How many hours?

John Baker

John Baker

Final Approach
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John Baker
We all know that the real measure of any pilot is judged by the quality of their landings, everything else they might know has nothing to do with anything.

There is one other criteria about how pilots are judged, but it has nothing to do with quality landings, it's about exactly who is doing the judging.

It is the main criteria of how other pilots judge other pilots. Pilots know greasers are nothing but pure luck, so they do not care about the quality of any landings other than their own.

That criteria is about just how many hours a pilot has logged.

In all my flying adventures and training amount to only 428.6 logged hours. That makes me one step above a raw beginner. It also renders me incapable of actually judging other pilots who have more time than me.

So, to the question. How many hours have you logged since you started flying. Don't worry about the quality of your landings, this is a pilot thing.

John
 
A bit over 900. I've paid for 95% of 'em out of pocket, and I generally am flying a high-performance bird so it's not cheap per hour either... I figure I could have bought a house by now. :hairraise:

But, worth every penny IMO.
 
About 700 - Of that I'd say I have logged 75 dual given .... So I'm a baby yet.
 
I have about 12,000+ and I made the worst landing I have made in years a couple weeks ago. It was like the bottom dropped out. BAM! Good thing we were empty. :redface:
 
Not enough. Never enough.

But if you insist, almost 800.
 
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I really don't know. I haven't totaled the columns in the past 5 years. I am on my 13th logbook if that's any help.

Time in the book is ancient history. It's the next hour that really matters.
 
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Bobcat1 said:
I really don't know. I haven't totaled the columns in the past 5 years. I am on my 13th logbook if that's any help.

Time in the book is ancient history. It's the next hour that really matters.
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Totaling up the log book is one of those tasks that I truly enjoy. I would hate to get so blase about it.

Let a few pages build up over the summer. Find a comfy chair, crack a beer, and go through the diary of our lives. It's a great ritual, peculiar to pilots, that I will never computerize.
 
Coming up on 400. That 8 years off took a toll on the hour count. Making up for lost time now. ;)
 
Jay Honeck said:
Totaling up the log book is one of those tasks that I truly enjoy. I would hate to get so blase about it.

Let a few pages build up over the summer. Find a comfy chair, crack a beer, and go through the diary of our lives. It's a great ritual, peculiar to pilots, that I will never computerize.
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Beer and aging eyesight will make for some interesting sums in those columns. Best to have the beer after the tally's been done.
 
I have got around 1200 in my log books but I take out the journey logs and fill in my pilots log book when insurance time comes around. I seldom log flights of rentals or when flying someone elses plane.
 
a bit more than 700 hours.
 
Auto pilot? what's an auto pilot? Oh, I know that the person in the other seat who flies for a while and give you a break.......... :)
 
Skyhawk4754 said:
How about .....Flying hours logged with no Auto-pilot on board...........
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This comment was probably meant for those who posted with high time so in order to satisfy your curiosity, most of all the airplanes I flew before the current job did not have autopilots and if they did they were marginal or inop and I didn't use them for anything more than straight and level and then only rarely. I got my current job at 7,000 hours so the remaining 5,500+ were in airplanes with functioning autopilots. Nowadays I usually hand fly into the teens (which really doesn't take very long). When landing I'll usually couple the approach if there is one, but if we are doing a visual pattern I'll hand fly. To me though, hand flying is the easy part. The biggest learning challenges I have had and the most likely place for me to screw up relate to programming the FMS. Garbage in, garbage out, and the autopilot will just follow along. Learning how to manipulate the technology is every bit as much a part of flying the airplane as hand flying.

As far as hours go too, it's just a number and the one that counts is the next one.
 
Funny way to 'judge', and I'm not sure why you would want to. ...and BTW, I disagree with your premise about good landings being "just luck". I find more satisfaction in how many different airports I've flown to and not so much in how long it took me to get there.
 
509 as of June of this year, according to the computer, all by hand, paid for out of my pocket, and all VFR. I suck at simple arithmetic, and my landings still occasionally suck. Occasionally they're really good, too.
 
