Flying Time

[170C]

As 2011 comes to an end I have calculated my total flying time (which happens to all have been in Ole Pokey) except for a couple of rides in an RV-6 and a C-140, both of which I did not log PIC time. I find my time this year is about 8 hours less than 2010 or a total of 71 hrs. Not a lot Blame it on all the usual excused (fuel costs, etc). Just wondering how much our association members are averaging these days realizing some do a lot of commercial/none 170 or whatever you fly for fun time

[bagarre]

Last year was the first full year we owned 81D.
I logged 58 hours in the 170 and about a dozen hours in various other planes.

I logged more than that working on her than flying her. Being the first year of ownership, there were a LOT of things needing attention from radios to rigging.

Most of that flying was within 50 miles of home or just pattern work. Half a dozen trips were over 200 miles.

Next year will be much more than that...unless something else breaks

-David

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

My partner and I only logged 28 hours in our 170 last year. Lots of reasons for it and the cost of gas was really not one but it never helps. We just had record rain fall with the most EVER recorded here beating the record by several inches. Most of that rain fell it seems on Sunday, our day for flying. I also did not fly the 170 to a convention which adds a few hour to the total. Then there are the 25 or so hours I flew my Cub and the last 3 months I've spent about 15 hours in a Luscombe teaching it's owner how to fly it.

[bagarre]

Hmm.
58 hours in DC
28 hours in PA
110 hours in Sunny San Diego

Looks like weather has a bigger impact than fuel prices

[KG]

80 hours in my 170..... and it didn't fly this year before late March as it was undergoing an engine change so that's 80 hours in 9 months.

537 for work (737s) and I have three more days to go so I'll hit 550. That's a little less than normal as I took some time off and also spent one month on a special project for our training center. That special project gave me 80 hours on the jumpseat... I don't recommend it. I must remember to never volunteer for anything ever again.

[rupertjl]

I only had 20 hours this year...each year I say I'm going to do more but life always gets in the way! A baby daughter and a job change/move had a little to do with it. I've owned the plane since 2004 and only once have I gone over 100 hours in a year, but that's always my goal!

[n3833v]

When I got my insurance and told him I only flew 36 hrs for the year, He told me that I was higher than the national averge for GA. The national average was 26 hrs and the companies were concerned that the planes are setting around AND the pilots aren't keeping in practice. It means that we need to do online refreshers and try to do our best for safety. Have a Happy New Year, ALL.

John

[3958v]

I did 70 which is about average for me. Bill K

[GAHorn]

I flew N146YS only 27 hours this year (no convention travel.)

My other flying included 230+ hrs in the Citation-X simulator as I.P., and 60+ hrs as a contract crewmember in a Part 91 Hawker 700, plus 6 hrs simulated HS-125 and 14 hrs simulated in the C-X for my own currency/trng.

Oh, yeah...and 1.2 hrs in a Be-33 Debonaire.

[W.J.Langholz]

About 75 hours in the 206
1.5 hours in a Super Cub (plus 30 min to get in and out of the darn thing)
1 hour in a PT-17

W.

[blueldr]

Just think, if you had been flying with that deadly mogas that I've been using all these years you could have saved about $1.50/gal. or about $10.50/ hr in a
C-170. Of course you might be dead, just like me.

P.S. You wouldn't have had to clean the spark plugs either.

[GAHorn]

Just think, if you had been flying with that deadly mogas that I've been using all these years you could have saved about $1.50/gal. or about $10.50/ hr in a
C-170. Of course you might be dead, just like me.

P.S. You wouldn't have had to clean the spark plugs either.

Yes, and the $640 for the carb rebuild would be off-set by the $1350 I could save by not paying insurance premiums, since the insurance would not be valid anyway due to violation of FARs and STCs.

[blueldr]

Fortunately, for me, the fuel systems in the engines in my C-170 were too old to be able to detect the deadly mogas and it never proved to become a problem. As for insurance, other than liability, I have always "Gone Naked" by choice. (Sometimes to my despair.) I probably came out about even or a little behind on insurance over the years, but I was way ahead on mogas starting back in about 1948.
When I bought that old Stinson L-5 up in Alaska, I got a copy of the USAAF "Dash one" Tech Order for the L-5 and ran across the section on fuel where it stated that if you were operating with the Army where av gas was not available, it was perfectly permissable to use the standard motor fuel used in all military vehicles. That did it for me. I've used it ever since and it has never given me the first minute of problem. That just goes to prove the truly great value of clean living and honoring ones mother.
Back in those days Alaska was a "Territory" and there was a road tax on civilian motor fuel that made it more expensive than the untaxed av gas. Fortunately for me, the uncle that employed me had mogas all over the place and I just sort of sopped it up to keep it from becoming a hazard. Regular auto fuel in Fairbanks was about $.50 a gallon and 80 octane av gas was $.32 per gallon.

[jrenwick]

Blueldr, I think the problem is that you're advocating the use of a fuel that, while it works just fine for these old engines, nobody can buy any more. You and George are talking about two different things!

BTW, I flew my C90-powered J3 to Alaska eight years ago, and I could not have made that trip without burning auto gas. It was ethanol-free 87-octane unleaded, perfectly legal per the EAA's STC, and it worked just fine. I used unleaded auto gas in the Cub exclusively for a number of years in the '90s when airports where I live had auto gas pumps, but those are gone now, and at least in Minnesota there is no longer an auto gas available that's permitted under the STC I have.

[blueldr]

John, I guess I'm just a natural bootlegger. To test for alcohol in mogas, the procedure is to put a certain portion of water in the testing vessel and then add the gasoline. The vessel is capped off and then shaken vigorously until the contents are thoroughly mixed. This mixture is then allowed to settle out and amalgamated settlement should indicate the quantity of alcohol in the raw fuel. The water apparently pulls the alcohol out of the fuel.
In order to develop an alcohol free fuel for my airplane I simply added about a pint of water, it needn't be distilled, to my fuel tanks and then filled them with pump grade regular gasoline. The whole airplane was then shaken vigorously and then allowed time for the settling out of the amalgamated water and alcohol.
Then I simply drained the sumps and "VOILA". Let's go flying. Clever system,eh?