What constitutes low/med/high time to you

[luvflyin]

The FAA allows helicopter pilots to multiply their time by 10 to get an equivalent fixed wing time. I’m approaching 50,000 hrs now. So I’ve got that going for me...

makes sense when you make something that doesn’t want to fly, fly. Instead of guiding something around that does want to fly.

 

[luvflyin]

I’m gonna do a ceremonious burning of my logbook. After backing it up of course

 

[Liberty Flyer]

When you think about a low time pilot, moderate time ones, and high timers, what is the numbers you are thinking of?
I'm certain we all have our own thoughts on this.
For me less than 5,000 hours is low time, 5,000 - 15,000 is a moderate time pilot, over 15,000 I would consider high time. We never stop learning, but those first 5,000 were when I learned some critical things the hard way. Around 3,000 hours I began to believe my own BS that I had a clue what I was doing, and got a bit dangerous.

Interesting question. I don't really think of time as much as I think of experience. What did a pilot do in all those hours? Are they currently proficient? All our skills are perishable if not used and reinforced. We may become rusty in some areas and keep other skills polished. Judgment comes with seasoning, but can also be affected by things such as health and external pressures so time itself isn't the end-all yardstick of experience.

I don't know what the current statistics are now but when I was progressing through certificates and ratings the dangerous times for accident spikes was pilots with around 400 hours, then 1,000 hours and so on. 400 hours was in the range of pilots getting past their instrument rating and into commercial maneuvers or just past it. They might have even got their CFI. The 1,000 hour mark seemed to me to be the time when pilots got overconfident. The 2,500 to 4,000 hour mark was pilots who had become bored and complacent.

In today's flying world, a newly minted private pilot can start working on and shortly thereafter take a checkride for an instrument rating which makes a more proficient pilot. When I got mine the feds required 200 hours total time. But even then it takes a bit longer at times I think to realize that your faithful steed still cannot fly in every kind of weather and learning what to stay out of takes some pilots longer than others. Some things are obvious, some things are not. Deferring to someone who has been doing it for some time, has stayed in the game and is currently operating the same type of equipment and in the same environment as you and has continued to do so safely, is heading down the road of a better quality of experience. IMHO.

 

[Liberty Flyer]

I’m gonna do a ceremonious burning of my logbook. After backing it up of course

Ummm, NO! (It's just pieces of vanity I don't wish to loose myself of).

 

[frfly172]

I’m going with the mid time pilot,that’s what my budget allowed.

 

[smv]

There is a difference between 5,000 hours of experience and one hour of experience repeated 5,000 times.

 

[3393RP]

During WWII, almost all bomber and fighter pilots arrived in England with no more than 400 hours, and after flying their 25 missions and going home had no more than 600.

All experience is relative.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

During WWII, almost all bomber and fighter pilots arrived in England with no more than 400 hours, and after flying their 25 missions and going home had no more than 600.

Yup. Saw a presentation by a WWII bomber copilot a number of years ago. He had 62 hours when he and the rest of his crew picked up a brand-new B-17 from the factory and flew it across the pond. They encountered icing over the Atlantic but had no training in it and no real method to deal with it, so they picked up enough that they began to lose altitude... And what eventually saved them was the salt spray hitting them from the ocean. And after all of that, upon reaching England everything was fogged in so all the bombers were basically shooting NDB approaches repeatedly. The lucky ones made it in. The MAJORITY of the airplanes that went across with them crashed in England and never flew a single mission.

 

[3393RP]

Yup. Saw a presentation by a WWII bomber copilot a number of years ago. He had 62 hours when he and the rest of his crew picked up a brand-new B-17 from the factory and flew it across the pond. They encountered icing over the Atlantic but had no training in it and no real method to deal with it, so they picked up enough that they began to lose altitude... And what eventually saved them was the salt spray hitting them from the ocean. And after all of that, upon reaching England everything was fogged in so all the bombers were basically shooting NDB approaches repeatedly. The lucky ones made it in. The MAJORITY of the airplanes that went across with them crashed in England and never flew a single mission.

I assume you mean 62 hours in the B-17. The hours flown in CPT, primary, and advanced training would exceed that significantly.

I was friends with a gentleman that did B-29 transition training in a modified B-17, and was then sent to Omaha for training in the B-29.

