DonFromTX
Well Known Member
It has been 10 months today since I got my airworthiness certificate on the 12 I built. It is still sitting forlornly in the corner of the hangar, anxiously awaiting a pilot to fly her!
I felt my story was enough the same as others, so will share my sad tale. I turn 80 this month, it has been 25 years since I last flew, 5 of those years were building. My physical condition makes me one of those old time private pilots that can now fly on a drivers license, in other words exercise the privileges of a Sport Pilot. As I finished my build, I started looking for an instructor that could bring me up to date and give me a Flight Review. The closest was Jetguy, 600 miles away and a full time professional pilot. Booking some time between his schedule, my schedule, and the weather, I did manage to get in 17 1/2 hours and 47 landings, and those were some valuable learning sessions, but at that time I sort of gave up, it seemed so slow I would never get there. There were no options down here in the lower tip of Texas, so I finally just bought an ELSA for the sole purpose of polishing off my skills in an RV12 and getting a flight review. That is harder than I thought as well, seems the insurance companies want an instructor t has a few hours in a 12! I finally thought I had found an instructor, but after thinking about it, flying with an old guy in an experimental was just too much risk for them to take, my risk was of course no insurance! I still have no flight review!
So what is my point? I wish I had used my building time to do some flying, but there being no Light Sport planes around, that did not happen. THINK about a path to flying your plane while you are building! Most people are located in an area where they can accomplish what I did not.
I felt my story was enough the same as others, so will share my sad tale. I turn 80 this month, it has been 25 years since I last flew, 5 of those years were building. My physical condition makes me one of those old time private pilots that can now fly on a drivers license, in other words exercise the privileges of a Sport Pilot. As I finished my build, I started looking for an instructor that could bring me up to date and give me a Flight Review. The closest was Jetguy, 600 miles away and a full time professional pilot. Booking some time between his schedule, my schedule, and the weather, I did manage to get in 17 1/2 hours and 47 landings, and those were some valuable learning sessions, but at that time I sort of gave up, it seemed so slow I would never get there. There were no options down here in the lower tip of Texas, so I finally just bought an ELSA for the sole purpose of polishing off my skills in an RV12 and getting a flight review. That is harder than I thought as well, seems the insurance companies want an instructor t has a few hours in a 12! I finally thought I had found an instructor, but after thinking about it, flying with an old guy in an experimental was just too much risk for them to take, my risk was of course no insurance! I still have no flight review!
So what is my point? I wish I had used my building time to do some flying, but there being no Light Sport planes around, that did not happen. THINK about a path to flying your plane while you are building! Most people are located in an area where they can accomplish what I did not.