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Just shy of 150 hrs.

3 yrs since I started, so I was averaging very good untill this year. 3rd child, currently remodeling the roof/attic to a bedroom space for my twin girls, really cut back my flying time and budget.

Hope to get back more regularly after the next tax return :rolleyes:
 
I find great satisfaction in my landings. And I know the difference between luck and doing them on purpose.

As far as hours, I'm not going to participate in the bragging...wouldn't want to rub it in anyone's face.
 
deltafox said:
Funny way to 'judge', and I'm not sure why you would want to. ...and BTW, I disagree with your premise about good landings being "just luck". I find more satisfaction in how many different airports I've flown to and not so much in how long it took me to get there.
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You had it right with your first word, then you had to go and get all serious. Your first word was where I was going with this, having a little fun.

Airports shmairports, that's a whole new thread. Besides, that would take some serious log book searching for most to answer.

C'mone, you can tell us, how many hours you logged so far? :rolleyes:

John
 
Jaybird180 said:
I find great satisfaction in my landings. And I know the difference between luck and doing them on purpose.

As far as hours, I'm not going to participate in the bragging...wouldn't want to rub it in anyone's face.
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Jaybird, have you ever noticed that if there is a pilot in any room, most everyone will know it withing just a few minutes?

Pilots are supposed to brag, and yes, I also, much like yourself, take pride in my landings, don't all pilots?

Go ahead and brag, haven't you earned the bragging rights? Paid for the bragging rights? Loosen up a little, this is all hanger talk anyway.

John
 
75. Started flying in march 2011, went for my checkride with 45

the only "just luck" landing i've had was as a student making a night landing with a simulated electrical failure (no landing light or cockpit lights, could not see the panel, overcast night). Absolute greaser! my instructor and I both busted out laughing
 
Haven't added them up lately, but probably around 2400. I used to keep track of how many hours of aerobatic time...don't know why I even did that now.

Skyhawk4754 said:
How about .....Flying hours logged with no Auto-pilot on board...........
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Never flown with one, but at times wished I had one. ;)
 
130ish. Started in 2004. I haven't had really bad landing (flared and stalled 2 feet over the runway-BANG!) since 2006, but really good ones are less predictable.

John
 
flyingcheesehead said:
A bit over 900. I've paid for 95% of 'em out of pocket, and I generally am flying a high-performance bird so it's not cheap per hour either... I figure I could have bought a house by now. :hairraise:

But, worth every penny IMO.
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I have about 600, and it's mostly 2 pilot operations, so I only get to log about half of the time. Leslie has about 500 hours, so between the two of us we've paid for more than 1100 hours, also largely in high performance aircraft. All I can say is "Ow!"

I agree, it's all worth it, though!
 
About 1100.
Always looking forward the next one.
 
deltafox said:
I find more satisfaction in how many different airports I've flown to and not so much in how long it took me to get there.


Seems your in luck! 59 airports to discover in Pennsylvania, 78 in New York, 19 in New Jersey, 33 in Virginia, and 66 in Ohio.
Operation: Fly is just about this.

Go discover!
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85 hrs

Worst landing was during my Practical Exam. I had a good case of "stage fright". DPE pulled the power on final (in a 152) and said "I'd like to see a power off normal landing". I must have dropped that plane 10 feet, at least the BANG felt like it. DPE yells "You call that a normal landing?" (it was his plane). I reply "No, that was a sh**ty landing". He then says, "Relax, you passed anyway".:redface:
 
John Baker said:
Jaybird, have you ever noticed that if there is a pilot in any room, most everyone will know it withing just a few minutes?

Pilots are supposed to brag, and yes, I also, much like yourself, take pride in my landings, don't all pilots?

Go ahead and brag, haven't you earned the bragging rights? Paid for the bragging rights? Loosen up a little, this is all hanger talk anyway.

John
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Someone will soon be along that will do that for me.:popcorn::thumbsup::rockon::cheers:
 
80hrs total and just about to finish my complex rating.

Started flying last summer.
 
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