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Bringing a Rusty Aviator Back to the Sky

Returning a Pilot Back to the Sky

One of my most favorite parts of flying is sharing the experience with people who have never flown before.   Along the same lines comes the opportunity to share the experience with other pilots who for what ever reason are no longer flying.

I recently started a new job and with a new job comes a large group of new friends and opportunities to introduce people to aviation.   When people found out that I was a Pilot they quickly told me about another pilot that was on the staff.  We quickly got to talking about aviation as you would expect pilots to do.   I found out that he had a pretty long history of flying but he had not been able to fly in the last 4 years.  When I suggested we go flying this weekend, he jumped at the opportunity to go. 

My Mission was to get familiar with our new Garmin GTN-650 GPS.  (Review of the GTN-650 will be below)  Since I will be setting off for Oshkosh in this airplane, I wanted to get some more time under my belt to ensure I was qualified to use the GTN-650.   Steve's mission was to be my Autopilot while I fiddled with the GTN-650.   Before departing I asked him where should we go?  I gave him the following options:

• BBQ (KAQO to Coopers, BBQ)
• Hamburger (11R to a dinner)
• Seafood (KRAS to the Beach)

The beach won out, so we headed south.  The clouds were still a little think, but it was barley VFR.  I decided to file IFR anyways just so we could climb above into cooler and smoother air.   Steve flew the plane most of the way and it didn't look like he missed many skills in his 4 year break.  Heading and Altitude were spot on.   Getting closer to KRAS we setup on the RNAV 12 approach and flew a pretty simple and easy approach for landing.    

The way back was VFR.  We climbed our way above the clouds to 6,500 feet.  About half way we went up to 8,500 as the clouds got a little taller.  We did an easy decent into Austin (KAUS) and landed.   

Getting an experienced Pilot back into the swing of things is just as fun as taking a first timer.   It was a great Flight.

GTN-650 Review
I am an experienced pilot with GNS-430W and KLN-89B/KLB-94 GPS.   I downloaded the GTN-650 Simulator and read the user guide the night before my flight.   My goal was to get a good feeling for how it really works on an actual flight plan.  Our clearance was from KAUS PLAMS1 Departure CRP to KRAS.  

My overall review of the GTN-650:  WOW!  How did airplanes ever get off the ground before?

Entering the Flight plan is very simple with the 650, you can even enter Victor Airways now!   Loading approaches and navigating the menus is very simple.    I did have one issue getting the GPS to transition from Vectors on Departure to flying the actual flight plan.  I am sure this is just user error and I need to read the manual a little more.  Other than that, it was simply amazing to fly with. 
The one thing I couldn't find that the GNS-430W had was an automatic timer to remind me to switch fuel tanks.  There are timers, but nothing automatic that I could find.  I will keep looking.