I agree with Peter that 35 hours is a decent average for a year. My feeling is that the average European PPL will have less.
LeSving raised an interesting topic: subjective currency. When do you guys feel no longer current? After a week, two weeks, a month of not flying?
Subjectively I feel like I’m good if my last flight was within the last month…
I can’t find the posts right now but the average hours flown in the French club community have been reported (by French pilots) as way below 35hrs. It is for sure a factor in the high accident rate, but not necessarily a problem for an individual who does suitable risk compensation. It is the low time pilots who don’t risk compensate who get the extra accidents.
If you have limitations on how much you fly, you need to make every flight count 
the average hours flown in the French club community have been reported (by French pilots) as way below 35hrs. It is for sure a factor in the high accident rate
Has someone made a comparison between French and, for example, German accident rates ? While not having the underlying data, I would be surprised if the French fly far less than Germans, nor vice versa the German flying notably more. I heard the average German private pilot flies around 15h p.a., but again hard data to proof the hearsay seems not to exist.
Peter wrote:
It is the low time pilots who don’t risk compensate who get the extra accidents.
And there are those who say that “just above low time” (IIRC, 200 to 500h TT) pilots get themselves into most trouble (and I don’t mean with the CAA for airspace busts)… But this is separate from the currency / proficiency.
The ratio of certified to ULM is astonishing, Capitaine. More than 1:3.
I wonder if that is real i.e. whether there is a much higher % federation membership in the ULM sphere than in the certified sphere.
What are the benefits of being a member?
Peter wrote:
The ratio of certified to ULM is astonishing, Capitaine. More than 1:3.
I wonder if that is real i.e. whether there is a much higher % federation membership in the ULM sphere than in the certified sphere.
What are the benefits of being a member?
Pretty much all aeroclub members in France are members of the FFA for insurance reasons. Similarly for FFPLUM.
I recall that for every licence SEP rating renewal, the DGAC has boxes for total hours flown and hours last 12 months. Pilot hours are therefore tracked.
I do not know if there is any “official” tracking with ULMs in France so dont know if the figures given are verified.
Regards, SD..
The flying hour statistics should be available, after all you have to report the hours flown every time you do a medical. That of course goes only to the national CAAs but where are these figures?
MikeWhiskey wrote:
I heard the average German private pilot flies around 15h p.a., but again hard data to proof the hearsay seems not to exist.
That pretty much chimes with the figures I heard when living and flying in various European countries. 12 to 15 was the most-quoted figure.
The ratio between aircraft and ULs doesn’t surprise me.
What I can tell from the french fatal accidents in 2018 (which was a very bad year), is that people do not get killed because of lack of currency. Very few of those were 10h/year pilots or they had at least a few hundred hours total. Risk compensation seems to work fine.
The deadliest months are July and August. There are no “annual return to flying” effect (at least in terms of fatalities).
Most accidents happened in brilliant weather. They happened when pilots let down their guard because they feel comfortable with what they do.
So many (most?) pilots are not proficient, even if they are current.
The ratio of certified to ULM is astonishing, Capitaine. More than 1:3.
One could think ULM-pilots have an identical flying budget to SEP’s and simply fly more… Hence, they should be more proficient?
So many (most?) pilots are not proficient, even if they are current.
… which turns back to the question from above:
How many hours per year is needed to fly a SEP safely from A to B? and I mean factually, not simply according to a feeling of “general rustiness”
