How many hours do you put on a plane.

brien23

brien23

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Brien
How many hours do you put on a plane in a year. Most of the 150 to 200 hours a year I fly is as a CFI and not my own flying going someplace. So how many hours a year do you fly 1. local just for fun or 2. over 60miles or more away from your home base. I have done a lot of Annual inspections as a A&P/IA on planes that only get less than 50hr a year some less than 20hr.
 
250 plus or minus a year since I’ve been flying.


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Most ever 130, least ever 27. I put more hours into my A&P training than flying which is kind of sad but the end goal is getting closer.
 
300+ for the Sling 2, was so inexpensive to fly, mostly over 60nm except working on ratings. Sold last year after 5 yrs. / 1,550 hrs.
Only 200+ in the Lancair, actually flew more trips and further, just doesn't need as much time getting there. ~

Been flying much less since March, not sure why. :)
 
Try to get 100hrs a year at least. It’s for work, all long xcountries. Usually between 200 and 400mi RT. I could justify 200 but the paperwork starts to pile up too high. Coworker adds another few dozen on the plane per year.

Virtually no recreational flying at all since it’s a company plane and I have a young family who won’t remember flying quite yet.
 
100hrs per year for 3yrs now.
5% Flights over 250nm
10% Flights 151nm...250nm
60% Flights 50nm...150nm
25% Flights under 50nm

Working more on the long range trips
 
The airplane I am a 50% partner in flew about 200 hours last year, split evenly between the partners. My work airplane flew 160.
 
Typically around 150 hours per year. That’s with two in our partnership.
 
60hrs YTD... on hold right now until the airplane is out of annual. I’d imagine I’ll do 120-150hrs this year if I continue at the same pace.
 
Trailing 12 months...

62 hours in my buddies 162
110 hours in my Mooney

110 hours of that was cross country, but not all in the Mooney.
 
150 +/- , less if plane is down for maintenance or upgrades or COVID-19 prevents flying/traveling. About 50% of my hours are me using the plane to travel.
 
This year maybe zero since no where to fly to. Fun has been shut down. I only fly to go cross country. After 8000 hours flying in circles kind of boring.
 
40-some since purchase in October. Now that everything is squared away, shooting for 100.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
What’s a nautical hour and how does it differ from a normal hour?
Click to expand...

nautial hour (/ˈnôdək(ə)l/ \ˈau̇(-ə)r \)
1) nautical hour, or nautical space-time continuum. the four-dimensional continuum, having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate, in which all physical quantities may be located. "A mooney can go much further in a nautical hour than a cezzna."
2) a word eman made up in his spare time, but probably should be referenced in a chapter/subchapter/part/subpart of the FARs.
 
Not counting my full-time flying job or the part-time CFI gig. Personal flying/my airplane typically 90-120 hrs per year. Probably 90% of the time the flights are greater than the 60NM you specified.
 
I bought my 182 the beginning of March. I've put just over 60 hours on it to date. A lot of that was during the covid shut down. I was off work a few weeks with not much else to do so I flew a bunch. I would guess I'll put 120 to 150 hours a year on a normal year. I just started IFR training so between that and flying for fun I'll probably be well over 200 hours this year.
 
Historically I’ve put 150-200 hours a year on my planes. 90% of my flights are over 60 nautical miles away. This year however I’ve put 100 hours on the venture and about 550 hours on the Cessna.
 
I'm only averaging 50 hours per year in my 182. I log a many more hours in students aircraft which helps me stay reasonably current.

Some may question if 50 hours/year justifies ownership. It does to me. I paid cash for it 4 years ago so ownership costs aren't a big deal. When I need to go somewhere it's always available. Now that I'm semi-retired I hope to log more hours per year. I've been flying long enough that just going out & boring holes in the sky just isn't my thing.
 
brcase said:
I put between 60-100hrs per year on my glider typically.

Brian
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That's a lot of hours per year in a sailplane. Our Blanik flew a lot it seems when we were operating our soaring school but seldom had to do 100 hour inspections in a season.
 
My first year of ownership I put 102 hours on and my friend put 30ish. Then I left the country. Now I am back and should be 100+. Most of my flying is of the 300-600nm in a day variety. Usually with canines in the back.
 
50 - 100 hours per year, mostly they're local sightseeing to 700 nm cross-countries. Every five years or so I fly from California to Florida and back to visit family and that round trip alone racks up around 50 hours. At 78 now, I'm not sure I'll ever do another coast-to-coast trip. It's time to face reality. :(
 
For pure pleasure, 75-130 hours / year in the good old days. Nothing lately, however.
 
I will assume that this year’s totals will be less than last years for most of us. Definitely will be for me.
 
Cogito said:
300+ for the Sling 2, was so inexpensive to fly, mostly over 60nm except working on ratings. Sold last year after 5 yrs. / 1,550 hrs.
Only 200+ in the Lancair, actually flew more trips and further, just doesn't need as much time getting there. ~

Been flying much less since March, not sure why. :)
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Your Sling 2 is still flying, with other pilots at its controls. When you figure out “why” you’ve flown less since March ;) and you — or anyone, really — figure out how to fix that, I’d enjoy sitting in the right seat of your Lancair as you put on more hours in it.
 
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I’ve flown 41 hours in my first year of ownership. I thought I’d get in 100 hours, but weather, Covid-19 “stay home” orders and some maintenance delays slowed me down. My plane should be finished with its annual this week, so I’ll get another crack at 100 hours starting with year 2 of ownership.
 
saddletramp said:
I'm only averaging 50 hours per year in my 182. I log a many more hours in students aircraft which helps me stay reasonably current.

Some may question if 50 hours/year justifies ownership. It does to me. I paid cash for it 4 years ago so ownership costs aren't a big deal. When I need to go somewhere it's always available. Now that I'm semi-retired I hope to log more hours per year. I've been flying long enough that just going out & boring holes in the sky just isn't my thing.
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Yup, I'm in the same boat. Life stage changes. Like you, the airplane is not financed, so the fixed costs are pretty manageable on an idling basis. The privilege of ready access at any point is the real justification for the idling expense. Since I started ownership, and with the changing demographics of my family, we've gone through peaks and valleys in yearly use, ditto for myself while TDY versus at home. We're in a valley right now, accentuated by DOD movement restrictions and prevalence of COVID.

Constantly trading in and out of an airplane to exactly match those undulations would be extremely expensive and devoid of value added when compared to idling the one already in the hangar. So yeah, it pencils out for me over the alternative of going in and out of ownership. What I wish I had, was an aerobatic variant, where I could go upside down while in the "bore holes in the sky" phase of the year. Alas, the only aerobatic variant of 4 seaters I can find without going into some ridiculous Yak radial logistical nightmare, is an 33C, and they're priced too high for my taste. Thankfully they let me flip the work airplane ;)
 
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