How often do you fly?

Gary Ward

Gary Ward

Pattern Altitude
PoA Supporter
Joined
Jan 16, 2020
Messages
2,299
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
Display Name
Display name:
Challenger1
Simple question and is it for work or play?
How many consecutive days have you flown for work or play?
It looks like a beautiful day to fly around here and here I am sitting at my desk at work.:mad::(
 
Not often enough.... only got 140ish hours in last year was hoping to get closer to 200 this year
95% play 5% work
I think my personal best is 5 in a row
Last few days here have been perfect for some approaches OVC 800 no wind no convection, but I guess work pays for my addiction :mad2:
 
Minimum, once a week. More if the weather cooperates.
Since I'm retired, I have more opportunity, and when my wife goes to visit her sister, I've been known to fly 8 out of the 10 days.
But I don't (usually) fly on weekends. Not worth waiting 20 or more minutes to take off.
 
Once or twice a week, purely for fun. Not at all if the temperature is below 40F. I'm averaging around 50 hours/year.

This week it'll be 3 or 4 days as I already flew once and I'm flying instead of driving to the cabin for the weekend.
 
I’ve flown 130 hours in the last 8 months. Wold have been more but the heat wave in Las Vegas made it too uncomfortable for a few weeks. I’ll probably make about 200 hours this year. A few business trips, lots of Pilots ‘n Paws, some travel to see family in N Cal and plenty of $100 burgers.
 
I'm somewhat new at this whole flying thing (I have solo'd recently) I am hoping that averaging a couple times per month is good enough to keep me proficient and safe.

The reality of my situation (job, family, cancellations due to weather, Mx, etc) means that it's tough to average more than that. Of course I'll only be VFR, daytime, and have pretty conservative personal minimums.
 
I like to get at least two days a week,with some cross countries in the mix. All my flying now is for pleasure.
 
Nowadays, about 120 hours per year. Looking at my LogTen app, it says 120.5 in past 12 months, 61.3 in last 6 months, 27.2 in last 3 months and 10.5 in last 28 days. I would say about 50% play, 50% to shuttle me to some sort of business meeting (at least that's my excuse to go flying half of the time). I would probably fly more if I didn't live an hour away from the airport but maybe that's a good thing (for the wallet) that I don't live closer. In terms of consecutive days, not many at all. I almost never go flying to go flying. I always go flying if I'm going places (vacation or business) and usually, I want to arrive at the destination without detours that would prolong the trip, so I would say maybe 2-3 days in a row is max. That was different during training though, I had stretches where I did 5 days in a row. One thing that didn't happen, but many said it would, is that I fly less after buying a plane. The first year I owned my own plane I flew 30 hours, second year 60 hours, third year 80 hours, and the fourth year 120 hours. I don't set a goal of how much I want to fly but I'm happy in the 100 - 150 hours per year range as long as it's to go places. Good thing the U.S. and Canada is big so I doubt I'll run out of places to go to anytime soon.
 
It's weird, I feel like I haven't flown very much at all lately, but 149 in the last year. Mostly large XC work in relocating new planes to their owners. My own plane has been laid up for annual for 2 months and is still there -- probably why I feel like I do.

For personal stuff, it's been a few times a month, usually a "real mission" or two, joined by a few "oh F this, I'm ditching work" $300 hamburger runs or "lets go get some cheap gas" (by burning the current batch of cheap gas)

At the moment I can beat southwest airlines in price vs solo-up fuel in my plane, which is highly unusual. (And I'm based at the busiest SWA airport in Cali) When it returns to costing me 2-3X to baron to my 500nm places, my mission is gonna be strained.

Outside of training, my most grueling was 29.9 in 2 days, ferrying a gear-up bonanza cross-country. Otherwise I can pretty much get cross-country in a super long day or reasonable 2-day jaunt. The older I get, the more that takes a toll, so I can't imagine linking that with more than 3 or 4 straight days of flying unless they were in small bites.
 
Last edited:
The most consecutive days I have flown is 6. But that was USAF UPT and we were behind, so flew on Saturday
 
I’ve flown 3x/day, six days a week for months. Flown around the clock for days at a time. Once flew 3-5x/day for six weeks, zero breaks.

Have gone 18 months without a single flight.

ALL PROFESSIONALLY! So very random.
 
I have done quite a few annual inspections on nice planes that only fly 10 to 20 hours a year, hardly worth the cost of the hangar and all the other expense that goes with it. What is the average hours a year people fly, probably around 25 to 50 hours a year, next bunch that use their plane to go someplace other than the $100. burger 50 to 150 hours a year, those that use their planes for work 150 and up. On average, full-time CFIs fly about 80 to 100 hours per month. Though top performing instructors can easily get 120 hours in a month.
 
