby pilot. My main focus was to fly safely and discover where I needed to improve. My biggest issues were current airspace rules and situational awareness.

Airspace rule are online now and there are Utube videos that do a decent job of going over the new rules.

Situational awareness was an issue for be because I had not flown in so many years. I had lost the pilots perspective from the cockpit.

My other flying skills were ok at best, except for coordinated flight. I needed to work on this and after a number of flights focusing on this issue, I was flying again. Well, at least I didn't skid my turn to final at low altitude and I kept my nose down and airspeed up.

After I number of lessons, my CFI-G signed my logbook and I bought an older fiberglass sailplane that needed a little work, but is a solid and easy to fly glider. Today, I can usually be found at my local gliderport on almost every soarable flying day.

Mark,

Welcome back.

Were you ever an instructor in uniform? You can turn that into a new instructor rating that would reset your CFIG.

My suggestion would be to set a standard; perhaps CFIG PTS as a goal. When ready, fly with a DPE. You'll reset you CFIG and will have been tested to today's standards, so you'll know you are good to go.

A personal pet peeve because instructors are supposed to set standards - if you look at the FAA's Circular on 61.56 Flight Reviews, you'll see the term "BFR" has been deprecated over 20 years now. They specifically say that "24 calendar months" is not "two years"... (Back then they were considering annual flight reviews for pilots with less than 400 hours total time.)

You will, of course, need to be compliant with 61.56 before you fly solo. There are more ways to do that than "just" a flight review. You can do some online training at faasafety.gov and three flight tasks with an instructor and be "legal." If you take my DPE suggestion above and only fly dual until the check ride then the check ride resets 61.56, too.

As I said above, welcome back and best of luck getting current and proficient again.

Terry

Thank you all for the comments. I was a little lost on how to get started when I posted this and now I think I have a solid way forward.

I was not a flyer in the military, so no IP credentials to convert over.

I downloaded the free FAA Glider Flying Handbook and I am reading through that (though basic). Also, I am watching all of the Soaring Safety Foundation videos and tools--very helpful. Also, I bought Condor 2 and found there is a whole instructional piece to it, so I am going to go through that and fly there to regain some muscle memory. Last, it is dry reading, but I bought the latest FAR and sectional for AZ, so I will pour through those as well.. I also saw a American Flyers FIRC for Life course for $99, which may be a great step when I am little further down the road.

While I am waiting for TSC to accept me and get started there, it occurred to me that Arizona Soaring is just down the road. I may try to drive up soon and see if I can get a little air time and basic instruction. I'd really like to get checked out in their Genesis 2 when able.

Not a pilot again, but will be soon!

Mark

On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 4:24:44 PM UTC-4, Mark Rose wrote:
Thank you all for the comments. I was a little lost on how to get started when I posted this and now I think I have a solid way forward.

I was not a flyer in the military, so no IP credentials to convert over.

I downloaded the free FAA Glider Flying Handbook and I am reading through that (though basic). Also, I am watching all of the Soaring Safety Foundation videos and tools--very helpful. Also, I bought Condor 2 and found there is a whole instructional piece to it, so I am going to go through that and fly there to regain some muscle memory. Last, it is dry reading, but I bought the latest FAR and sectional for AZ, so I will pour through those as well. I also saw a American Flyers FIRC for Life course for $99, which may be a great step when I am little further down the road.

While I am waiting for TSC to accept me and get started there, it occurred to me that Arizona Soaring is just down the road. I may try to drive up soon and see if I can get a little air time and basic instruction. I'd really like to get checked out in their Genesis 2 when able.

Not a pilot again, but will be soon!

Mark

the free FAA Glider Flying Handbook, you may want to make it a game to see how many errors you can find in that book. Alternatively, you can buy the revised version put out by Tom Knauff - IIRC he said he and his team made 12,000 corrections to that text.

On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 2:54:09 PM UTC-7, Mark Rose wrote:
Hello, I was last an active (licensed) glider pilot 15 years ago at White Sands Soaring Association in Alamogordo NM. Due to a busy military career, I put soaring on hold--but no more! I recently retired from the military and moved to Tucson AZ. Today, I just drove back from El Tiro gliderport where I applied to the Tucson Soaring Club. I am giddy at the thought of soaring again!

I have a lot of refresher training to do, and a lot to learn about FAA changes since I was last current ~2005. Although I held a CFIG years ago, that means little right now--I am non-current in many ways. I don't just want to 'pass' a BFR, as there also a whole lot that I am sure I forgot and I need to find & fill those gaps. I want to find that love of flying and enjoy it again--and be a safe, proficient & knowledgeable pilot.

Question is: what robust Biannual Flight Review or "long dang time since you last flew" study material is out there just for this kind of purpose? What will get me current again on glider FARs and overall flying changes over the last 15 years?

Open to any and all suggestions, and thank you for your inputs.

Mark Rose

You are reading too much into this: just go thru the normal BFR and you and your instructor will quickly identify what (if any) areas that you need more training. Tip: you're not going to get this from reading a book.

Tom