Highest total time on a GA aircraft you've heard of

[Henning]

VW 1 and VW2 when they were decommissioned all their Willy Victors had well over 200,000 flying hours doing dew line patrol.

they were so old that we metal smiths at MNC / PMR would inspect the fuselages looking for nicotine stains along the rivet rows. same with the old buck 18s

but we know you can't compare the long range patrol with a C150.

Especially when you compare the maintenance schedules. You guys actually did maintenance, JJ deferred everything that didn't keep the prop from spinning.

 

[bullwinkle]

i know my school has a Tomahawk with over 20k hours on it. You'd never catch me in one of those...certainly not that one.

A buddy of mine has a Tomahawk. They have a bad rep, but it's a pretty nice flying airplane. In the stall buffet it looks like the tail will shake off, and you really don't want to spin one. But the spin characteristics are worse for others like the Grumman AA-1 series. The 'hawk is approved for spins, it just has to be manhandled out of one.

The Tomahawk has a life limit on the wings of ~11k hours...if you know one with 20k the wings must have been replaced. That seems like an expensive thing to do on on a $15-20k airplane, I think most of them get parted out at that point.

 

[stratobee]

Nej, helt normalt

Finsk?

 

[mtuomi]

Finsk?

Yep

 

[Ted]

Cape rebuilds their 402s every few years. The issue is that the cost to rebuild them is skyrocketing.

When you say "rebuild", what exactly does that entail?

 

[DavidWhite]

I have probably flown that plane.

I flew C-207s in Alaska that had 20,000+ hours on them. Most of them had 5 or 6 accidents in the log books. I have seen a few C-207s that had more than 30,000 hours on them. Alaska time is not easy time for a 206/7.

I used to fly a C-206 that did an unintintional off airport landing a few miles out of Barrow. It flipped onto its back and sat on the tundra for two years before it was recovered and repaired. It was a sweet flying 206.

I flew a 172 in Alaska that had a little over 25,000 hours. It had multiple accidents in its history. One time I trimmed it up for level flight, then let go of the controls. The left wing dropped and it started a steep left spiral. I refused to fly it after that.

Hmm....was the 172 109? Or 26H?

The 207 I'm talking about is 94U.

 

[ja_user]

I got my IFR rating in a plane with north of 18k Total time. Has to have 20k by now and still flying..

 

[Zeldman]

Hmm....was the 172 109? Or 26H?

The 207 I'm talking about is 94U.

I have time in 94U, and thats the one I was thinking of. If I remember it was an ugly plane, barely equipped for legal VFR flight at night. One radio, one VOR and an ADF to point out the AM radio antenna when flying inbound on a SVFR. Flew like a tank but it always got the job done.

The 172 was 147. I had heard (but don't have proof) it met its fate (finally) outside of Dillingham.

 

[Ted]

I didn't realize any aircraft in Alaska were legal for any flight, and one of the requirements was specifically that the plane must be illegal?