"Vern Torino" wrote in message
...
Haven't begun any training yet. Still considering time and cost factors.
One problem is my job will only avail me to fly every other week, so I
figure it'll take me at least the better part of a year to get licensed.
My question is, after licensing what would be a likely minimum flight time
and frequency to maintain proficiency?

You didn't ask, but frankly, if you're only flying every other week, "the
better part of a year" is overly optimistic. You'll spend enormous amounts
of time reminding yourself what you did last lesson, rather than making
forward progress on your learning.

That's ignoring the fact that flying every other week only gets you about
25-30 hours of training in, for a certificate that has a *minimum* of 40
hours, and the only people who do it at or near the minimum hours are people
who pick up flying naturally, AND who are having their lessons regularly (a
couple of times a week, at least).

I'd guess a person flying every other week could wind up with at least 80
hours before they are good enough to pass the checkride, which is more like
three years at that rate.

As far as your actual question goes: it depends a lot on the pilot, but
generally speaking, flying at least one hour once or twice a month is
probably enough to stay reasonably proficient. For some pilots, once a week
is the absolute minimum, and for others they can pick it up again after a
couple of months. But both of those possibilities are unusual, IMHO. Of
course, it also depends on your definition of "proficient". And more
seriously, it also depends on what you do with those flights. One takeoff
and one landing aren't going to help that much if you only do that once a
month.

Pete