Minor Milestone

[SCCutler]

After cipherin' like Jethro Bodine for a while ("hoo-doggie"!), I have determined that I have passed the 500-hour mark.

About 260 each of HP and complex, not nearly enough actual instrument to make me happy.

I do like this flying thing.

 

[tonycondon]

hey spike, good work man!

 

[SkyHog]

Congratulations, Spike!

 

[Richard]

Does this mean you can work the radios now?

I mean, way to go, Spike!

 

[Frank Browne]

When you hit 1000, please advise. Oops, sorry Spike, I forget which board I'm on sometimes.

 

[gismo]

After cipherin' like Jethro Bodine for a while ("hoo-doggie"!), I have determined that I have passed the 500-hour mark.

About 260 each of HP and complex, not nearly enough actual instrument to make me happy.

I do like this flying thing.

Sometimes it seems that totalling up the hours is more work than actually flying them, certainly a lot less fun. Contrats though, you are officially no longer statistically dangerous.

 

[jesse]

Sometimes it seems that totalling up the hours is more work than actually flying them, certainly a lot less fun. Contrats though, you are officially no longer statistically dangerous.

I'm right at 200 now. I think I'm still pretty dangerous statistically.

 

[tonycondon]

i think you will be statistically dangerous for a lot longer than spike

 

[kthompson2k]

Way to go Spike, I was trying to catch up to you but may fall short.

 

[Diana]

After cipherin' like Jethro Bodine for a while ("hoo-doggie"!), I have determined that I have passed the 500-hour mark.

Yippeeee!

About 260 each of HP and complex, not nearly enough actual instrument to make me happy.

Now, we need to add some aerobatics to your list.

 

[EdFred]

Race ya to 600 Spike? You've got a 60+ hour headstart.

 

[bjohnson]

Congratulation!! The first 500 hours of a pilot’s flying

career are the most critical, with 34.4 percent of the total and​

28.7 percent of fatal accidents occurring then.

You have now decreased you chance of having an accident.
​

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the graphic. Similar to the "bathtub curve" for component failue. Low time accidents for pilots are primarily related to experience and high time accidents related to exposure, imho.

I think Jesse is in the shallow end....

Spike, stay out of the statistics!!!

Congratulation!! The first 500 hours of a pilot’s flying

career are the most critical, with 34.4 percent of the total and​

28.7 percent of fatal accidents occurring then.

You have now decreased you chance of having an accident.​

 

[AirBaker]

That 500hr is a big hurdle. If nothing else, you probably meet a bunch of the open insurance requirements on your friend's aircraft.

Congrats!

 

[Don Jones]

Race ya to 600 Spike? You've got a 60+ hour headstart.

Yea, but you cheat now. Lots of PIC time in the right seat. I too am about 60 short of the 500 mark, but right now I am flying 10-15 hours a week, so it won't be long.
Don

 

[SCCutler]

Race ya to 600 Spike? You've got a 60+ hour headstart.

Less'n I buy an airplane soonest, you'll beat me. But you never know...

 

[cwyckham]

Congratulation!! The first 500 hours of a pilot’s flying

career are the most critical, with 34.4 percent of the total and​

28.7 percent of fatal accidents occurring then.

You have now decreased you chance of having an accident.​

Unfortunately, the statistics provided by the graph are meaningless without knowledge of how many hours are being put in by pilots of each time bracket. I've recently read the book "The Killing Zone", and the stats in it drove me insane. He makes the same error, in assuming that the raw number of accidents has some meaning. He even acknowledges in the beginning that they're all worthless and then proceeds to use them anyways.

How many pilots do you all know who got their license, flew for a couple years and then quit? How many pilots actually make it to 500 hours? I know lots of people with about 100 hours who haven't flown in years. They've lost interest, had a kid, run out of cash, or whatever. The result is that there are likely a lot fewer pilots flying with 500 hours than with 100 hours. Therefore, even if 100 hour pilots were actually twice as safe as 500 hour pilots (unlikely, but bear with me) but there were four times as many of them flying, there would be twice as many accidents amongst the low time pilots.

I have no doubt that you learn more as you fly more and that I'll be safer when I have more hours, but I've never seen a proper statistical analysis that shows me at which point, statistically, my odds will start to get better.

Chris

 

[bjohnson]

Chris, you have an excellent point. The proficiency of the pilot is greatly determined by the amount of time it has taken him/her to achieve their current number of hours. It may have taken one pilot 20 years to earn 500 hrs and another only 2 years to earn 500 hours. I feel the pilot that took 2 years to earn 500 hours would be the safer pilot.

 

[Anthony]

Keep it up Spike. The hours do add up!

 

[cwyckham]

Chris, you have an excellent point. The proficiency of the pilot is greatly determined by the amount of time it has taken him/her to achieve their current number of hours. It may have taken one pilot 20 years to earn 500 hrs and another only 2 years to earn 500 hours. I feel the pilot that took 2 years to earn 500 hours would be the safer pilot.

I agree fully that timing of the hours matters. Also, what type of flying being done during those hours and the aptitude of the pilot. All of these factors can help an individual pilot be safer than the mythical "average pilot" that the statistics speak to.

However, I think that the more important point is that the statistics given in the histogram posted above tell us nothing about the safety of the "average pilot". All they tell us is that either low time pilots are more dangerous or there's more of them, or some combination of the two. We therefore don't have the information to draw any useful conclusions from the data as it was presented.

