How many hours of pleasure flying do you do per month?

How many hours of pleasure flying do you do per month?

  • less than 5 hrs

  • between 5 - 10 hrs

  • between 10 - 15 hrs

  • between 15 - 20 hrs

  • more than 20 hours

Results are only viewable after voting.
450 hours in under 24 months. All for fun. Or hunting.


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Here's hours per month for me as a student. We had some seriously sucky weather in February and March in the greater Atlanta area.

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I try to fly at least every two weeks to exercise the plane and maintain my proficiency. This equates to 4-6 hours or so per month, unless we take a trip.

I fly at work too and after doing that 4-5 days a week M-F (granted it’s pretty exciting flying), doing it on the weekend too doesn’t seem like too much fun. Add in weather and it’s more discouraging.

I just can’t imagine flying 10+ hrs per month with no real mission. What in the world do you do during all of that time? Do you have a friend or partner (like a gym buddy) that encourages you to fly so frequently?
 
Banjo33 said:
I just can’t imagine flying 10+ hrs per month with no real mission. What in the world do you do during all of that time? Do you have a friend or partner (like a gym buddy) that encourages you to fly so frequently?
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The key is to have good missions. Some of my flying has been in pursuit of additional ratings (Instrument, Commercial, ASES, Multiengine next?) I’ve gotton into Angel Flight, and those flights are always quite satisfying. Young Eagles, too, provides a good reason to fly. Maintaining IFR currency whenever the marine layer or the rare rainy days arrive, flying at night at least every 90 days, renting the Decathlon every 60 days or less to keep up with the club’s currency requirements for it and to maintain my tailwheel profenciency. Flying the Decathlon for the fun of non-competetive acro. Flying with the wife on go-somewhere-fun weekend trips or just to explore a new to us airport restaurant. Or going on some longer cross country flights to get somewhere we’d like to go either for a day trip or a weekend getaway.

Going to LA this weekend to visit the La Brea tar pits. Never seen them before, and I’ve always wanted to. A couple of years ago we did a day trip to Death Valley to see the once in a generation super bloom. By car that would have been 8-9 hours each way. Just a bit over 2 by plane.

Yeah, I think that I can continue to come up with plenty of meaningful reasons to fly... Even if it’s just a sightseeing Bay tour with a friend who has never been in a small plane before.


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Have flown 100 hours in the past 7 weeks....trying to build time for commercial tho so maybe that don't count....sure is fun tho
 
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Banjo33 said:
I just can’t imagine flying 10+ hrs per month with no real mission. What in the world do you do during all of that time? Do you have a friend or partner (like a gym buddy) that encourages you to fly so frequently?
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The "mission" for me has been to just go fly. And I have to admit that yes, there have been beautiful days that ai just wasn't feeling the need because I had nowhere I really wanted to go.

This year I have two new missions. One is to improve my skills and learn additional maneuvers, all from the right seat so I can get a CFI ticket. The other is to visit every "gate guardian" at a public airport in the state. I plan to work out all the flight planning in advance, and have the trips sorted by round-trip time so it's easy to pull one out of the hat, so to speak, when I have time for a slightly longer flight. Then there are a few events and an aviation museum I want to visit.

And, my wife is getting more used to the idea of traveling with me, and her family is scattered all across Iowa.
 
I alternate. 0 every other month, and about 50 each month in between.
 
12.7 hours per month or 990 hours over the past 78 months. That’s from the first flight of my home built to today, by definition all pleasure flying. Practically all of it travel with a mission. Missions including fishing, seeing friends, seeing family, and vacationing. Most trips with my mate. I retired the same month I finished the ‘10 and it’s parked in my back yard hangar.


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Bill Watson said:
12.7 hours per month or 990 hours over the past 78 months. That’s from the first flight of my home built to today, by definition all pleasure flying. Practically all of it travel with a mission. Missions including fishing, seeing friends, seeing family, and vacationing. Most trips with my mate. I retired the same month I finished the ‘10 and it’s parked in my back yard hangar.


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RV 10? I've got a mission for you, fly that thing down here to KILM and give me a ride in it, I'll give you a ride to lunch somewhere! Was just googling the rv10 and drooling a little bit...
 
Not nearly enough, about 2hrs/month since getting back in the game. February and March weather has been pretty brutal here, not much opportunity to fly. Hopefully that changes soon. Ideally I'd like 8hrs/month.
 
Usually over ten,try to fly twice a week.
 
I've always tried to fly at least an hour a week, but this winter has made that impossible, with long stretches where either the hangar was inaccessible without a snowmobile, or the runways were unusable due to snow/ice cover. So over the last 6 months I've actually averaged less than 2 hours a month.
 
Put me in the 0-3 winter 5-10 summer group.

This winter was tough plane availability is a big issue where I live as well as weather. The plane I was flying the most got wrecked by someone at the end of September and I was not able to fly other than with friends until mid March and at that they were expensive rentals. Hoping I can figure out another arrangement before the good flying weather really sets in.
 
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