I just reached 1000 hours!!!......

[Whirlybird]

......this morning, while teaching quickstops to a student.

668 rotary, 332 fixed-wing (includes a few microlight, gyroplane etc), for anyone who's interested.

Now, I know to some of you this will be a lot of fuss about nothing and you got there years ago, while to others it'll seem an unobtainable figure so they don't want to know about it, but to me....

Well, actually, I'm pretty chuffed!

But no-one in the village seems interested, and the cats just purred when I told them, so I thought I'd tell my friends on PPRuNe. And if anyone wants to meet me tonight in Ashbourne to celebrate, the drinks are on me. :ok:
(so long as it's not too many of you)

Just one thing I can't understand though. You see, I spent many years thinking that people with four-figure flying hours were super-special demi-gods who knew all there was to know about flying. So how come I'm just as stupid, make just as many mistakes, still get lost now and then, and don't really know very much at all? Doesn't seem fair. I really fancied being a demi-god. :(

[Rod1]

Congratulations, and I might be able to manage Ashborne tonight.

Rod1

[ariel]

Well done Whirly!

Have a good night (& cos the cats purred, they obviously understood, so buy them some special fish or something)! <Ignore me, I'm going mad>

ariel

[jabberwok]

So how come I'm just as stupid, make just as many mistakes, still get lost now and then, and don't really know very much at all? Doesn't seem fair. I really fancied being a demi-god.

Being human is much more fun.. :E

Sorry - forgot to say well done!! Yet another thing to give you a nice warm glow inside.

[IO540]

Well done WB. I wonder how much your insurance will come down now?

[Whirlybird]

Rod1,
If you want to meet, let me know definitely, and we can decide where...seems like no-one else is interested though, or they haven't read this yet, or they live too far away. Maybe I'll just have an early night instead.

ariel,
You are certainly not going mad, and the cats will get some fancy food...which will make them purr more, whether they understand or not.

jabberwok,
I daresay you're right - I bet none of my friends would talk to me if I became a demi-god.

IO540,
If I had enough money to have an aircraft to insure, I daresay my insurance would come down. But luckily instructors get paid to fly...sort of anyway.

[Rod1]

You have a PM

[Them thar hills]

Whirly
Well done, another milestone !
For me I'm more interested in keeping the same number of takeoffs as landings !
Mines a pint .
:)

[the bald eagle]

I nearly got to 500 total but this JAR **** revoked my licence for being diagnosed as diabetic - got to 492 :( But i do still fly with a mate just can't log it thats all :) enjoy getting hammered tonight :eek::ok:

[will5023]

Well done , If I was closer would join you for a beer ! on the insurance front, 1500hrs + CRi Instructor..etc, own aircraft and they still put up the insurance this year by £30, not allot but still a niggle, you can never win with insurance premiums :cool:

Will.

[the bald eagle]

Wonder if i was allowed to keep my licence as an insulin diabetic how much the insurance would have gone up for the flying clubs aircraft?
I bet the insurance company would have a f:mad:g field day!!

[Fuji Abound]

Well done Whirls :) .

I always love reading your posts, plenty of interesting well informed comment.

I had thought you had done 10,000 hours, never mind a 1,000.

So here is to you and to the fun of the next 1,000 hours.

[DX Wombat]

Well done Whirly! Sorry I'm too far away to be able to join you this evening. Have a great time. :ok: Please say "Hi" to the cats for me. :)

[D SQDRN 97th IOTC]

do you instruct for cab air?

[muffin]

Congratulations Whirly - sorry I couldn't make it tonight. I haven't counted up recently but I reckon I am about 200 hours behind you, but I will never catch up as you do far more rotary hours than I do. I will have to get you to sit beside me to satisfy the insurance Co while I do some autos, then I can log them P1 and you can't log anything.

[S-Works]

well done!! the first 1000 are amazing and so were the second, i hope the 3rd feels the same.

have a drink on me.

[Say again s l o w l y]

It's a nice milestone, but don't fall into the 1000hr trap. But I very much doubt that you're daft enough to do that.

Well done. You'll find the numbers stop mattering as much now. I found that up to 1000 I knew my breakdown to the nearest minute. Now, I think I know it to the nearest 100 hours!!

