Returning to the flight deck

ctab5060X

Well-Known Member
Looking for advice on how others have handled getting back in the swing of things after a semi lengthy time away from anything aviation related.

I currently fly as a captain in the 121 environment and when I return to work, I will have been out 60+ days on FMLA. That will be the longest stretch of non-aviation related time I have had since the winter of 2004-2005 and the longest stretch since I starting flying 135 and 121.

I've currently been going through the manuals a little each night and doing some "chair flying" with the flight deck poster.

Anything else anyone can think of that might be useful?
 
Looking for advice on how others have handled getting back in the swing of things after a semi lengthy time away from anything aviation related.

I currently fly as a captain in the 121 environment and when I return to work, I will have been out 60+ days on FMLA. That will be the longest stretch of non-aviation related time I have had since the winter of 2004-2005 and the longest stretch since I starting flying 135 and 121.

I've currently been going through the manuals a little each night and doing some "chair flying" with the flight deck poster.

Anything else anyone can think of that might be useful?
You'll be fine. I'm getting close to that and I haven't had "time off". I had recurrent last week and told the instructor that its been almost 60 days since I last landed an airplane. He smiled and said the first one will be interesting and then it gets better from there. He was right.
 
60 days isn't too bad.

Trust your checklists and your FOs. Confess early if you are feeling behind. You'll be fine after a day or so.

We have an hour prior report for the start of our trips. I was going to be there a little earlier than that (nothing else going on that day) to sort through the backlog that has to be my mailbox in operations.

Also thinking of letting the FO fly the first leg.
 
I've gone 60 days without touching a jet, even flying full time!

Takes a leg or so to get back into the swing of things, but nothing is unsafe. We're almost never at 100% in the long-haul world, to be honest. Everyone is rusty to some degree.
 
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