How many hours per day is safe??

[FI]

I would be interested to know how many instructonal hours per day are safe and at what point you start not giving your students value for money.

Opinions please not hero stories.

I think 6 is too much.

[This message has been edited by FI (edited 09 January 2001).]

[212man]

I think it varies with both the instructor's and student's individual experience levels. We all know how much easier flying becomes with practice, similarly with practice instructing does too. Likewise an 'experienced student' will require less effort than a real beginner.

Bearing in mind that instructing is the equivelant of single pilot, but more demanding, I would say the CAP 371 rules (for SP ops) minus a bit would seem a good guide. With briefing and debriefing thrown in, 6 hours of flying is a pretty busy day, I'd agree.



------------------
Another day in paradise

[A and C]

6 hours is as much as i would want to do i did 8 one day and was OK untill i sat down in the bar after i had finnished flying and almost fell asleep.

[DB6]

Depends very much on what you're doing with the students. I did 7.5 hours one day last year but mostly of trial lessons and nav trips and felt just fine. On the other hand 4.5 hours of circuits with RAF scholarship students, including one particularly banzai case, and I was totally shagged. 6 is probably a good maximum but it shouldn't be hard and fast if you feel up to it.

[ComJam]

Yeah, I agree with DB6. It depends on what you're doing. The most I did was 7 hours, that was with flying schols so mostly circuit bashing. Sooooo tired it took 1 beer to send me to sleep!

Do I miss instructing......no!

[Bear Cub]

FAA mandate maximum of 8 hours in any 24.

This is FLIGHT time, not "duty".

Having said that, I've heard of instructors in the USA who stopped logging the time after eight hours...just so they couldn't be penalised later.

Glad I'm not an FAA instructor then.

[rolling circle]

Let's think about this -

15-20 minutes for a pre-flight brief, you do brief your student don't you?

15-20 minutes to sign out the aircraft, do a thorough walkround, pre-flight and start up, you do carry out a thorough walkround and pre-flight don't you?

60 minutes chock-chock

15-20 minutes for a thorough after-flight, walk in, sign in and debrief, you do debrief don't you?

Total 1.45 - 2.00

Do that 6 times and you have a 10.5 to 12 hour day - how fresh and effective is your instruction going to be on the last flight?

[RVR800]

About 4 or 5

It may not be necessary to spend that
long in the brief / debrief if you are in
the circuit - Ex 12 13 phase

[chicken6]

I think about 6 would be my upper limit, haven't done that yet but would like to! We book out 1.5 hour slots for even a 0.7hr circuit lesson.

Would depend greatly on how much homework the student has done, and the weather - dodging clouds, talking them through landing after landing with heat-induced up- and downdraughts on short finals, over the driving range (why is there a golf course near every airport?) tends to raise the stress levels a wee bit.

Also, doing most of the day in the C152 and then changing to the Arrow or other breed for the last flight tends to make that one a bit safer if you realise just how great the accident potential is and compensate (or overcompensate) in safety terms. If you don't though, well, good luck with that last flight!

Safe flying

------------------
Confident, cocky, lazy, dead.