Have a drink on me too. It's amazing how no one other than pilots seem to care about it though!

[Pilot DAR]

Well done,

Fly extra careful for a while now, the statisics aren't smiling on you for a bit. I still make mistakes, but I was cocky and made a few too many when I had 1000 hours! I survived it, and so did the planes, but I got my own attention a few times!

We want to read that you made 2000 in a couple of years!

Enjoy your celebration,

Pilot DAR

[BackPacker]

Congratulations. 1000 hours. Pfew! (You're a bit of a demi-god to me if that's what cheers you up!)

I have over 900 hours to go to get there... I hope I will enjoy them as much as you seemed to have enjoyed them.

[ShyTorque]

Whirly, well done!

The second thousand will surely come around sooner than you know; in fact eventually you might find you don't bother counting anymore, a bit like birthdays :\

Free drink in Derbyshire? Damn, missed it. But then, didn't get home from work until nearly closing time.... Cup final day, pax late etc.

[QDMQDMQDM]

Congratulations, Whirly! I bet you are a brilliant instructor and you also need to tell that editor of yours that he has to stop doing helicopter reviews (e.g. the Bell 47) when he doesn't have a licence! When he has a 1,000 hour helicopter instructor and brilliant writer like you, why is he doing them and saying nothing whatsoever of interest, ferchrissake?!

Keep it up.

David

[Saab Dastard]

1000 hours and still alive?

You must be doing something right, Whirly!

:D :ok:

Cheers,

SD

[slim_slag]

How many take off and landings? You must have a fair few, have always thought that a better indication, but the powers that be don't agree with me :)

1000 hours in pistons is a feat, puts you in a very small percentage of people who have flown solo.

[Whirlybird]

QDM x 3,

you also need to tell that editor of yours that he has to stop doing helicopter reviews (e.g. the Bell 47)

Write to the mag and tell him! Actually, I already did, as I'd love to do an article on the Bell 47. But the thing was, he got the offer of a flight when he was in the USA, and no-one had offered us one for me to fly over here. And he's publishing a magazine, first and foremost. Sort of a reason, I suppose. :(

Anyway, I'm not too upset, as last week I got to fly the EC130 - very powerful 7-8 seater helicopter, worth a cool £1.6 million! Getting to fly machines like that, and getting paid to write about them, must be the greatest job in the world. I just wish I could do it more often. I need more helicopter types to test! Does anyone out there have a helicopter they'd like to see featured in Today's Pilot? Just let me play around in it for an hour, and if we haven't done it before, it can be arranged. :ok: Oops, I hope this doesn't constitute advertising. :(

Anyway, I may get my own back; I have tentative plans to fly and do an article on a rather interesting f/w aircraft later this year. :ok:

[LowNSlow]

Congratulations Whirls :D. I hope the post celebratory hangover was not too dire!!

[DBChopper]

Well done Whirlybird!

I'm a couple of days late on this one but my congratulations all the same!

:D

[Pitts2112]

Congratulations, Whirlybird! (Sorry to be behind on this one but only just noticed it tonight).

I may pass the 500 hour mark this week, if the weather holds. Does that get me out of the high risk category or put me into it?

Well done, Whirls!! I hope the celebration was up to your expectations!!

Pitts2112

[AfricanEagle]

Congratulazioni, Whirly, I am purring for you.

I am not anywhere near your hours but have stopped counting them. One never stops learning, and there is always somebody that has more hours and is better than yourself.

But every moment in flight is a magic moment, be it your first solo or your 10,000th hour so may you have many many more hours of happiness.

[Jinkster]

well done whirls, im catching you up on 700.....

:ok::ok::ok:

[smarthawke]

Firstly, congrats Whirlybird! Having had a couple of goes at keeping Robbos the right side of the air/ground join I'm full of admiration! Until I win the Lotto the MD500 will have to wait while I carry on with the fixed wing....

Secondly, to QDM on the subject of the Today's Pilot Bell 47 road test. Surely Dave's point was that you can go to Warbirds Adventures with zero experience and have a pole at flying a helicopter? That's the way I thought it was written with a bit of facts and figures and what is where thrown in for good measure. In this case it isn't 'just' a Robbo but somthing pretty rare - similiar to having a chuck in their T6 from the front seat with no fixed wing time.