Anyone who is a pilot or a dedicated student knows that balancing Family Time and Flying Time can be difficult. As the weather heats up and the blue skies and calm winds call us, this becomes increasingly difficult. We need to keep current every 90 days if we want to take passengers, but we also need to fly alone or with a CFI to remain aviator material.
To help solve our problem we can spend some family time in flight. A nice 100 mile round trip somewhere is a nice way to combine family and flying. A $200 hamburger joint (fuel costs ya know) might work, or even more if you are a good planner and the weather has your back.
Another thing to consider is a dedicated day to put aside (with your wife’s permission of course) 4 hours of time to fly with your buddies to a pancake breakfast somewhere. Balance is key here. If you go making this a weekly event you might have issues at home.
Another idea is to set aside one evening a week to fly…and keep to it. This could be a evening when the wife is with her friends or family doing something for herself. Everyone needs some ME time and so does your wife or girlfriend.
Remember that just because you like to fly and experience new things, doesn’t mean others feel the same way. So do be thoughtful and supportive. You should build up time with you significant other and do things that they want to do, so when it’s your turn they will feel that it would only be fair to you to let you fly.
Don’t make your wife feel abandoned. Explain to her that flying on a regular basis makes you a safer pilot, that skills degrade over time and that regular time in the air will come in handy for that romantic flight together that you keep on talking about (but haven’t done yet)…come on!!!