Poll: How often to you fly (PIC, non-pro)?

How often to you fly (PIC, non-pro)?

  • 4 or more times per week.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1 - 3 times per week.

    Votes: 28 34.6%

  • 1 - 3 times per month.

    Votes: 43 53.1%

  • Maybe every other month.

    Votes: 5 6.2%

  • Just a few times per year or less.

    Votes: 5 6.2%
  • Total voters
    81
alfadog

alfadog

Final Approach
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
5,057
Location
Miami
Display Name
Display name:
alfadog
Curious how often folks here fly. I am asking about flying that does not require a CPL, even if you have one. So I am asking about pleasure, personal use, incidental to business, receiving training, etc. but not being paid to be a pilot or flight instructor.

If things vary then average out the last six months or so.
 
I fly about once a week or a bit less but almost all for training or practice. I don't particularly have the time or money to just fly from point A to B for a burger. I ride with my friends who like to do that. If I am in the left seat either a CFI is in the right or I am practicing something, preferably alone.
 
For personal, 1-3 per week, short flying to fly hops normally,

Winter time, less than 3 a month, dead of winter 0
 
Being retired,I have plenty of time,and luckily can still afford to chase the 100 dollar hamburger.
 
I found myself flying less and less the past few years. That's not good, especially for a "midlifeflyer" who is on his way to becoming "geripilot." So, at the end of last year, I put "schedule airplane this week" as a recurring task in my calendar ever two weeks. Seems to have worked. Between giving dual and personal flights, I'm hitting my 2-3-a-month (give or take) goal.

alfadog said:
I don't particularly have the time or money to just fly from point A to B for a burger.
Click to expand...
Unless you are actively working on a certificate or rating which requires performance or practice of specific tasks, there's no reason a burger flight can't also be a proficiency flight. Hitting different airports requires a number of skills including cross country navigation (even if you fly wit GPS) and the ability to set up a landing at a strange airport without the familiar "turn base over the McDonald's" landmarks. I seem to learn something on every one of mine.
 
My PA28 has a 10-day wind-up clock. I try to never go so long between flights that the clock stops. It probably does stop 4 or 5 times a year.
 
I try to get out as often as I can, but lately that hasn’t been as much as the norm. Without looking at my logbook, I think I only flew 3 or 4 times during the month of October and so far I’m on pace for less than that this month—life just gets in the way sometimes.
 
midlifeflyer said:
...

Unless you are actively working on a certificate or rating which requires performance or practice of specific tasks, there's no reason a burger flight can't also be a proficiency flight. Hitting different airports requires a number of skills including cross country navigation (even if you fly wit GPS) and the ability to set up a landing at a strange airport without the familiar "turn base over the McDonald's" landmarks. I seem to learn something on every one of mine.
Click to expand...

You are right. This year up to August I was working on my IR. Now I am working on my ASEL CPL. Some of my pilot friends like me to fly with them as they are very casual VFR-only pilots so I get me burgers that way.
 
I try to fly at least once a week, more when the weather cooperates.
It's not cooperating.
Whomever is responsible for the weather in my neck of the woods, please fix it immediately.
Thank you.
 
8.7 hrs non-commercial average hours flown a month. Some months are a 0, usually August is a fun month of flying!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 
Nov - April 2018
Aprox 81 hours and 42 flights. I didn’t see any local flights though there may have been 1 or 2. All flying is for real travel - no $100 hamburgs but plenty of $200 social weekends

We designed our lives around flying out of our residential Airpark instead of driving.

Our Mom’s were both elderly and ill so we made a lot of 1.5 to 2.5 hour trips to visit. Probably increased our flight time by 15% compared to other times, but no more.

Living with the plane changes everything - no car travel to airport.

14.5 MPG at 155 knots seems to be avg - RV10

Flight area for 6month period - Key West, Long Island Bahamas, upstate NY, Cleveland, Greenville SC. Durham NC is home base.

Flying has never been my job. Went thru lots of phases. Right now flying = travel.





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:
I go in spurts. Sometimes I may get a couple flights a week in. Sometimes it's no more than a couple flights a month. Last month was zero flights, which makes me very, very sad and ashamed.
 
Before we ended up in Guam, I was getting a few hours a month towing gliders and a few glider flights. Now, zero GA flights. I did get current towing and glider a couple of months ago but that is pretty much it.

Of course I get 500 or 600 Boeing 737 PIC hours a year. :D
 
I rarely rent a plane for fun anymore. Probably just a few times a year.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Before we ended up in Guam, I was getting a few hours a month towing gliders and a few glider flights. Now, zero GA flights. I did get current towing and glider a couple of months ago but that is pretty much it.

Of course I get 500 or 600 Boeing 737 PIC hours a year. :D
Click to expand...

