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Your 2020 flying year, how many hours, and aspirations for 2021?

61 hours in 2020. Not bad considering that for several months there was no flight training, dual etc, which normally accounts for a lot of my flying. That’s a bit lower than normal for me but not much – average over the last 10 years is about 70, not counting a couple of years when I was busy with work and flew even less.

Aspirations for 2021 are simple: move me and my plane to France, get an EASA PPL and CB-IR, and discover what flying in France and Europe is like.

LFMD, France

What a strange, strange year. This year has seen me do the least amount of hours ever apart from my first ever year of flying (doing the PPL).

91.7 hours.

As a full time employed airline pilot, who also has a secondary GA job as well as doing GA for fun, that is really quite abysmal. Hours from employment way down due to no work, and personal GA hours down due to an associated lowering of available funds.

I have only one real aspiration for 2021:

Retain my job and get back to doing it. The rest will hopefully follow!

United Kingdom

2020, a horrid year for most people due to CV19, has made going places a lot harder. But at the same time I am pleased to see how many hours others have done. Not bad at all! Here is mine:

2013: 145 hrs
2014: 187
2015: 179
2016: 160
2017: 120
2018: 138
2019: 122
2020: 103

I managed to squeeze in some nice trips, in between the restrictions opening and closing. The first was Alderney in March, just 3 days before the island got cut off (and remains so now). Mali Losinj in May and Krk in July – both wonderful, walking around in then totally virus free and great scenic locations. Scilly Isles 3 times, including a birthday holiday with Justine in July, and a camping trip in September Then finished with an epic trip to Aosta in Italy which produced loads of pics and a great video. But by then the world was closing up again…

Those trips would have been impossible to do cv19-safely without GA. Even the Scilly Isles trips would have been impossible. So GA proved to be an extraordinarily safe way to travel – as well as enabling going to destinations which at other times were packed with tourists. I recall @terbang having some stunning trips to Italy like that.

For 2021, I’d like to do Greece again, and before that if possible some fly-ski trips but I doubt any of the destinations (suitable for me) will be open and without massive queues. Without a vaccination (not likely for my age group before April) I would do a quiet location, like Cervinia was in mid-Jan 2020, but everywhere is either shut or massively crowded. I would also like to do a flight around the Alps although presently it would have to be done without landing.

And as always I hope to meet up a lot of you again at Aero Friedrichshafen in April. That is always our “German fly-in”. It is scheduled again for late April but I would be a bit surprised if it gets run.

The TB20 continues to do exactly what I need, mostly with the 1990s avionics I might do the ADS-B IN TAS605 “A” upgrade but only with an exchange unit, in case of incompatibility of the “A” version with the three devices which currently display the traffic.

The main challenge is as every year: keep flying interesting.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

That was a very interesting year for all of us. The worst in commercial aviation history and general aviation is also dependent on commercial aviation. I do not know why but I wanted to realize my dream about establishing a small general aviation company, maybe some of our forum members remember. This dream made me buy a Tecnam P2008 JC MK II and she arrived in Turkey at the end of August 2020.
The worst period: When I was grounded (first time during 21 years of my flying history) for about a month after I was confirmed Covid19, with few symptoms.
The best moment: When I first lined up the runway with P208 and began the take off roll.

I logged 349 hours in 2020 , as a full time airline pilot. I also flew with P208, around 60 hours since October 2020. Good news is that P208 flew 200 hours in 2020, since September 15th.

Aspirations for 2021:
a. The vaccines , all variants, would work,
b. All fellow pilots get back to their jobs and enjoy blue skies,
c. Flying more hours in general aviation to get back to roots of flying.
d. Acquiring second airplane to my company, possibly a well maintained PA28R-Arrow.

