Thanks for the support
Mutt and
OK465. Kind of embarrassing, but I do appreciate your posts.
Cheers.
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In my short time with the USMS, I never got less than 800 hours per year.
I averaged over a 1,000 hours a year while I was with the USMS and I was the second higest for a few of those years. To be honest, I cannot remember how many months I flew over a hundred hours.
The funny thing is that with the company I left to go fly for the USMS, I flew less in the one year than I did in the third month with the USMS. With my former company I flew 112 hours the year previous and in the third month with the USMS I flew 118 hours. I think they were trying to kill me.
Here is a list of the aircraft I flew with the USMS; B-727, Sabre 80, Westwind I/II, Sabre 40/60, Lear 25/28, Kingair 200 and a Cessna 310.
The Lear 25/28*, Kingair 200** and the Cessna 310 were seized assets, the Westwinds and the Sabreliners were leased. The 727s we owned along with the Sabre 80s, which were ex-flight inspection aircraft we inherited from the FAA.
* The Lear 28 was returned to the drug dealer it was seized from, after we overhauled the engines, repainted and installed a new interior.
** The Kingair was stolen, yes really stolen, from us when it was parked at a small airport in Miami, Florida. The CIA finally found it a couple of years later in Colombia. They asked if we wanted it back, we replied not only no, but hell no. I was very happy that we did not want it back, as I most likely would have been the poor guy that would have been sent down there to bring it back.
Okay, I must be getting old and forgetful. I forgot the damn 731 JetStar. It was serial number three. Started life as a -6, then was converted to a -8, the only -6 that was I think, then into a 731 when the FAA owned it. We got it from the FAA and it was a maintenance nightmare. I never finished anything longer than a one day mission with that aircraft. If it was a standard four or five day mission, it wasn't a question if it would breakdown, but where. I had two rapid de-compressions in 48 hour time period in that aircraft. First one was early Tuesday morning, returned to a maintenance base, it was fixed and then Thursday night had the second. Two different causes. The Attorney General of the United States was on board with the second rapid de-compression. He was not amused.