Broke the 100 Hour Mark

Since you broke it, have you been able to get an estimate on what it will cost to fix it?
 
You need 10 hours dual in an arrow? I only had to do 1.5 to get checked out in the 172. But then again, it is just like the 152 only bigger.
For someone with no prior experience in a retractable gear airplane, that 10 hours is likely an insurance requirement. The want to make sure you've gotten in the habit of lowering the wheels and checking it several times before they turn you loose.
 
For someone with no prior experience in a retractable gear airplane, that 10 hours is likely an insurance requirement. The want to make sure you've gotten in the habit of lowering the wheels and checking it several times before they turn you loose.

I thought that was taken care of during your complex endorsement? So perhaps this dual is also training towards your endorsement. I thought he meant something along the lines of a 10 hour checkout when he already had his complex.
 
I thought that was taken care of during your complex endorsement? So perhaps this dual is also training towards your endorsement. I thought he meant something along the lines of a 10 hour checkout when he already had his complex.
Keep in mind that what the insurance wants is often not what the FAA requires.

I can give someone a complex endorsement in a hour or two. Should I give one with that little training? Probably not. But I could. I gave David a complex and high performance endorsement in a Debonair after 4 hours of flight training. Even with that, he wouldn't be permitted to solo the aircraft until he had 750TT, 150 retract, and 25 in type.

Just because I gave someone a complex endorsement doesn't mean the insurance company will permit them to fly any complex airplane.

Some FBOs will raise the numbers even higher then the insurance company as well.

Once you get into the complex/high performance arena you can expect pretty stiff insurance requirements.
 
I just completed 100 hours in my 182! I can only hope that will make a difference in insurance.

I think the difference will be partially determined by where you were when you started.

Go to the AOPA site and they have a calculator that is easy to use and will show you. I went through it when I bought my plane and my insurance came out within about $15 a year of their estimate.

You can plug in your ratings, your hours and so forth. When I plug in my 100 hours, my tailwheel time, time in type and my Private which I should easily have when my insurance comes due next time, my insurance shows to drop by about 40%.
 
Congrats on the time, i'm sitting at 95 with about 18 months since day one, looking forward to triple digits!
 
Nah, I think I had right around 90 hours (or more) when I went for the checkride. That was August 28th. We are now in October! So less than 10 hours in a few months isn't flying a lot. Not to me anyways.

I think it took me over 4 years to get 100 hrs in the logbook. Then I bought a PulsarXP in 2004 and I got much closer to the yearly GA "average". Now I'm only putting 50 hours a year on my RV-7A, and that's mostly due to the cost of fuel. This is an expensive hobby! :D
 
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I think it took me over 4 years to get 100 hrs in the logbook. Then I bought a PulsarXP in 2004 and I got much closer to the yearly GA "average". Now I'm only putting 50 hours a year on my RV-7A, and that's mostly due to the cost of fuel. This is an expensive hobby! :D

What is the yearly GA "average"?

Just curious.
 
Someone will provide that current number. It has never been 100 hours average. These days probably well south of 50. I'm averaging 60 - 75 hours annually and I fly 2 - 3x per month.
 
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My 100th hour was in the middle of a 4 hour IR training flight. I've got just under 150 hours in 7 years. ~20 hours/year.

John
 
First,

Congrats Kim. Keep on keepin' on!

Any pilot is dangerous when not paying attention. For example, last year a CAP flight with two over 10,000 hr pilots on board flew in to a mountain side. Many more examples like that one. Hours do not matter if you don't stay on task.


Hell, Win Kinner even flew into the side of a Mountain down in Cabo.
 
I'm 35 and have about 10,000hrs or so (haven't added it up in about a year).

Biggest achievements were:

- 1st solo (goes without saying)

- not really a milestone, but during instrument training, the first breakout at mins on an ILS thinking "wow this sh*t really works"

- 1st student solo.. might have been my most exciting moment in my career/adventure. Nothing can describe watching someone fly a plane knowing they learned it from you

- 1st captain position at an airline. Heck of a feeling knowing no matter what happens, everyone is looking to you for answers

- watching venus dance just above the horizon at 30W over the north atlantic, vividly changing from white to red to green to blue to yellow and back.. spectacular, if not tiring given the hour

- the airline pilot as a career has taken a hit, but it's hard to describe the feeling once that pushback begins and you're taking a plane to europe or asia for a couple of days. No one looking directly over your shoulder, just go do your job, stay out of the trees, and have a lot of fun.

Dear Rex,

You suck.

Love, Tim.

Seriously, great write-up.
 
Nah you can make a job sound as good or bad as you want. I was just focusing on the nice things. :D

This industry is littered with broken careers, marriages, and dreams.

In the short while I've at an airline I've seen a lot of ups and downs for folks. The ups sure seem a lot higher than what some other jobs offer.

I flew just shy of 1,000 hrs last year, this year I'm on pace to have the month of December off (which kinda sucks) but, in the time I've spent working hard for the company I've not only learned a lot about flying but I've learned that I really do love it more than the average joe :)

I think my first landing at an airline was still less memorable than my first landing as a solo pilot. It was beautiful Hot Springs Arkansas (KHOT). Nestled comfy into the base of a short mountain and at the base of the Ozark mountain range. The winds were kinda gusty as you'd find around any place at the base of a mountain, but still light. I was 16 and in a 152 after school getting to enjoy watching the beginnings of a sunset and landing on runway 23. My first landing at an airline was somewhere in the northeast at a place I'd never flown to before with a guy I had only met a couple hours before and my landing was actually nice (no first time planting or attempting to blow out the tires). Other then that I'd have to look at my logbook to get the notes and information about that flight :dunno:.