Last Edited by SkyWagon at 02 Jan 08:02
Fly , Cycle and Run
LTBJ,LTFB, Turkey

Only 50 this year. For 2021 I want to triple this to get it back to normal

LDZA LDVA, Croatia
Goals for 2020:
get the IR
find suitable IFR capable plane
get close to 100 hours (50h IR, 50h trips)

2020 reality:
got the IR and various endorsements (RU, VP, SLPC, EFIS)
transitioned to the club´s new C172RG with GNS430 and AP – more fun to fly and hopefully more available for longer trips
63 hours total (55 IR training, only 8h for trips)

2021 aspirations:
pass ATPL theory exams
get the CPL (just for fun of it – no commercial work intended)
fly at least 50 hours doing trips to nice and interesting places (inspired by shared experience on this great forum)

Prague
Czech Republic

First full flying year after acquiring my licence, and also first year to fly my own plane as well, so a lot of learning going on. 92h flown, did my tailwheel endorsement in April and May despite the interruptions due to Corona restrictions, and transitioned to the RV-7 in June.

In October 2020, the Dutch rules regarding experimentals and their maintenance changed, so while we did the 100h service before that went into force, it will now be an interesting year to see how the increased bureaucracy will impact us. Otherwise, I would love to get some kind of instrument rating to punch through the low winter stratus, but since the RV-7 won’t be allowed to operate IFR under Dutch rules, that’s a pipe dream (am a bit envious of the US whenever I read vansairforce …).

Aspirations for the new year: getting aerobatics training to be safe when expanding my manoeuvering envelope; maybe looking into the mountain rating to be able and safe to do trips to the smaller fields in the Alps; and of course doing a few more trips in the green area

EHRD / Rotterdam

172driver wrote:

Which license are you flying on? If FAA, then check out the various extensions that have been granted.

None of them apply to the time period when mine runs out (March), and none of them apply to anything other than flying for some kind of business need, and they require more hours in the last year than I’ve been able to fly (thanks to being grounded due to COVID/aircraft annual running out). So basically they are out on all three counts.

Things like the AOPA Wings are no help because they still require an FAA CFI, which is the limiting factor, if COVID in the UK is still out of control in March (and I don’t anticipate the US allowing us to travel there until late 2021, assuming all goes well with the vaccine).

Andreas IOM

Just 88 hours last year of which most in Africa, a few in and around Como, the rest in Europe. Let’s hope that 2021 will bring back our opportunity to travel as just flying around to the next airfield is not my taste of flying. I like to combine the flying with exploring new places.

In the last few winter months, I have been flying regularly on my flight simulator (still X-Plane based). I am not a big fan of flying on the sim, but these last few months I have managed to fly regularfly using PilotEdge in the (virtual) California area. Last night I did a VFR flight from Los Angeles International to San Diego. I learn some new stuff in the way ATC is done different over there than here in Europe or on the African continent.

For 2021 I have some wishes:
(1) I would like to get my Aerobatics Rating.
(2) I would like to do a flight/trip to the Ukraine to visit Chernobyl.
(3) I will definitely be going to Africa a lot to fly there again.

Wishing you all the best for 2021. That your dreams may come true.

EDLE, Netherlands

Not sure if scientists have established that the dreaded ‘Rona is able to distinguish between professional and private flight crew training, but other than the periods of national lockdown, have been flying possibly more than average.

In 2020 I even managed to add a new type to the logbook, the very civilised TB10, as an instructional flight, so am taking baby steps towards the acme of EuroGA, flying a TB20 :)

In 2021 I hope to continue to try and master the basics of the Pitts, and on my one flight in the Pitts in 2020 managed a passable Sports sequence. Getting an FAA CFII would be interesting but given anno domini and the time investment, not sure it will happen.

Lockdown has caused a severe bout of Bonanza fever, and am actively looking at the type Stateside. The Swiss Army knife Cessna 182 seems to have caught up in value with the BE35, and I can remember when a presentable 182P/Q could be bought for £30k not so long ago – a fraction of a V35B. Now the types are in a similar bandwidth. This may be due to a variety of reasons, but increases in insurance premiums on retractable gear aircraft and on tailwheel aircraft in the USA may be a factor. Now you have both Cessna 180 and Beechcraft Bonanza owners switching to the 182!

Walter Beech would be turning in his grave.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom
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