Originally Posted by
Gordy
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.
Flight hours and cycles are two almost totally Independant contributors to structural damage. The Hawaii 737 is the poster child for the importance of cycles. If cycles were an issue for tour hellos, something would have popped up by now. There is another issue involved in this accident.