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Logbook musings and 2018 goals


bradp

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I was just filling in the last page of my logbook and did 120 hrs in calendar 2017 :-).  Not what my goal was but it was better than the year prior.  Of course the new goal will be to best that; realistically, we have another child on the way and I know exactly how our last little chicken slammed that logbook shut with her cute little fist for the better part of a year.  :-) I was more interested in the percentage of total time that I spent in the different columns.  Rather than diving into logbook totals (tacky sometimes), percentages can be a reflection of the type of flying these planes do.  There is no right or wrong (i.e. a lifetime of pattern work in a J3 sounds pretty awesome to me just the same), but I was wondering if us Mooney pilots generally spend our time in the air in similar proportions - as the plane and the type of traveling it was designed for dictate.

Here's a snapshot of me:

PIC time 96%

Night flight 19.9%

Cross country flight 80.1%

Instrument conditions (if applicable) 13.6%.

 

Conclusion - n=1 supported by conventional wisdom: Mooney flyers spend their time traveling on long cross country trips.  Personal resolution: I'd like some additional proportion of time that I can in the instruction received category (i.e. would like to MEL soon).  I just thought it was an interesting observation and the first time I've done this type of long division...

-Brad

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49 minutes ago, bradp said:

Conclusion - n=1 supported by conventional wisdom: Mooney flyers spend their time traveling on long cross country trips.  Personal resolution: I'd like some additional proportion of time that I can in the instruction received category (i.e. would like to MEL soon).  I just thought it was an interesting observation and the first time I've done this type of long division...

-Brad

I think most flyers spend the majority of their time on cross country trips, simply because those take more time (unless they ONLY fly in the local pattern).  Probably makes more sense to talk about what percentage of flights are cross country trips, rather than the number of hours.  I only made 5 or 6 cross country trips last year, but that accounted for 40 of my 70 hours last year, even though I've tried to fly every week.

I'm guessing my night hours are less than 8%, so you're way ahead of me there

Edited by jaylw314
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3 minutes ago, MIm20c said:

Most of my flying is in a large 300 mile local radius. However, my cheap fuel source is 52nm away so I log a lot of CC time. 

ANY flight from one airport to another is technically cross country time ;)

I assumed we were using it to talk about just long flights in general, though

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All of my flying is cross country except recurrent training.  Sometimes when I'm doing approach practice I may toss in a landing, if I go far enough away, to count it as cross country.  I usually don't go that far though, so I shoot some approaches and then back home.  One take-off, one landing, multiple approaches.

Otherwise we're going somewhere or I'm doing an Angel Flight mission.  The vast majority of my flying is IFR, but most of that is VMC.

 

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To the best of my knowledge the only time there is a distance associated with a cross country flight is when you are working towards another rating.  Otherwise leave one airport and land at another any distance away and it is cross country.  I have made cross country flights that were 2nm.

 

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13 minutes ago, 1964-M20E said:


To the best of my knowledge the only time there is a distance associated with a cross country flight is when you are working towards another rating.  Otherwise leave one airport and land at another any distance away and it is cross country.  I have made cross country flights that were 2nm.

 

I'm impressed! I now go 10nm for fuel; at my previous home field in WV, I would visit fields at 4nm and 8nm.

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