Originally Posted by
JamesT73J
They work those things hard. I have no idea if that's a big deal for a utility helicopter, but it seems like a lot from my casual observer's point of view. 10 flights on the day of the incident, 18 the day before. I suppose that's not very different to a flying school or the like. It's a money printer for the owner.
Not a big deal---most of those flights are only 20-30 minutes. When I flew tours in Hawaii, a standard day was 8 x 55 minute tours per aircraft, and we would do that year round. There were obviously slow days in there too.
In utility, it is not uncommon for my aircraft to fly 6 or 7 hours per day on revenue Hobbs which can equate to 3 or 4 hours on the collective Hobbs depending upon type of work. Hay-bombing it is common to see 11-12 hour flight days in summer.