Hour-Building.....food for thought

[Farrell]

Have just been reading a few of the threads about hour building and I wanted to say:

While I know that there are a lot of flight schools in Florida and the weather is reasonably good there, and it is great for newbies bashing the circuit and learning the basics, what I can't understand is...

Why do so many of you want to hour-build there?

Hour-building is about building flight experience in different environments!

The last thing I want to see in a pilot's logbook is 250 hours of flight time in Florida -
Naples to Ockeechobee, Stuart to Melbourne, Fort Pierce to Marco Island.....on and on - MSA for the whole route: 2000 ft....Zzzzzz.

So, the average newbie goes off and gets 250 hours of time in a Cessna or a Piper and still have never flown in or near a mountain range - no variable terrain or weather experience at all.

Try Arizona or Nevada in the summer. Or Montana in winter. Alaska!!
Canyons, mountains, hot and high, flying in winter with frost and snow on the ground - none of this on a standard 250 block Florida special.

Get taildragger experience. That really separates the men from the boys.

Become AVIATORS for God's sake!

Hour building in Florida?
Apart from a few hours over the Everglades, you might as well just sit on the apron at idle, watching the Hobbs go round. :rolleyes:

[Dane-Ger]

Good point, I think now is the time to enjoy hour building, after all there is no rush anymore!

I was planing a month in Florida to build some hours, but as the market changed I changed my mind, now I'm going to invest in a share of plane and gain myself some good old fashioned varied experience!

Regards D-G

[JohnRayner]

I suppose that depends on how you view the PPL flying,

"Hours building" says it all really, the mechanistic process of churning out what is required to get onto the next rung on the ladder to shiny big tube-ville.

For my part, I'm looking forward to bimbling round a bit, visiting friends here there and everywhere, maybe even flying said friends into the headier alpine aerodromes forra bit of a ski.

Of course, budgets will play a big role in the way individuals will approach this. Flying off on a bit of a jaunt probably isn't top of your list of priorities if your diet is mostly beans...

Regards

[bajadj]

or you could bash the circuit for a few hours and then head off interstate, just because your base is florida doesn't mean thats where it ends. I start mine in 2 days and fingers crossed i'll be sodding off to texas, and various other states in my 90 hours.

[RMarvin86]

Good post Farrel, I agree with your thoughts and that's exactly what I've always believed but often the money is the main concern and building around 100 hours in different environments and places means an higher expense and probably it will also take more time, and since people often are rushing, florida comes out as the best compromise.

The idea I think should be enforced is to spend a little more money when hour building and to focus more on gaining flying skills rather than time into your logbook. With a little more money it's possible to take some aerobatics, taildragging fly more types of aicrafts, conventional and glass cockpit, complex etc.. and it's all still possible in Florida.

[zooom]

I agree with Farrel 100%. I've done part of my hour building in California.
I've done tailwheel transition, some unusal attitude recovery and spin flight training. I've enjoyed some California cross country flying with different high field elevation take off and landings.

Also many young pilots from Europe believes that if they want to fly in USA that they need to go to JAA school, so they choose Florida. THAT IS WRONG !!!

You can get a US Private Pilot Certificate based on your ICAO or JAA certificate. All you need is to apply three months in advance at local FSDO.
Only paper work, no exams, and you can fly with no problems!!!

I have been flying at Amelia Reid Aviation ( Amelia Reid Aviation: Northern California Flight School offers flight training - sport pilot - private pilot license - aerobatic - tailwheel - in San Jose, San Francisco Bay Area. (http://www.ameliareid.com) ), and will be back for sure.

And Yes, it's cheaper than JAA schools in Florida.

[nich-av]

So, the average newbie goes off and gets 250 hours of time in a Cessna or a Piper and still have never flown in or near a mountain range - no variable terrain or weather experience at all.


Yes! Let's send a 60 hour pilot that just got his private into the mountains and see how he survives.
I think that it's already very good when a 60 hour pilot comes back from a 300 miles trip without any single problem.

Alaska is more expensive than Europe.


Try Arizona or Nevada in the summer.


What do you want to try? Try to cook eggs on the dashboard?
Arizona in the summer only allows flying early in the morning and late in the evening. You can't hold the stick out of that period because you'd burn your hands.

[SparksFlyHigh]

Full tanks, lean mixture, 5 hours endurance, everyday, the same route...:ugh:

My idea of hour building would be, 20 hours in Florida, 20 in Canada, Aus maybe SA, definetly a bunch in the uk.

[BigGrecian]

I agree with Farrell...

However, what the student should bear in mind is that you will need to have practised all the skills you have learnt in your private, and have a read of what's going to be in your commercial - i.e CAA Standards document 3 and ensure you can perform all 4 landings required to a above PPL standard, can navigate visually and join complex airspace such as Class B, and even land there. Land at somewhere like Orlando International if your flying in Florida etc (Although value decreased as they tend to vector you)

All to often the skills are not practised and people just flew around for the sights, and then they end up requiring a considerable amount of extra training on their Commercial because they didn't improve any of their skills during their hour building, which should be called Skill Maturation period or something of the sorts.

[K.Whyjelly]

Hour building in Florida?
Apart from a few hours over the Everglades, you might as well just sit on the apron at idle, watching the Hobbs go round. :rolleyes:

May have been idle or even malicious gossip (an urban myth even) but I have heard people tell of such things happening.........................:hmm:

[Farrell]

These things do indeed happen at times KY.

In fact, you would be amazed if you sat down with the average logbook and worked it out, how much "flight-time" is spent on the ground!

[student88]

It shouldn't be called hour building - it should be called experience building. So many hour building schemes lack variety! Go on, push the envelope so to speak, you can still be a safe pilot and adventurous at the same time! See the world, not just Essex and the Hanningfield reservoir! Flying gets boring fast this way!

S88:ok: