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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 6, 2018 14:35:16 GMT 12
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Apr 6, 2018 14:46:55 GMT 12
He would have to be one of the highest-houred pilots current today, and still airborne. Epic!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 6, 2018 15:20:38 GMT 12
Yes, I see from the article he isn't completely retiring....I guess flying is in his blood too much.
Hopefully we'll see him displaying some of his classic aeroplanes at airshows for many more years.
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Post by Mustang51 on Apr 7, 2018 9:23:10 GMT 12
I hope he's there for Wings Over Wairarapa. Great guy !!!
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Post by delticman on Apr 7, 2018 10:56:16 GMT 12
I hope he's there for Wings Over Wairarapa. Great guy !!! Only the Cresco has changed hands. The rest, two FU-24's, DHC2, B8, EP9, Z37T and TA4000 plus the G164B are still in the fleet. |
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Post by FlyingKiwi on Apr 7, 2018 14:07:30 GMT 12
He would have to be one of the highest-houred pilots current today, and still airborne. Epic! Am I correct in thinking he is over the 40,000 hour mark? That's pretty rare. |
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Post by johnm on Apr 14, 2018 9:29:05 GMT 12
yeahhh .............. has he got a 40 k log book - good question
also have any other pilots got to +40 k hours ?
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Post by FlyingKiwi on Apr 14, 2018 20:50:30 GMT 12
I believe the world record is 50,000+ but that was exceptional, someone in the US who did powerline surveys pretty much all day every day for a long working life.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 14, 2018 22:23:31 GMT 12
In the early-1970s, I knocked off an 8,000-hour electrical apprenticeship in two years and eight months. Most of the apprentices I went to night school and trade school with took four years to do their 8,000 hours, working mostly 40 hours per week, but I did my apprenticeship at a large freezing works where we worked 12 hour days, six days of the week for a large proportion of the year, plus every third Sunday on electrical maintenance work where we needed to pull-the-plug on most of the plant, hence why I completed those 8,000 hours so fast.
But I guess with flying commercially, you wouldn't be allowed to work that many hours every year.
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Post by craig on Apr 15, 2018 7:56:58 GMT 12
Airline pilots accumulate hrs quite quickly especially on the long haul flights. But ag pilots who accumulate similar hrs have done a whole lot more landings and of course "hands on flying".
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Apr 15, 2018 8:35:44 GMT 12
Divide tens-of-thousands by a landing and takeoff every 3 minutes 😎
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Post by johnm on Apr 15, 2018 10:09:13 GMT 12
Maybe ............ excluding DC3 ops of course
Probaby a Cesco could go a fair distance / time and still make money
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Post by thomarse on Apr 17, 2018 20:40:33 GMT 12
I believe the world record is 50,000+ but that was exceptional, someone in the US who did powerline surveys pretty much all day every day for a long working life. Ed Long, 65,000 hours. I thought Max Conrad might have held the record but he only had a lousy 53,000! |
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Post by johnm on Apr 18, 2018 9:04:48 GMT 12
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Post by FlyingKiwi on Apr 18, 2018 20:16:10 GMT 12
I believe the world record is 50,000+ but that was exceptional, someone in the US who did powerline surveys pretty much all day every day for a long working life. Ed Long, 65,000 hours. I thought Max Conrad might have held the record but he only had a lousy 53,000! Wow, that's incredible!  |
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Post by johnm on Apr 18, 2018 20:54:03 GMT 12
Thats not taking anything away from topdressers to 5 10 15 20 25 30 40 k hours !
I like how wikipedia said that ed long only took the 1 flying lesson (as below) - hope its true
"He began in 1933 at the age of 17, when he took his first and only flying lesson.[1] In September 1989, he broke the previous record, 52,929 hours, set b"
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Apr 18, 2018 22:43:48 GMT 12
For my money, Kiwi ag pilots are at the top, hours flown irrespective. Their flying environment in NZ is very demanding, unforgiving of mistakes and all their flying - virtually every minute of it - is hands-on stick-and-rudder, ball in the centre stuff while operating aircraft well outside their book MAUW. The most memorable smoothly flown maneuvers I have experienced as a passenger has been with a Kiwi ag-pilot at the helm, down low and pin-point accurate without so much as a glance at the ASI.
Kudos and salute to you all
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 19, 2018 11:41:27 GMT 12
Yep, absolutely agree with that.
I am still enthralled with the flights I took with Bruce Thompson in ZK-BBJ out of Gisborne Airport a few weeks before she was retired from ag-work.
He was spreading super up the Waimata Valley that day, chucking that DC-3 around like a fighter within confined spaces.
The first load scared the crap out of me, but after that I relaxed somewhat and it became the norm.
And what made that day even more special was that the very first aeroplane flight I ever experienced was in ZK-BBJ “Skyliner Gisborne” on a NAC flight from Napier to Tauranga via Gisborne during school holidays in the 1960s (from memory, it was about 1962 or 1963 when I was 8 or 9 years old).
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Post by kiwibeavers on May 1, 2018 12:17:51 GMT 12
I hope he's there for Wings Over Wairarapa. Great guy !!! Only the Cresco has changed hands. The rest, two FU-24's, DHC2, B8, EP9, Z37T and TA4000 plus the G164B are still in the fleet. I believe there are 2 Cresco's that have changed hands, ZK-PWT and ZK-TPW. |
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Post by delticman on May 1, 2018 12:32:50 GMT 12
Only the Cresco has changed hands. The rest, two FU-24's, DHC2, B8, EP9, Z37T and TA4000 plus the G164B are still in the fleet. I believe there are 2 Cresco's that have changed hands, ZK-PWT and ZK-TPW. ZK-TPW went to Rural Air Work in July 2015 and last month ZK-CZA went to Highlander country. |
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