Passed 1,000 hours this week

After a rough start with my private license I made a milestone this past week. On a trip from Atlanta’s PDK to Sarasota I broke 1,000 hours. My actual instrument time is over 150 hours and my night flight about 180 hours. I have had no accidents, (knocking on wood), have had a couple of plane failure issues, got iced once, and got a stern talking to by an airport manager once. My longest distance flight is Atlanta GA to Mitchell SD for pheasant hunting. I burned an entire tank leaving an hour reserve after 6.5 hours of flight. Furthest south is Key West, furthest north is Mackinac Island, MI, furthest west is OK City or just west of Kansas City. Most of this flight is with my Piper 6XT, the rest are training craft or rental while pursuing my commercial. I am having lots of fun, but remained ever concerned for my skill and complacency.

Airport managers have a much higher opinion of themselves than they should. Unless it’s on the ground and at the airport they have no say whatever, even that’s limited. Mow the grass, change burned lights, paint taxiway/runway lines, security and where planes park is pretty much it.

When I was an ATC’er we had an issue with the Airport Manager over a cargo jet getting turned out over the city when sent around. We put the guy in his place when a 737 hit a rabbit on the runway the next week and guess who got to clean that up?

Congratulations!

I too, enjoyed my every bit of flight training. I have little over 20 hours on my belt and my training was stopped due to financial reasons, but soon after I am out of the dark I sure will continue on and finish my private license.

Do you have any particular target now? Such as commercial and/or multi-engine?

Congratulations.
I always figured that by the time you get to 1000 hours you’ve scared yourself enough times to know your limits. Now you can concentrate on fine tuning your skills. Well done.

John in Saudi

Man…I’ll be estatic when I get to 100 hours. 1000…WOW.

A memorable milestone, congratulations.

Congrates. How long have you been flying?

I have been flying since August 2006. I bought the plane after flying 15 hours of private lessons. The difficulty with my private lic. came in flying different airplanes; high wing 172 to low wing warrior and 300 Hp turbo Saratoga fixed gear (6XT). Now when I fly the Warrior all is very easy. I was warned that changing planes and mixing in the Saratoga would be a problem. It was a problem but I overcame that. The other sometimes controversial part of my experience was taking the instrument training over a two week period in Kansas City. I had the hours and passed the exam so I qualified. I took the lessons in my plane and learned alot. Even had to fly home in IMC. As I have also been told, nothing beats proficiency flights like Hobbs time.

Thanks for the congrats guys/gals. My next mission is a commercial then on to floats.

Floats will be the most fun you’ve ever had with your clothes on

How many years did this take you? I will hit this milestone in 2010 and I started in 2001.

Good luck! Do you know when you are gonna start your commercial?

It must be nice to have that kind of where with all too achieve 1000 hours in such a short time. I hit it pretty hard getting my PP and Inst… After that, I hit the national average doldrums as far as hours/year. I then took a several year hiatus due to financial reasons, spreading to lack of decent equipment to rent, and finally pulled the plug and purchased an A/C which is RELATIVALLY inexspensive, that satisfies my needs for bells and whistles (still can’t afford it, but it is now or never. I’ll take now) . I am only limited by weather and money for fuel. I am set for the next for the next several months, and I still do not have 1000 hours!!! Good job. Keep it fun…

Just at the 2,500 hour mark with the same hours on my Lycombing. Compressions are all good and nearly equal in all cylinders, no metal in oil analyis either. I’m getting a factory reman in the next week or two. I’m told that my engine failure at this point will be high oil consumption, not catastrophic. I’ve enjoyed the flight time and have another couple years to fly before I get out of the business that needs me to be in many places often.

Kids are now grown so I don’t need six seats anymore either. Time in type seems pretty important. Confidence is critical. Get lost or in unusual attitude you need to keep your cool to think things through. My mic time is nearly 900 hours, the biggest fear isn’t the clouds, it’s the dangerous cumulus. I got directed through a cumulus that center must not have known about. With IMC I couldn’t see it either. Scared the hell outa me so much that I don’t hesitate to say “unable” if that is the case.

Haven’t posted in a while, hope all of you are well and fly safe.

Thanks for the update.

Next scheduled update: April, 2021.

Congrats!

Yeah, not that active. Very busy with work and family. Would like to share more.

I did turn the plane in for a new engine. Just shy of 2500 hours. I get it back in two weeks. I got the factory re manufactured. Plenty of people tell me that I could have gotten a better deal. That’s OK, it’s cheaper than a funeral and I don’t mean to put down any rebuilders, I just have extra security.

Ignore my snark, and keep it flying!