[Rhodes22-list] Brad--Flight Time

[Brad Haslett]

Slim,

Around 25,000 hours is in the ballpark (I'd have to pull-up the latest
printout from the company). I spent a few years teaching in the 727 and the
last few teaching in the DC-10 and don't fly that much during the teaching
gigs.  We are limited to 1000 hours of "hard time" a year but you only
approach that if you fly international (I don't do that anymore, been there,
done that, got plenty of cheap T-shirts from all over the world). My guess
is that "time on duty" is about double what the flight time is, especially
if you fly domestic. Experience counts for a lot, but only if there is a
learning curve to go with it.  I'd like to think my skill-set is still
improving with age but there comes a time when the 'ole eyes' and other body
parts don't react as well as they used to.  That's when the "old bull, young
bull" operating modus comes into play to make-up for the difference. One
benefit of being a 'senior' pilot is that you don't have to screw around
with the rheostats in the cockpit anymore - you just crank all the lights to
full bright and then complain about the dimmest bulb.

Brad

On Feb 19, 2008 5:49 AM, Steven Alm <stevenalm at gmail.com> wrote:

> Brad,
>
> The History Channel is playing "History of the Joke" hosted by Lewis Black
> and he's interviewing all these many comics on all the many aspects of
> comedy.  One of the segments referred to experience and they were talking
> to
> Penn and Teller.  Penn said that when you look at a pilot, the first thing
> you look at is his flight time hours.  He then equated his "flight time
> hours" as an important part of the success of a comedian.  Like anything
> else, experience is important.
>
> So just for the hell of it I've tried to calculate my "hours."  I'm
> starting
> with my first full-time band that I joined when I was 25 years old.  I'm a
> music major grad and I'm in my first full-time professional music job.
>  Like
> you, I started performing for money when I was still a teenager--I'm not
> counting that.  I'm not counting my college gigs, not counting commuting
> time, not counting rehearsal time (biggie), I'm not counting break time,
> not
> even counting the few years I was a public shool teacher--just flight
> time--when I'm in the air and have control of the airplane.  In other
> words,
> on stage.  I haven't gone through all my years with a fine toothed comb
> and
> made any exact totals but in very round numbers I think I have about
> 25,000+
> full-time, professional hours of actual "flight time."
>
> Now, for professionals like Elle, a teacher, her flight time hours will
> exceed that by many fold.  Give flight time hours a shot, Elle.  You
> probably teach 6 units a day, we're not including preps (sorry--I have
> more
> prep hours than anybody--I started "prepping" for my job at age 5.)  I
> know
> you put in more than 40 hours/ week but let's just start there.  40 X 4
> weeks is 160 hours a month times 8 months is 1280 times (guessing) 30
> years
> is 38,400 actual flight time hours.  Am I close?  I don't know if I'll
> catch
> up to you before I'm retired--or dead.
>
> How many hours have you logged?
>
> Slim
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