Finally made it to 1,000!

[r22butters]

Yep, 1,000 night landings!

 

,...what?

 

Did you think I meant hours,...?

[TomPPL]

Well done..!! How long did it take in total to do it?

[mudkow60]

Yep, 1,000 night landings!

 

,...what?

 

Did you think I meant hours,...?

Is that something you log? Is that something you NEED to log?

[Fred0311]

I bet you have more night time than I do Bitters. (that was a typo but decided to leave it)

Edited June 27, 2018 by Fred0311

[r22butters]

Well done..!! How long did it take in total to do it?

Fifteen years and 363 total hours flying at night.

 

,...and Mud, I started keeping track of my night landings when I had to fill out that FAA form (which asked for it) the morning of my commercial checkride.

 

,...but no, I don't NEED to log it,...I don't really NEED to log anything anymore.

 

Bitters is going back to bed now,...he was up late last night

[LJS1993]

It sounds like you owe it to yourself to go out and buy your own R-44.

[r22butters]

It sounds like you owe it to yourself to go out and buy your own R-44.

You know dude, one of the reasons I have so many night landings is that after many of my night flights (which is usually just a joyride around the city) on my way home I stop by one of the other airports and do three trips around the pattern to renew my passenger currency.

 

The irony is of course, that I always fly alone and thus have no need to be passenger current.

 

,...its also why I have no need for an R44 with its useless back seats!

 

 

 

Well, I think I've run out of ideas here guys. This forum really needs some new blood, 'cause rigamortis is setting in.

[Wally]

Yeah, log'em. Long ago and far away, when I (and a LOT of other pilots) worked covering a body of water between Texas and Florida, I had occasion to be standing by at a base where very senior or connected pilots were assigned- they went home every night.

 

A heated discussion started at the next pilot's table, interrupting the card game. A very senior pilot was attempting to carry his point based on his years, hours and number of landings doing something or another, claiming "more than 20,000 landings"! I wasn't invoved in the argumemt, but I was listening, peer to peer learning is very important...

 

Anyhow, I started laughing at this supposedly extraordinary number of landings, which caught the attention of all the table.

 

The challenge came "What's so funny, FNG? You got 20,000 landings offshore?" Now I'm involved.

 

I was still keeping logs at that time, so I had an answer and documents "Approaching 60,000 right now with a little better than 5 years here."

 

"What the heck? No way. How did you do that?"

 

"Flying field ship jobs. The first couple I had averaged a 100 landings a day, some days 150.. It doesn't take long, or it better NOT take long to get smooth, quick and efficient practicing a more than a hundred times a day on a block-time contract."

 

The boaster carried his point, in spite of being loud and aggressive, he knew some chit.

 

Anyhow, I started to get a little standing with a bunch of old (flatulences), perhaps because I spoke up with real numbers or in spite of it.

 

Log everything you might need to document at some point and do it in all the detail you have time and space to record it. If not for ratings, etc., then FYI. I reviewed those numbers from time to time and worked out my own cruise speeds, ETEs, lots of stuff.

 

P.S. Almost 6000 night landings over 48 years.

Edited June 28, 2018 by Wally

[Eric Hunt]

 

 

I was still keeping logs at that time, so I had an answer and documents "Approaching 60,000 right now with a little better than 5 years here."

 

Whole E. Katz.

 

Them's a lotta landings.

 

I never logged landings, had no need to, but in my 45 years it wouldn't be anywhere close to that. Scary.

[Wally]

 

Whole E. Katz.

 

Them's a lotta landings.

 

I never logged landings, had no need to, but in my 45 years it wouldn't be anywhere close to that. Scary.

 

It slowed down after I left the Gulf, but my final landing tally was just under 100,000, but just short of 13,000 hours. Lots of short hops, cross country flights are b-o-r-i-n-g: Hold a heading, go that way, 8 hours? Beat me with a stick.

 

I LOVE what the Army used to call 'high overheads'- cross the point of intended landing, start a decelerating, constant rate turn and descent so one rolls out level just above bucket speed, and drift down on angle without changing your pitch attitude. Lots of control all the way around and you keep the pad in sight, makes one adjust constantly to work it.

 

Never ever at night. Nights are for long high and low recons, hang it on the collective s-l-o-w all the way in, and vertical the last few feet.. "Oh, but what if you have a power failure, you're well off the H/V curve?" Much, much more likely to hit something than you are to lose power.

 

P.S. Half my Vietnam tour was at night. Until the new-fangled night fighting Army aviators left the service, that was valuable. Now, not so much.

Edited June 28, 2018 by Wally

[Nearly Retired]

I'm with you, Wally. My first five years at PHI was in a Tenneco field ship that averaged 50-75 landings/day. At 180 days/year I figure I did around 45,000 to 50,000 landings, almost all of them to elevated offshore platforms. It slowed down a bit when I went to be a Shell field pilot for the next five years, but still averaged around 25-30/day. Other pilots don't like it when you wave your credentials around, but I think all long-term GOM pilots know a thing or two about making approaches.