BeechBaby wrote:
And this is where I totally disagree with you.This thread has been about the fact that statistically it makes no odds whether you have 10000 hours, or 1. If the plane blows a cylinder, does it know how many hours the PIC has? No. If the plane has a snapped trim cable does it know if the pilot has enough bandwidth to deal with it? No.
I have witnessed many near misses with low houred pilots in the local zone who bimble about not understanding how dangerous the LFA can be. My personal view is that the circuit, and the LFA are potentially one of the most dangerous areas for flying. The overhead join, the crosswind, the long down wind where a lot of pilots end up in truly dire circumstances and often to the endangerment of others.
You are of course right that non-pilot error accidents happen to pilots of all skill levels. You are also right that flying local (I don’t know what you mean by LFA) is not per se “safer” than flying anywhere else (aerodynamics are the same wheter you know the groud below you from sight or not…). I never argued either of this.
BeechBaby wrote:
Are you aware of how many pilots kill themselves, or botch the power off landing, in this particular phase of flight?Currency, training and understanding of SA are your friends. Stats will not assist you here
I am aware that a power off landing is not an easy undertaking even on flat terrain. In relation to my low flight hours, I practice power-off landing rather often. I still know that there is a non-neglegible chance of “botching” one and getting killed.
I did not mean to argue that “stats” help me to stay alive. Proper risk assessment a training do, and as a low hours pilot it is difficult to stay current.
The number of hours per year to stay “good” varies.
I quickly lose my landing skill.
A Syndicate member who only just met the minimum hours to keep his SEP usually flew wit me as a pax. He didn’t seem to lose anything.
PS many non-commercial PPLs do 50+ hours per year.
PPS I gave up flying for 21 years. I should have just kept my licence current. Instruction as required and test. It would have been cheaper.
PPPS I’m one of those who appreciate your posts, Medewok.
Maoraigh wrote:
he number of hours per year to stay “good” varies.
I quickly lose my landing skill.
A Syndicate member who only just met the minimum hours to keep his SEP usually flew wit me as a pax. He didn’t seem to lose anything.
PS many non-commercial PPLs do 50+ hours per year.
PPS I gave up flying for 21 years. I should have just kept my licence current. Instruction as required and test. It would have been cheaper.
PPPS I’m one of those who appreciate your posts, Medewok.
Thank you, Maoraigh! I also appreciate your posts.
I think you are right that skill deprecates differently for different pilots, maybe even for the same pilot with different aircraft.
I noticed this when I finally got back into an Aquila A210 this year, the type I got my PPL on. I hadn’t flown one for two years and still felt more current and at ease than in the C172 I had flown in the interval, although with significantly lower total time on type compared to the A210 (I have roughly 50 hrs TT in the A210 vs 10 hrs in the C172).
Peter often stresses the value of currency on type and I think he’s right, but total time on type and familiarity/personal preference might also play a role regarding safety.
MedEwok wrote:
I noticed this when I finally got back into an Aquila A210 this year, the type I got my PPL on.
I think thats normal “Regression”?? You as a doc probably know more about that than me…
Agreed with the “currency on type”.
MedEwok wrote:
I did not mean to argue that “stats” help me to stay alive.
I understand that. Nothing beats actual currency. Whether it is in circuit, nav, handling. Do you ever just climb up to say 5000 and just practice stalls, slow flight? Landing configuration turns. Also if it is available take a instructor with you with a specific task you would like to go over.
It is this type of currency that builds confidence, and hones general handling skills. Take another pilot friend with you. The point I make is that each flight should be experience and learning therefore when you go bimbling you do so from a confident approach. The LFA is the Local Flying Area, generally an area fairly close to the field where all and sundry are flying about. All skill levels and where IMO pilots should be totally alert for the unusual.
Good luck with your flying and development.
If you enjoy flying and are able to, keep doing so. You’re clearly aware of the risks and act accordingly. I also second as people have said reading accident reports to try to think about what causes some of these issues, I’ve also learned a lot from this forum and try to put back in where I can. I’m generally not flying IFR going internationally moreso I’m going low and slow, but I do enjoy reading about others who are doing these things.
I firmly believe extra regluation is not the solution to safety (or many other things).
As has certainly been pointed out above, hours are absolutely not the be all and end all. Within probably half an hour’s flying the other day I had taken off from a semi one way strip, done a bit of loose formation flying, landed at a long dog leg strip, less than 5 minutes from that I’d landed at a ~200m strip. I got more stick and rudder from that than hours of straight and level cross country.
Here is what an Air Bum has to say about Staying Proficient on 35h/year.
TL;DR: make it a science :-)
While agreeing with most of that article, the precise circuits seem irrelevant to my real world. “Join right/left base”, “Can you keep it tight?” “Report ready to turn base” “Orbit left/right”, “Make another orbit”.
Fitting in with IFR traffic, commercial and business jets, is essential.
And at an uncontrolled airfield, the “Avoid overflying” restrictions.
From the above article
35 hours a year. That’s the number the FAA recently released as the average amount of time flown annually by homebuilts
That is from 1995. I wonder if things have gone downhill? Also I wonder if homebuilts fly especially few hours? Those I know about seem to have long breaks (various reasons e.g. based on grass strips which get waterlogged, landing gear not suitable for many surfaces, substandard engineering → heavy downtime, etc) but then I am talking about Europe.
35hrs a year, airborne time, is 1 flight per week, of a minimum duration appropriate to the engine (boiling off the water from the oil, etc) which is not bad at all. Or a pretty decent trip somewhere every 2 weeks. But in reality we all know this is not how it runs. Lots of people stop flying totally for maybe 6 months in the “winter”. Then we have a pile of accidents when the sun comes out; many fatal. That is the real enemy of currency.
However, people often confuse currency with proficiency and think because they’ve flown once a week (35 hours is about 40 minutes a week), they are current AND proficient. That is not necessarily true.
Currency just means having flown recently. Proficiency means being able to fly well. There’s a gigantic difference and the time flown has little or nothing to do with proficiency.
That’s basically what it’s all about IMO. There are people flying crazy amount of hours each year, like in the 300+, all cross country. How they find the time, and where they go, and why? I don’t know. But the most mysterious part is that they all say they feel rusty if they haven’t flown in a couple of days. A week without flying, and they feel nervous the next time, or so they say. I have never understood that. A SEP isn’t a very complicated machine, and flying from A to B isn’t a very complicated task. But people feel what they feel.
Fighter pilots fly about 150 h per year according tot this. According to the article, that is too little. They need 200 h each year in order to achieve “full spectrum capable readiness” (cool word 
) That means, they not only keep their skills, but also improves them over time. 150 h per year is enough to keep their skills “current”, but too little to be current for war.
Their environment is infinitely more complex than flying a SEP from A to B. And that goes for everything, the technology, the flying, the systems, the cooperation, tactics etc They don’t need more than 150 h per year to keep at it, to keep their proficiency. According to the article this is well understood and researched.
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”, which obviously is about something very different. 5 h, 10 h, 15 h ? more? My guess would be 5 h if you always fly the same plane (the simple trainer you trained in), but those hours must be used for flying (training), not for remembering forgotten procedures, check lists and buttonology.