Chris

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

Chris, you have an excellent point. The proficiency of the pilot is greatly determined by the amount of time it has taken him/her to achieve their current number of hours. It may have taken one pilot 20 years to earn 500 hrs and another only 2 years to earn 500 hours. I feel the pilot that took 2 years to earn 500 hours would be the safer pilot.

BTW: Welcome to the PoA board.

With proper training for the flight tasks at hand, risk always comes down to the PIC's true ability, regardless of total hours or the time taken to acquire those flight hours and it is very difficult if not impossible to accurately quantify that risk/ability in statistic terms.

 

[bjohnson]

The data presented above shows the correlation between accidents and pilot flight hours in 2004. This data is based on NTSB reports of accidents involving fixed-wing general aviation aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or less. Each accident would need to be looked at on a case by case basis to determine if the pilot was operating safely.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Nice, Spike!

And I can say from experience that Spike is an exemplary pilot.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I agree fully that timing of the hours matters. Also, what type of flying being done during those hours and the aptitude of the pilot. All of these factors can help an individual pilot be safer than the mythical "average pilot" that the statistics speak to.

And, it's nice to get some credit for it.

I was speaking with the local flight school manager about the potential of waiving some of the insurance requirements for the Seneca (mere mortals have to have 700 hours TT or 100 multi). He didn't commit to any specific number of hours, but he did say that he knew that my 350+ hours have been widely varied and of higher quality than someone who flies the same area/type of flight/type of aircraft over and over again. I guess that amounts to a "we'll see" but it should be less than 700.

I am kind of proud of my logbook so far. I think it was at 368 hours last I looked; that includes not only the immediate area but also out as far as Texas, Florida, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. It includes not just ASEL, but AMEL, ASES, and glider time. And some upside-down time thanks to Chip. I can also think of at least 18 aircraft types right off the top of my head (Hmmm, I'll have to look through the book and count those up sometime too.)

I was kinda bummed that my IR took so long, but looking at this I guess I've done just fine.

Spike, congrats again on the 500, and here's to many more!

 

[silver-eagle]

Congrats Spike. I just passed my 300 hour mark (having found a minor accounting error in said logbook). Mine are not accumulating like I thought they would. I'm still targeting 10 hours a month but seem to be averaging 5 (but they are QUALITY hours).

So, an interesting question... How many run the totals when you reach the bottom of the page, how many wait for some "required" milestone (Flight review, medical), how current do you keep the logbook?

 

[jdwatson]

After cipherin' like Jethro Bodine for a while ("hoo-doggie"!), I have determined that I have passed the 500-hour mark.

About 260 each of HP and complex, not nearly enough actual instrument to make me happy.

I do like this flying thing.

I was fortunate enough to start logging both on paper and electronically. A push of a button and I get all the stats & etc. Great job on the 500! You're well outside of the Killing Zone now. Stay safe.

 

[gismo]

Congrats Spike. I just passed my 300 hour mark (having found a minor accounting error in said logbook). Mine are not accumulating like I thought they would. I'm still targeting 10 hours a month but seem to be averaging 5 (but they are QUALITY hours).

So, an interesting question... How many run the totals when you reach the bottom of the page, how many wait for some "required" milestone (Flight review, medical), how current do you keep the logbook?

I usually end up running the totals (actually, just enterring the flights into my computer) when it's time to renew my insurance, although to avoid letting it pile up that long, I occasionally put them in when I've got nothing else to do.

 

[Lance F]

That's great work Spike. It's fun to add up the hours. I'm right at 600 power which feels pretty good. That is until I think of my numerous Part 121 friends who stopped counting at 20 or 30 THOUSAND.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

That's great work Spike. It's fun to add up the hours. I'm right at 600 power which feels pretty good. That is until I think of my numerous Part 121 friends who stopped counting at 20 or 30 THOUSAND.

Yeah, but how many of them have had to dead-stick into a private strip?

 

[gismo]

Yeah, but how many of them have had to dead-stick into a private strip?

Well there's the pilot (copilot actually) of the Gimli Glider.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Well there's the pilot (copilot actually) of the Gimli Glider.

Lance knows him?

I'm guessing Lance knows a buncha Delta jockeys. Gimli Glider was Air Canada right?

 

[tonycondon]

yes the only airline to run out of gas (AFAIK), twice...

 

[Steve]

http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html

The "Amazing Coincidences" of Gimli:

Pilot had extensive glider experience, co-owned a Blanik L-13 sailplane.

Co-Pilot had once been stationed at Gimli, was familiar with it.

Wpeg ATC had old style radar which allowed them to track the 767 once the transponder stopped working.

Sports car club had fire extinguishers galore, Jaws of Life.

ER Physician Colin Nesbit was in a Cessna performing a preflight at end of 32R.

Air Canada mechanics driving a van to Gimli to begin repairs of #604 ran out of gas in the backroads of Manitoba.

One of the few people in Manitoba who owned a videocamera (rare in those days) was at Gimli that day. In a classic case of being in the right place at the wrong time, he left the airfield approximately 30 minutes before it landed because he needed to run into town to get some parts for his go-kart.


From http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-240-1155-20/that_was_then/life_society/gimli_glider

After the landing, the pilot and co-pilot of Air Canada flight 143 were praised for saving the lives of the 61 passengers on board. But on Oct. 4, 1983, Air Canada disciplined them for allowing the near-tragedy to happen. The pilot was demoted for six months, the co-pilot was suspended for two weeks and three ground workers were also suspended. A 1985 Transport Canada report blamed errors and insufficient training and safety procedures.

Lance knows him?

I'm guessing Lance knows a buncha Delta jockeys. Gimli Glider was Air Canada right?