I shoot for once a week, sometimes it's every other week due to wx/mx/schedule/whatever. Crankiness sets in at about 3 weeks.
 
Gary Ward said:
Simple question and is it for work or play?
How many consecutive days have you flown for work or play?
It looks like a beautiful day to fly around here and here I am sitting at my desk at work.:mad::(
Click to expand...

Interesting question... had to open up the logbook database.
I suspected my part time flight instruction might have had the highest run, but this was not the case.
Turns our my competition flying of the sailplane wins this question..

I have had 2 runs of flying 10 day in a row.
1st was June of 2015, 1 training flight in a PA28-140 (1.2hrs) 1 training flight in a 7AC (1hr) followed by 8 consecutive days of flying my Sailplane,(34.8hr, Averaging 4.4 hrs per day)

2nd was this June of 2023. 3 Days of Towing gliders in a 182 (2.4hrs, 8 tows), 7 days of glider flying (25hrs Averaging 3.6 hrs per day) I could have made this 13 day run as I But I had 1 day break in the towing.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
I fly very sporadically it seems. I get 100-140 hours a year but it sometimes comes in bursts. I might not fly for a month then fly 30 hours the next month. Work and weather are my biggest holdbacks.
 
At the moment I fly a fairly consistent 150-170 hrs / year. I probably have closer to 300 hours worth of missions. Rental plane availability is probably my biggest hold back, then money.
 
It was never the plan, but I’m flying almost every day lately. Since my plane has been down over 3 months now for engine overhaul and nose gear repair, most of that is flight instruction with occasional contract pilot work (usually C414 or C414A). Frankly when a friend and I bought a 172 together to be able to do some flight instruction from our home airport, we never imagined the demand. Sometimes it’s too much, but I have a hard time saying no to people who want to learn to fly. Grand total around 300 hours per year.
 
Gary Ward said:
How many consecutive days have you flown for work or play?
Click to expand...
I don't fly for work so consecutive flying days mainly consists of fly somewhere, visit someone/something, remain overnight and then fly home. That only happens maybe 2-3 times a year. Flying multi-leg vacations, I usually try do 2 nights between flights because I try to stop somewhere interesting along the way.
 
Last edited:
Work, generally 150 hrs a year. Play, probably 30 hrs. Just don’t take that many trips with the planes.
 
kaiser said:
At the moment I fly a fairly consistent 150-170 hrs / year. I probably have closer to 300 hours worth of missions. Rental plane availability is probably my biggest hold back, then money.
Click to expand...
You RENT 170 hrs/yr?
If there were ever a financial justification for ownership, I’m sure you have it!
 
I try to fly at least once per week to keep my airplane happy and myself reasonably sharp.

My longest streak is 8 days; the weather was really crappy on day 9 or I would've kept it going.

My longest streak of NOT flying was 6 weeks. That sucked.
 
The most I've done in a row is 5 when I took a week to hang out in Florida and get my tailwheel endorsement. Outside of training the most I've done is 3 in a row. I try to fly twice a month. If that doesn't sound like much, a typical flying day for me is 4 to 8 hours on the tach.
 
I’d like to fly once a week (excluding trips) but the only thing holding me back from flying more is the airport is so dang far away that it’s a bit of a nightmare to get there and then back, one way will definitely be with traffic. Takes up the whole day it seems.
 
Adam Weiss said:
You RENT 170 hrs/yr?
If there were ever a financial justification for ownership, I’m sure you have it!
Click to expand...
Haha yup! That’s what I hear, I’m past the break even. It’s even more shocking to hear what it takes to rent a $aratoga or twin$!

The challenge is my budget is all OpEx. Not much saved up and I’m still a year out before I’m allowed to issue new debt.
 
Gary Ward said:
Sorry to see that, not sure where your plane is at? But also would be happy to help anyway I can.
Click to expand...
Appreciate it. It’s grounded for now awaiting repairs but should have it up in the next couple of months.
 
kaiser said:
At the moment I fly a fairly consistent 150-170 hrs / year. I probably have closer to 300 hours worth of missions. Rental plane availability is probably my biggest hold back, then money.
Click to expand...
You need your own plane at that rate.
 
About 60 or so hrs a year. My plane is now in annual he'll and have. Ot flown in almost a month. Not counting time on my simulator, but landing a 206 on an aircraft carrier was cool.
 
90 hrs/year, over the last two years-all pleasure. Once/week,on average, but wide variation in frequency
 
About 80 hrs. per year, quite consistent average over the past 50 years.

Most of my time in the past few years has been towing gliders at Sugarbush (a beautiful airport in Vermont) but still keep my Cub and C206 in the air on a regular basis.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top