Highest time GA aircraft....?
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Los Angeles, USA
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Highest time GA aircraft....?
I was at Henderson/Las Vegas with the old bugsmasher and as I was waiting for my friends to return from the loo, a chap comes up to me and says he's seen my Aero Commander videos on YouTube. He's a Citation X FO on the side (and that's why he was there), but his day job is flying a 500B for Central Air Southwest in Kansas, Missouri - a bit of a legendary Commander nest in the midwest. They fly freight and have a fleet of 32 (!) 500B's, all equipped with a TKS de-ice system they developed themselves. The owner is quite active in the Commander group.
Anyway, we chat for awhile and talk Aero Commanders and I finally remember that almost all of the 500's they fly are pretty high time as they see a lot of use. I ask if that's still the case, and the guy says that the highest time 500 they have on the fleet had just recently passed 30.000hrs! That blew me away and made me think of this topic.
I know many old 747's came up to about 100.000hrs, but their cycles where much, much less. In a GA airplane, one probably has more cycles than TT, so that would have a detrimental effect on fatigue and build etc. The Lake LA-4 I flew in Arizona last year had 16.000hrs on it and good old G-BIJV at Lydd Aero Club had long since passed 13.000hrs on it when I rented her a couple of years ago. I don't even want to think about how many cycles she has...
What is the highest time GA airplane?
Anyway, we chat for awhile and talk Aero Commanders and I finally remember that almost all of the 500's they fly are pretty high time as they see a lot of use. I ask if that's still the case, and the guy says that the highest time 500 they have on the fleet had just recently passed 30.000hrs! That blew me away and made me think of this topic.
I know many old 747's came up to about 100.000hrs, but their cycles where much, much less. In a GA airplane, one probably has more cycles than TT, so that would have a detrimental effect on fatigue and build etc. The Lake LA-4 I flew in Arizona last year had 16.000hrs on it and good old G-BIJV at Lydd Aero Club had long since passed 13.000hrs on it when I rented her a couple of years ago. I don't even want to think about how many cycles she has...
What is the highest time GA airplane?
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 5th Jan 2013 at 07:53.
There are many 20,O00 + hr C 172's and C 150/152's still earning a living at flight schools.
Back in the early 1980's Cessna bought a C 172 that had over 30,000 hrs, all low level pipeline patrol. They completely disassembled and inspected every part of the aircraft to see what shape it was in and essentially found no issues.
Corrosion is the big killer of light aircraft, particularly for those not kept in a hangar and not regularly flown.
One of the Convair 580's I fly has more than 98,000 hrs and 156,000 cycles......
Back in the early 1980's Cessna bought a C 172 that had over 30,000 hrs, all low level pipeline patrol. They completely disassembled and inspected every part of the aircraft to see what shape it was in and essentially found no issues.
Corrosion is the big killer of light aircraft, particularly for those not kept in a hangar and not regularly flown.
One of the Convair 580's I fly has more than 98,000 hrs and 156,000 cycles......
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The C 152 which I solo'd first in 1977 had at the time 33 hour TTSN (my instructor was yelled at for sending me first solo in a brand new, ferry time only plane). It was sold to a private owner more than 10 years ago with 14,000+ hours.
I used to fly a C 207 with 19,800 hours on it. It was a bit tired, but entirely airworthy. One crack in a doorpost doubler for which I approved a recurring inspection, never another problem with it.
On the other hand, my 1977 Teal has 462 hours TTSN, of which I've flown 140! (It sat a long time!)
When I last did Twin Otter fleet research for Bombardier in 1999, the high time Twin Otter had 50,302 hours, and the high cycle Twin Otter had 109,579 airframe cycles, though with 42,292 hours. Those aircraft would have been through major rebuilds to get to those high times.
I used to fly a C 207 with 19,800 hours on it. It was a bit tired, but entirely airworthy. One crack in a doorpost doubler for which I approved a recurring inspection, never another problem with it.
On the other hand, my 1977 Teal has 462 hours TTSN, of which I've flown 140! (It sat a long time!)
When I last did Twin Otter fleet research for Bombardier in 1999, the high time Twin Otter had 50,302 hours, and the high cycle Twin Otter had 109,579 airframe cycles, though with 42,292 hours. Those aircraft would have been through major rebuilds to get to those high times.
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Guernsey / Sussex
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Aurigny in Guernsey fly six BN Trislanders, all of which are high time. Short sectors I know but I believe at least one of them has done 90,000+ landings. If I can I'll ask one of their guys what sort of hours they have done.
Cape Air in Nantucket has the largest fleet of C402's in the world alledgedly.
Some of them are getting long in the tooth no doubt
https://www.capeair.com/
Some of them are getting long in the tooth no doubt
https://www.capeair.com/
