Highest time yet short duration crews?

[Yellowjack99]

A friend of mine has just flown his 4,000th military flight hour, mostly in helos I believe.

I expect there are many several thousand hours large aircraft (bomber, transport etc) pilots but wondered what the highest time pilot in some of the shorter duration FJ stuff was?

I read some where Col Jackie Jackson had the highest flight time in Harriers / AV8s but not sure how many.

What about the cold war RAF stuff that was around when I was growning up? Who knows of any particularly high time Lightning, Jaguar, Buccaneer, Phantom crews?

Also - who would be the highest time Spitfire pilot? Henshaw must come close if not be obviously top, but what about the modern fleet?

Out of interest, what was the general ballpark airframe life for a cold war FJ, and how does that compare to the highest time? Could a crew (theoretically) have more hours than the fleet leader?

YJ

[High_Expect]

Guy flying fast jets with 6000+ on my Sqn. And he only smells a little bit of wee ;)

[Wholigan]

There is a certain chap who finished his official flying time at Yeovilton (I think) who had 9000 plus hours on Hunters, let alone anything else.

BG do you read this?

[Easy Street]

The Tornado 'fleet leaders'....

RAF Marham - 31 Squadron Navigator achieves 4000 Tornado flying hours on OP TELIC (http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafmarham/newsweather/4000hours31sqn.cfm)
(this was over 4 years ago and he's still soldiering on, so he must be getting close to 5000 by now!)

Tornado Role Demo Team - Poker 1 (http://www.raf.mod.uk/tornadodisplayteam/theteam/poker1.cfm)

And I think there is now one UK Tornado pilot with a '5000 hours' badge. None of the above are anywhere close to the hours of the fleet-leading airframe!

Tornados can do 8 hour sorties, though. There was a very old CFS QFI at Valley who had over 6000 hours Hawk... now that is a lot of sorties!

[Treble one]

Flt Lt Parkinson must have a few hours as he has four 1000 h patches, and a bit more according to the biography I read.

[SASless]

One USAF F-16 Pilot has 6,000+ hours and trying for 7,000.

Most hours spent flying the F-16 - Air Force pilot sets world record (http://www.worldrecordacademy.com/amazing/most_hours_flying_the_F-16_Air_Force_pilot_sets_world_record_80237.htm)

Another fellow racked up 17,000 hours in 208 different Types....and set a few records along the way.

Interview with General Chuck Yeager :: F-16.net (http://www.f-16.net/interviews_article35.html)

[500N]

Lt Colonel congratulated by his Wingman, Brig General ............

I like that :ok: