PilotWorkshops Rusty Pilot Tune-Up Course

Most General Aviation pilots struggle to maintain a high level of proficiency over time. Life sometimes gets in the way, and a few months away from flying can seem like an eternity. Or, maybe you fly regularly—but it’s been a while since you did a long cross country, flew in highly-congested airspace, did airwork in the practice area, flew at night, or worked on specific skills you knew you were rusty in.

The fact is, most pilots are rusty in some areas at any point in time.

Traditional rusty pilot courses are too basic for most of us. They are designed for pilots who haven’t flown in many years (or even decades) and need to relearn everything before they can get back into flying. Those courses cover a wide range of topics, but there’s no focus on proficiency.

This course is different. Rather than taking a broad stroke approach, we wanted to help pilots identify their own unique areas for improvement, and give them the tools to knock off the rust in the areas they struggle with the most.

We asked a few of the best instructors in the country to come up with tailored flying challenges designed to test a rusty pilot’s skills and bring their weaknesses in critical areas to the surface. They created seven flying challenges covering a wide range of pilot skills, techniques, and decision making.

You’ll follow our Rusty Pilot (Ty Shuff) through each flight. You’ll see him struggle, and succeed. You’ll watch him make mistakes, and recover. He walked away from each challenge with a lot to think about and work on—and you will too.

Each challenge ends with an expert analysis. Our instructors analyzed each flight in detail to see what went well, discuss the mistakes, and give practical feedback to help the pilot improve. By hearing the experts analyze the flights, you’ll discover how to reach (and retain) a higher level of proficiency.

Ty Shuff is an instrument-rated private pilot. Long before climbing into the cockpit of a real general aviation airplane, Ty spent thousands of hours flying PC-based flight simulators at home, using PilotEdge for ATC and often streaming his flights on Twitch. A discovery flight out of Lawrence, Massachusetts, quickly led to earning his private pilot certificate, instrument rating, and logging many hours flying a Cessna 172, Piper Archer, and Cessna 182 throughout New England.

Like many pilots, however, life eventually got in the way. With a young child and the distractions of the pandemic, both his real-world flying and flight simulation tapered off. After several years away from regular flying, Ty's skills needed a refresher—making him the perfect rusty pilot to demonstrate how pilots can regain proficiency and confidence.

Bruce Williams is the owner of BruceAir, LLC, an aviation consulting, training, and pilot services company based in Seattle, Washington. A pilot since the early 1970s, Bruce is a certified flight instructor and FAASTeam Representative who also instructs at Galvin Flying Services at Boeing Field.

He specializes in training pilots in technically advanced aircraft (TAA), the Beechcraft Bonanza series, and stall, spin, and upset recovery in the Extra 300L aerobatic aircraft. Bruce is also the author of two books on using PC-based flight simulation to complement flight training and has written extensively on pilot training and proficiency for leading aviation publications.

Catherine Cavagnaro learned from one of aviation's most respected instructors, Bill Kershner. At Ace Aerobatic School, she uses a Cessna 152 Aerobat and an aerobatic Beechcraft Bonanza to help pilots better understand their airplanes and confidently recover from unusual attitudes.

She writes the monthly Flying Smart column for AOPA Pilot magazine and serves as a Designated Pilot Examiner in Tennessee.

Catherine was named the FAA's 2020 Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year and the 2018 FAA Safety Representative of the Year. In 2022, she was inducted into the National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame.

Doug Stewart is one of the most experienced flight instructors in aviation, with more than 13,000 hours of dual instruction given in aircraft ranging from J-3 Cubs to single-engine turboprops and multiengine airplanes. He is a 12-time Master Certified Flight Instructor, Gold Seal Flight Instructor, and Designated Pilot Examiner.

Doug was named the National Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year in 2004 and is a founding member of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE). He also serves on the FAA General Aviation Joint Safety Committee and has been conducting FAA safety seminars for decades. In 2024, Doug was inducted into the National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame.

To create realistic training scenarios, Ty flew each challenge in a flight simulator, giving the instructors complete control over the situations while allowing them to safely recreate a wide range of real-world flying conditions. Live ATC from PilotEdge added authentic radio communications, and ForeFlight was connected to the simulator to mirror the tools pilots use in the cockpit. In many scenarios, real-world weather introduced an additional layer of unpredictability and workload.

Every flight was recorded and carefully edited with synchronized screen captures, instructor commentary, and on-screen callouts, ensuring you can clearly follow each decision, mistake, and learning opportunity throughout the course.