It's done, don't be jealous.

[spencer17]

20th of March, flying fish on Unst / Shetland, I hit the mark:

20,000 :eek: (with only 100 hours of plank)

after 39 years active flying.

Always happy landings
Spencer17

[EX-PJ]

Well done!:D

[Pink Panther]

Congratulations :D

[SilsoeSid]

Many congratulations Spencer17.
:D

[Bertie Thruster]

Good effort Spenser17. Well done.

[John R81]

Fantastic achievement. congatulations

[Fly_For_Fun]

2.28310502283105 years of being airborne well done. :D

[Decredenza]

I have to ask - what was the most memorable moment during all that time?

[Epiphany]

A fine achievement Sir. Well done.

[rotor67]

Truly a MILESTONE! You're apart of an elite group of the 20K mark...especially in the helicopter industry! :D

[Suchyy]

Well done! Congratulations!

Wishing I would be ever able to reach that number... :)

[rancid]

hope someday i'll reach your number :p

[Colibri49]

I passed 20,000hours last year after commencing flying 45 years ago at the age of 17. However there was a 4 year interruption in my flying career after spending 10 years as a military pilot (during which I only flew just over 2000 hours) so my total flying career to earn a crust is 41 years

Had I not been employed to dodge bullets while flying for the taxpayer and had I not taken 4 years out of flying, I estimate that I would have reached 25,000 hours before retiring in 2014. Sigh !

But there is another colleague still flying helicopters from Scatsta who passed 20,000 one year before me. Even so, we're in a quite exclusive club in the helicopter world.

Fixed-wing guys can easily pass 30,000 hours in their careers, but then they're not really flying for most of their time sitting in the flight deck and bitching about expenses/security/rosters/EASA/seniority/pensions etc. Just kidding !

[Anthony Supplebottom]

There's probably a tale to be told behind the fact that both of the contributors to this thread who have in excess of 20,000 hrs are posting using oversized font! :E

Well done to all members of the Over 20's Club!

[griffothefog]

Regardless of the total hours (which I have total respect) anybody that can fly for 30 plus years in the north sea to gain such a total deserves my unreserved admiration :ok:

I just couldn't do it and only managed 9 years..... Enjoy that monster pension, you certainly earned it ;)

Me, I'll take me 10,500 hours,no pension, dubious constitution, new wife and all the other perks of having sampled the heli smorgasbord and disappear under me rock in the med... :{

Congratulations, and I mean that most sincerely :D

If I'm Pete Tong and you have accomplished it outside the N.Sea then I'm speechless :ok:

[Colibri49]

Spencer17 started by stating " flying fish on Unst / Shetland " which suggests that he doesn't work in the North Sea oil industry. The Unst base ceased to be used by Bristow or any offshore operators many years ago, so my guess is that he flies something like a Squirrel carrying smoults (baby fish) for the salmon industry.

If most of his helicopter flying has not been offshore but doing aerial work, then he truly deserves a medal. I did forestry and underslung and crop spraying for a couple of seasons and can testify to how "knackering" it is to do such hands-on flying and such intense concentration day in, day out with minimal rest, minimal days off and minimal automation.

What we do on the North Sea for the oil industry, where I've worked for 31 years is very much akin to airline operations including eating cooked meals while at the flying controls for up to 2 hours in the cruise. Only our quality of bitching is probably better than the airline chaps.

Sincere and heartfelt congratulations Spencer. If my guess about your working life is correct, then you need a mention in dispatches at least.

[helimutt]

Colibri, that may be the case in Northern North Sea but the guys down south may just disagree. :E

Congratulations to the OP for hitting that milestone. I'm too old to ever get there though.:{ 10k would be difficult to achieve for me.

[robin303]

Congrates for sure. :ok:

[Widewoodenwingswork]

You must be a very humble man to get on an anonymous internet forum and share that bit of information with your peers, some of whom would have ticked over 20,000hrs after half that length of time flying. For such humility, I'm guessing you're British!

Regardless, congratulations.

[Colibri49]

Widewoodenwingswork (http://www.pprune.org/members/290663-widewoodenwingswork)

My dear fellow inhabitant of the Southern Hemisphere, or at least that's where I was born and used to live before making the fundamental mistake of marrying a Brit. Now I'm stuck here with family and no hope of escape to a better lifestyle.

Perhaps what you don't know is that the lazy whinging poms only allow themselves to fly helicopters professionally to a maximum of 800 hours per year, so on that basis your arithmetic is slightly out. Flying to the legal maximum for 20 years would produce 16000 hours in the logbook, or to reach 20000 hours would take 25 years.

But life and career/contract changes etc tend to interrupt things for most people (stupidly emigrating to the Northern Hemisphere interrupted my progress), so 30 years might be a more realistic minimum period to reach the 20000 total, wherever you happen to be working.

No doubt in God's fair country you blokes know the meaning of real hard work, doing mustering in R22s and the like. That would surely be hard-earned hours compared with almost anything else, if you can survive it.

[Flying Pencil]

Widewoodenwingswork, shall we play nicely and not turn every thread on here into a bitch session? And for your info, he's not British!!

[spencer17]

Many thanks for your nice comments and wishes.

I've never flown for the Oil Industry or big ships.
All the hours are done in:
AL II; AL III; Lama; AS 350; Hughes 300 / 500 and BO105, and most of it was slinging and fertilizing.

Many happy landings
Spencer17

[Max Contingency]

Spencer17. Well done old chap. History will show that you were lucky to have lived and worked (and survived!) in the 'age of the helicopter' as they were born 100 years ago and they probably wont be here in 100 years time. :D

Widewoodenwingswork - Does your mother know you are on the internet again? :p

[Finnrotor.com]

Congratulations Spencer17! :ok:

[Widewoodenwingswork]

My apologies, I do not wish for this thread to go 'that' way, I was merely surprised at the original self effacing post of Spencer. It seems as though he may have had some well deserved Scotch that evening and had some fun on the interweb.

His subsequent post is a lot more humble and probably more reflective of the true character of the man.

I know at least five 20,000hr pilots and they are not the kind of guys who would tell you that straight off the bat, hence my original reaction/provocation.

Spencer, 20,000hrs of Ag/utility work is a fantastic achievement, have another Scotch!

[spencer17]

@Widewoodenwingswork

I certainly will.:E

Slàinte mhath

[GhostChups]

Well done, fantastic achievement. What would you say was your best and worst moment while building those hours?

[gnow]

Well done Spencer 17. It is indeed an achievement esp most of your flying were done in single pilot machines. I should be joining the club in a couple of months but most of my flying is multicrew and offshore so there is nothing much to shout about.