This ride's a bit low, don't you think?

[FH1100 Pilot]

Originally Posted by flylow

Yeah, it's pretty obvious you have not done these types of rides. A 3 minute ride will never give you 20 rides per hour, as you have load times in between each ride. Load times can vary from maybe 30 seconds for a quick turn around to a couple of minutes, depending on the crew and the passengers being unloaded and loaded. And don't forget about fueling every so often. However, it does look like the flight from the video stays too low.

Yeeaaaaahh...I guess reading comprehension isn't really your strong suit there, flylow. You're probably just a pilot - probably always be a pilot, never anything more. :-/ I feel bad for you. Look genius, as someone else has already pointed out, I was speaking about FLIGHT HOURS. I even specified it. FLIGHT HOURS are what we use to calculate costs...in other words, how much collective-up to collective-down FLIGHT TIME is being put on the components, etc. Because at the end of the day, you total up the revenue, divide it by the Hobbs, and that gives you your revenue per hour. And yes, at 3 minutes per ride, you absolutely CAN do 20 rides per flight hour. But...20 rides per clock hour? No, of course not, but who cares?

It matters not one bit how much "time" it takes to accrue those flight hours (as aa777888 keeps confusingly referring to). Time on the ground is irrelevant. Again, who cares? What matters is what that aircraft is costing you! Yeah, you might put in a 10- or 12-hour duty day hopping rides but only put 6.0 on the Hobbs. Sure, there's ground time, time to refuel, lunch/pee break for the pilot... But if those 6.0 hours generate $6,000 for you, it ain't half-bad money, methinks. The DOC on an R-44 is, what, $190/hour? So that 6.0 hours on the Hobbs COST you $1,140? Oooh, you did a total of one hour ferrying back and forth to a nearby airport for fuel because you're a dummy and don't have fuel on site? Big deal, that hour only *cost* you $190 - all your other expenses stay the same. It really isn't rocket surgery.

Soooo....nice little profit, even considering those expenses (pilots, hotel room, local fees, etc) might add up to another $2,000 per day,. Still almost $3,000 PROFIT per day? And how many days will we work this season? Now, does it ever work out so perfectly? Of course not - no business ever works in real life like the blue-sky numbers on paper that we show the banks.