After two weeks and roughly 30 hours of PIC time in the aircraft, he and his crew were assigned a new Superfortress. They flew from Offutt to San Francisco, then to Honolulu, and finally Saipan.

Three weeks after Ralph arrived in Saipan, he turned 21. I always enjoy telling this story.

 

[Tantalum]

50 hrs a year is one hour a week.. for most working people, married, kids, other obligations, having that kind of time is tough

I know many people who's goal is 50 for the reasons stated above

--having said that I do believe there's more value in yearly vs total time, so, to answer the question:
<50/yr is low
50-100 is low-mid
100-150 is mid-high
150-200 is high
>200 is career

I believe there ought to be a distinction between people who fly for a career verse people who fly strictly as a hobby.. you could be a fantastic guitar player (expert really) that wouldn't be fair to say you are mediocre just because you're not Paul McCartney..

 

[iRyan]

So many good points from all of you, thus is the kind of feedback that I was looking for, this post and the many others be it about NVG and more.

Yes, airliner time is not a good example of time being a good teacher. Someone who sits in a room doing the weight and balance, checking weather, telling them how much fuel to use, just droning along on autopilot, heck it will land itself, and never ever go to a small runway. I don't really consider airliners building time, those pilots don't even do a walk around style thorough preflight. They just expect others to have checked it over and fuel itnfor them. They don't even stand by the door, greet the passengers, check how the luggage and passengers are being loaded. They are out of touch with the actual plane, and activities going on with it. Auto throttles, autopilot that lands, it almost takes away the need for a pilot completely. I bet they would feel better if they were hands on, request the shorter runway, hand fly at 1000' agl. While I could never be an airline pilot myself, the boredom would be too much for me...I do actually admire the men and women who can tolerate the boredom, the airlines stupid rules, being away from home for extended periods instead of home in their own comfy bed with their loved ones.
I make a monthly trip where I leave on a Tuesday, spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights in hotels, and arriving home late evening Friday...I miss my home, girlfriend, dog, and my stuff in just that one short trip per month.

I'll bite.
We do have dispatch and ground crew yes. We still check weather, we still do WxB, we still calculate fuel, we still review the flight plan. You know why? Cause that person who does it for us just sends us whatever the software spits out. We do walk around preflights and post flights. I've caught static wicks, VG's, tire cord, unmarked dents etc. We are keeping track of pax and luggage I just spent 15 min working out how to get WxB to work so I could get 2 more pax on cause of a landing weight issue. I know any wheelchair pax, any LEOS, i'm talking with Ops about luggage from connecting flights. I preemptively went to another gate whos flight was delayed to the same destination and got another 6 people onboard who wouldn't have left for another few hrs waiting on an inbound. Theres so much more to the Ops side of 121 world than just punch in the PDC and wait around "not greeting pax"

On the handflying business a lot of our jets are less technically advanced than a 182 with a garmin 430. On the 145 we don't get vnav so your calculating all the points on on sids stars and how to get slowed down. (we can't slow down and get down) We fly into podunk airports, we get terrible vectors, so many things require kicking off the autopilot and putting in on the runway old school looking out the window. One of the sayings from LCA's and training department is 1-800 be a pilot.
I just handflew from mobile to houston at 26000ft. In cruise flight not +- 200ft or 100ft. Probably +-20 ft at 26000 where the plane goes out of trim when someone walks to the Lav and a 1 degree pitch change = a few 100 FPM vertical speed.
All, every single one of the pilots i've ever flown with can put a plane into the pattern and put it on speed in the TDZ on centerline no Autopilot no vertical info just judgement. Cause we do it every day at outstations.

We do never take the short runway though if a longer ones available mainly for passenger comfort though. Why slam them into the seatback ahead when I can roll it on pop the buckets let it coast and take a highspeed?

you actually flew recently? lucky guy. It's been since march for me (same company). I refrained from getting involved in this thread as it's the same as when the guy next to me tells me how it is being an attorney and i am wrong, despite doing it for 20+ years.

 

[ktup-flyer]

I’ve flown 85 hours since New Years. ~225 total time. I’d definitely still consider myself low time, but I think I’m a lot more proficient than most.