Is that gliding in Guam or stateside? Just curious...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Unit74 said:
Hobbies that turn into work generally kill the hobby......
Click to expand...
Not for me. I just get enough flying GA flying throughout the year when I do part time work at my flight school so I don’t feel like renting. I’d rather use my travel benefits and fly somewhere.
 
Prior to owning a plane? I flew once a month (if that) for a total of about ~30hrs per year give or take 10 depending on the year.

Now that I own a plane, I'm at 150 hours this year and the plane has been down for upgrades for about half of the 8 months I've owned it. It's sooooo much cheaper to fly and less of a hassle when you own a plane. I say cheaper because I separate the cost of ownership from the cost of flying.
 
Until this week, I’ve been flying professionally as a contract pilot for the last couple years. Had plenty of free time to fly on my own as well, and probably about 40-50% of my hours were personal flying (about 150 hours per year).

Now that I am starting a full time, non-flying job, I expect that I’ll be struggling to get 100 hours in the next year. I figure I’ll probably fly one or two Saturday’s a month, air show here and there. An occasional weeknight and occasional family trips in the Beech.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Until this week, I’ve been flying professionally as a contract pilot for the last couple years. Had plenty of free time to fly on my own as well, and probably about 40-50% of my hours were personal flying (about 150 hours per year).

Now that I am starting a full time, non-flying job, I expect that I’ll be struggling to get 100 hours in the next year. I figure I’ll probably fly one or two Saturday’s a month, air show here and there. An occasional weeknight and occasional family trips in the Beech.
Click to expand...

Be careful of the 9 to 5 stuff, it can become habit forming.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
I try to make it up once a week, if I get to two weeks without flying then I'll start adjusting my schedule so I can make it happen. I don't think it's good for me or the plane to sit out longer than that. My airplane is currently in another state and will be for another month, which has me using my home simulator to get some sort of fix at least.
 
59 hours since last Nov. 26th. Plan to fly on this coming 26th, so that will be about 60 hrs... averages to 5 hrs per month.

Sadly, when you put that into percentage, approx. 730 hours in a month, is about .684 percent. So I feel like I gotta work on that.

However, to get well rested, that knocks off 8 hrs per day, so 487 hrs awake = 1 percent

Add in my job at 172 hrs per month average, and it's 1.6 percent.

Reduce that by overtime, the weekend days I have to do other things, and the nights that I just don't have time (browsing Trade a Plane), the weather, and rental availability....

I reckon I'm flyin about 99% of the time.
 
Last edited:
About 140 hrs since last nov. this fall and winter has been brutal with WX, like this month I have 9 hrs for a XC, but nothing local yet, hopefully some time tomorrow
 
jordane93 said:
Not for me. I just get enough flying GA flying throughout the year when I do part time work at my flight school so I don’t feel like renting. I’d rather use my travel benefits and fly somewhere.
Click to expand...

The other thing for airline types is it ruins their ownership gig if only viewed from the prism of travel allowances.

My airline buddy let a perfectly fine M20F (J mods) rot for 18 months because he has access to CASS. Now he's putting it back on annual and installing new engine mounts, and trying to sell it. He tried to pawn it off on me because he knows I'm trying to move up from the Arrow (not that it would work; I'm moving from the arrow looking for more horsepower, climb, and pax ingress/egress improvements , and the 20F is straight up a regression on all fronts, and no improvement on the HP). I looked at him like, bro, you're talking to another aircraft owner; how the hell are you gonna look at me straight in the eye and peddle me an 18 month sitting Lycoming camshaft that didn't even get pickled.

He knows he effed up that engine and its resale to the informed buyer, and the two things that killed it for him are very much the typical ones: 1) favored a far away hangar over being close but outside and, 2) the airline job travel allowances tarnish GA ownership because it becomes "indignant" to take the scenic route to go somewhere when its perceived you have a free pass compared to retail paying pedestrians.

The irony is that airline type flying (yes, bombers, different flying, marginally more engaging actually, since we at least get to hand fly more) is what drove me to airplane ownership in the first place. To each their own.
 
Got certified in July, try for 1 to 2 times a week. At 140 hours total for just over a year
 
Flying open cockpit in New England... might be 4-5 times a week in the summer, and once in two months in the winter.
 
alfadog said:
Curious how often folks here fly. I am asking about flying that does not require a CPL, even if you have one. So I am asking about pleasure, personal use, incidental to business, receiving training, etc. but not being paid to be a pilot or flight instructor.

If things vary then average out the last six months or so.
Click to expand...
Never. That **** is expensive
 
Try and get in 10 hours a month and usually do. Now that I've started the IR it will likely be a little more as I learn best flying 2-3X a week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top