Scudrunners

Out of curiosity as to who frequents this place. Votes can be changed, if you are in the process of gaining hours. Sorry no options for "I'm too cool to keep track." if that's the case make your best guess for the sake of conversation.

My next trip will put me over 1 year.

I think it’s often a misnomer to equate hours with experience. They’re different.

I flew with an older FO who came from Hong Kong and has thousands of hours in the Airbus (was a captain before the company disappeared due to well managed Covid response). He would often confuse which buttons to push.

He is an arrogant prick and I recommend the training department not continue, but my opinion only matters when I push them to the line it appears.

I’ve also had a really sharp 1500 hour wonder. He was often asking questions that demonstrated a mental position well ahead of the aircraft.

I’m not sure if I should be proud of, or embarrassed by how much of my life I have spent in an airplane.

My Dad knew this funny fighter pilot, Jake Mulhall. He would tell the multi-engine pilots in the mess that they didn’t have 10,000 hours - they had 1,000 hours ten times over.

He might be right.

10 August 1962 CF-104 12742 6STR-OTU RCAF written off pilot killed

This Cold-Lake based plane crashed during a touch and go due to loss of thrust. The pilot, FlLt. Jake R. Mulhall ejected but sustained fatal injuries when his parachute disintegrated in the aircraft fire area and was sadly killed. The cause was an oilpump failure. The pilot ejected just after lift-off during the touch and go at Cold Lake. Because there was almost no wind, the parachute came down straight and landed into the middle of his fireball with the chute vaporizing above the ground

He spent all of his life in an airplane.



I think I still have a horseshoe magnet from his radar cyclotron in the hangar. Dad picked it up from the wreckage.

Nark wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:57 pm

I think it’s often a misnomer to equate hours with experience. They’re different.

Of course. I've known lots of "experienced" pilots who couldn't find their ass with both hands. But also a lot of really sharp neophytes that I'd be happy to turn loose in any plane.

If people are honest, they admit that learning is asymptotic with experience. After a while, it flattens out.

My kid tells me I don’t have 40 years of C/asm experience, just six months 80 times over. He’s probably right.

Colonel wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 24, 2023 8:11 pm

After a while, it flattens out.

I can't wait until that happens. At the moment it feels like I'm constantly learning newer more difficult ways that people would like me to do things.