What was more memorable to me was that I had the distinct thought that my grandfather was sitting in the jumpseat watching me fly at my first airline job. He was my role model and a very important person in my life. He had passed away the day after I told him I was going to get back into flying and get my multi so I could get the job I had always wanted. I know that is a little personal, but at that point in time that was the greatest feeling that I had - he was watching me fly my first airliner. The first time jitters, new job excitement, and a general need to not -uck it up were not as pressing as I figured they might have been.

Every since that day each day I get to strap into the seat and fly feels amazing, and the one thing I think I've learned about each hour is that no previous hour is as much fun as the next. You can't really put a monetary value on each hour (like insurance companies do), but when every pilot reaches the 100 hr mark they will say the same thing about the next 100hrs and never look back. I don't think I've ever heard a truly passionate pilot ever say they have less than xxxx hours and are so glad they have that few of hours. Flying is great, reaching a each total time milestone makes you feel wonderful and in a way proud that you have reached that milestone..... but, it's the next hour that is the most exciting and one of those forthcoming hours will be your most memorable. Until then, I think most pilot's most memorable hour is when they soloed.

I'm on a trip rat meow, and looking forward to flying tomorrow.... no matter what the milestones anyone reaches my #1 milestone I plan on achieving is having the same number of takeoffs as landings :D
 
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What was more memorable to me was that I had the distinct thought that my grandfather was sitting in the jumpseat watching me fly at my first airline job. He was my role model and a very important person in my life.

I hear ya bro.

My grandpa was the same way. He called me "sport". My older bro couldn't fish (deep sea) b/c he got motion sickness. So it was me and my paw-paw. He was a pilot and flight instructor. I wish I could have learned from him.

He only gave me one piece of advice "try and line up w/the rows of corn". He made 7 forced landings that we know lol.

Thank you for sharing your story!
 
I have rental access and am checked out in two planes:

A 1978 Cessna 152

A 1980 Cessna 172N

I am taking a lesson on Saturday in a Citabria (tailwheel endorsement). If I get that endorsement, I will be "checked out" and able to rent the Citabria as well - at a different airport / flying school.

And they didn't even cut my shirt when I solo'd - did they cut your shirt?


Yes, I had the shirt cutting ceremony and my instructor kept my "shirt tail" and told me he would fill out the date, etc and give it back to me. I soon forgot about it. About a month or so later, he presented me with the shirt tail with a decal complete with an image of my solo airplane, the date, my name,etc. I was touched beyond words. I had it framed along with photos taken that day and it's been on my living room wall ever since. It's one of the first things I'd grab in a fire, after my logbook, Cert and Medical. (Sorry cats!) :wink2:
 
Yes, I had the shirt cutting ceremony and my instructor kept my "shirt tail" and told me he would fill out the date, etc and give it back to me. I soon forgot about it. About a month or so later, he presented me with the shirt tail with a decal complete with an image of my solo airplane, the date, my name,etc. I was touched beyond words. I had it framed along with photos taken that day and it's been on my living room wall ever since. It's one of the first things I'd grab in a fire, after my logbook, Cert and Medical. (Sorry cats!) :wink2:

Wow, that sounds very nice. Makes me want to keep my aviation stuff (and dog) within reach in case of a fire. But honestly, I'm less prepared than I'd like to admit.
 
You need 10 hours dual in an arrow? I only had to do 1.5 to get checked out in the 172. But then again, it is just like the 152 only bigger.

For someone with no prior experience in a retractable gear airplane, that 10 hours is likely an insurance requirement. The want to make sure you've gotten in the habit of lowering the wheels and checking it several times before they turn you loose.

Bingo. The club's insurance makes that requirement, not the FAA. My CFI didn't bother with the complex endorsement until the 10 hours dual were complete as there would have been no benefit. But he quickly signed it off after that last flight.

Remembering to put the gear down is important, but it is also important to know what to do if you don't get three green lights after selecting gear down. Is a light burned out? Swap them around to find out. No lights? Are the panel lights turned on? That dims them to the point where you can't see them during the day (and is a favorite trick of CFIs when checking you out). Didn't feel the gear go down (and you will in the rudders)? Check the circuit breakers (there are two). Still no joy? Hit the emergency extention lever (dirt simple system in the Arrow, hydraulic pressure holds the gear up, blow the pressure and it drops). Still stuck? Wiggle the tail with the rudder to try and knock it free. Still stuck? Find a paved runway and belly it in. So far I've only had to reset a circuit breaker. :D

That summer was fun. Got the complex in the Arrow and high performance in the 182. Finished the high performance in the morning and loaded my wife and our stuff into the Arrow that afternoon for a XC across the state (OLM - PUW).

Keep trying new planes. It's fun.
 
Dear Rex,

You suck.

Love, Tim.

Seriously, great write-up.

Hah thanx :)

You can focus on the good things or the bad things. I like to focus on the nice parts of the job, not the bad parts. It's been a fun ride, I have to say.


One thing I didn't mention in my first post was my first glider flight about a year ago. After flying 1000s of hrs in hydraulic boosted airplanes it was so nice to fly a plane where you can actually feel it, hear it creaking and moaning through airspeed and load changes. Different world than hydraulic boosted controls and a/c packs.
 
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