2024 Goals

GMascelli said:
More hours
Vacation destinations; back to Vero beach for longer stay, Galveston TX, Mackinac MI, Bahamas, and Alaska with a group of friends where we live.
Find someone to fly with when we go to Alaska in August.
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2024 sucked for my flying. Lowest hours since I started flying in 2005, just 30 to date.
Vacation destinations - Gear issue = RTB and then drive 15 hours each way to Vero Beach. My bride and I did manage to fly to Savannah for a get-away and had a blast. Cancelled St. Simmons GA twice due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Ended up canceling St. Augustine FL the start of this month and instead put a roof on the house. $$

2025 has to be better for hours and travel, at least I hope so. Planning on our annual trip to Vero Beach to start things off. The next destination will be Galveston TX, with a side trip to Dallas to visit friends and hopefully I talk Mary into a southwest swing. My bride wants to visit family in Phoenix and I want to land in Sedona. Maybe, just maybe, we will finally get to the left coast for a few days of exploring.
 
jordane93 said:
2 more trips this month then done for the year. About 650 hours
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EvilEagle said:
You are working too much! 449 hours at work this CY... but I go to Taipei today and have ICN for New Years so I'll be up near 500 for the year - that's my ceiling! :D
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I’m curious, what is the ration of flight hour to working hour? IOW, commute to get to your flight, pre-flight prep, post flight duties, etc. That to me is all “work hours” but not flight hours.

Put yet another way, how many hours total do you estimate you put in to get 500 or 600 flight hours?
 
EvilEagle said:
You are working too much! 449 hours at work this CY... but I go to Taipei today and have ICN for New Years so I'll be up near 500 for the year - that's my ceiling! :D
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Way too much lol. Just paid the plumber $2500. Gotta pick up something extra next month:). Heard that they’re moving those routes to the 350. Enjoy it while you can. I hear Asia is a blast!
 
Bill said:
I’m curious, what is the ration of flight hour to working hour? IOW, commute to get to your flight, pre-flight prep, post flight duties, etc. That to me is all “work hours” but not flight hours.

Put yet another way, how many hours total do you estimate you put in to get 500 or 600 flight hours?
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International, you meet down in the planning room in the pilot lounge 1.5 hours before departure to go over weather, route, alternates, MELs, etc and most importantly where are we getting dinner and drinks:biggrin: Post flight, there’s nothing we really have to do unless something broke mid flight. In that case we’ll just make a logbook entry. We also have to check small things like hydraulics, oil quantity, crew oxygen levels, IRS drift error. That takes like 10 seconds.
 
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EvilEagle said:
You are working too much! 449 hours at work this CY... but I go to Taipei today and have ICN for New Years so I'll be up near 500 for the year - that's my ceiling! :D
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I'm pushing 500 as well (for 112 days of work) - more than I'd like. With the kiddo coming I'm gonna try for a record low in 2025. :)
 
Bill said:
Put yet another way, how many hours total do you estimate you put in to get 500 or 600 flight hours?
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For how much I'm 'working', the metric I personally look at is TAFB, or Time Away From Base. It's exactly what it sounds like - it's essentially a measure of my time away from home. The clock starts 1.5 hours prior to departure on Day 1 and ends at block in on the last day. For example I just got back from Rio de Janeiro: departing 10:45pm on Sunday and rolling back into the gate at 6:37am this morning. So my TAFB for the trip is 57 hours and 22 minutes. Now of course that's not all active work - a lot of that is sleeping, drinking Caipirinhas at the pool, etc...but it's time away from my family so it's all 'work' to me. My average monthly TAFB for 2024 will be come in around 170 hours.
 
Bill said:
I’m curious, what is the ration of flight hour to working hour? IOW, commute to get to your flight, pre-flight prep, post flight duties, etc. That to me is all “work hours” but not flight hours.

Put yet another way, how many hours total do you estimate you put in to get 500 or 600 flight hours?
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one person once told me it's about a 1:4 ratio, flying vs TAFB. obviously gonna be different per person/schedule but that's a rough estimate from his experience.
 
eman1200 said:
one person once told me it's about a 1:4 ratio, flying vs TAFB. obviously gonna be different per person/schedule but that's a rough estimate from his experience.
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I believe that, but for some people that could be a bonus. Pretty sure I know people that belong to some sporting clubs just to get away from the house, have meetings, and vote on things. Like Fred Flintstone going to the water buffalo lodge.
 
eman1200 said:
one person once told me it's about a 1:4 ratio, flying vs TAFB. obviously gonna be different per person/schedule but that's a rough estimate from his experience.
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That's pretty close to my TAFB to flying time ratio, but we're generally interested in the TAFB to credit (how many hours I'm being paid) ratio, and in my seat that usually sits somewhere between 2 and 2.75, depending on the efficiency of the trip. Some guys choose to fly nothing but turns - which gets you close to 1:1 - but that's airplane and seniority dependent, and IMO is more trouble than it's worth anyway.
 
kayoh190 said:
For how much I'm 'working', the metric I personally look at is TAFB, or Time Away From Base. It's exactly what it sounds like - it's essentially a measure of my time away from home. The clock starts 1.5 hours prior to departure on Day 1 and ends at block in on the last day. For example I just got back from Rio de Janeiro: departing 10:45pm on Sunday and rolling back into the gate at 6:37am this morning. So my TAFB for the trip is 57 hours and 22 minutes. Now of course that's not all active work - a lot of that is sleeping, drinking Caipirinhas at the pool, etc...but it's time away from my family so it's all 'work' to me. My average monthly TAFB for 2024 will be come in around 170 hours.
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In my one trip to Brazil, the Caipirinhas were the highlight.
 
iamtheari said:
You all have convinced me to finally set some goals for the year. Otherwise, I'll never fail to achieve them.

1. Log 100 hours. I'm at 93.7 now so that's doable, but December is going to get very busy on me. I'll report back in 3 weeks or so.

2. Schedule a flight review or substitute for it so I'm not left scrambling when it's due in February. See my prior threads on trying to get a balloon rating in the dead of the winter. Also, how did two years go by on me? I could swear I just did a flight review to buy a couple more years of trying to get time to add a weird rating. I wonder if I'm still on the cancellation list for Jack Brown's Seaplane Base. Something tells me that I should call them to resubscribe. Or maybe I can find one in a place I get to somewhat more often. Do they have float planes in the desert southwest?

3. At least take the darn written tests for CFI so I have a ticking clock to learn how to fly a plane again and take the check ride without having to re-take the written tests.

4. Finish the landing gear fairings on the RV-14. My wife, friend, and I wrapped that up back in the late spring, so I will definitely fail to fail this goal.

5. Finish designing the paint scheme for the RV-14. I am slated to go to the paint shop in September of 2028 so I really need to get this done.

6. Set goals for 2025 in advance of the year so I can start slacking on them earlier when I'm not rushed by all the other things I need to put off to next year by the end of this one.
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Circling back to this ancient post, it looks like I’m hit or miss as usual:

1. I made it, but barely. 107 hours including the Christmas trip to Arizona and back.

2. Nope. If I don’t intervene soon, I’ll be illegal by spring.

3. Didn’t even have time for a practice test in December. :(

4. Success by default. I finished the work before setting the goal. I’ll try to use this life hack more often in the future.

5. See item 3, no time in December.

6. Success!
 
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