200Hrs/month, too much??

[Elastoboy]

My eldest daughter is building hrs and now our little consortium has a C90 and all four of our businesses are going gang busters, for the last two months she has averaged just on 200 hrs each month, either left seat or right seat.
Her dream is big metal, but she will be at 3500 hrs with over 1500 twin turbo before she is 21.
Is this too much too soon?
I am not the only one to say she is a natural aviator.
Please could experienced instructors offer insight to if this is a good thing.

[thepotato232]

Very impressive, but the short answer to your question is "yes". Your daughter dreams of flying big metal, and it sounds like she's unbelievably far along in that goal. I would also guess that she has her pilot licenses worked out, so her fundamental judgment and stick-and-rudder should be established and improving on a daily basis.

Presumably, "big metal" means an airline gig. I take it from the way you discussed your situation that the C90 operation is multi-crew? This is a question of judgment. If I were looking to hire your daughter, I'd be questioning how much of her flight time was spent as a truly functional crew member, and how much was as baggage. If she's flying 200 hours a month single pilot, then that's just flat-out dangerous. More to the point, do you really want your daughter to spend a ten-hour day diverting around weather after she's already had a 200 hour month? I hate to be morbid, but this is how very intelligent, skillful pilots get themselves killed. A couple of the best pilots I ever knew met their end flying cargo operations that weren't as strenuous as that. Working those kinds of schedules for any extended period of time is a good way to start hating the industry at a young age. I wish I'd had my own King Air to blast around in a couple of years ago, but you're really talking about a burnout schedule here. Even if she's not too tired to fly, she may just end up being flat-out "tired" of flying eventually. Everyone has their saturation point.

The next hurdle you two will need to deal with is the fact that even with all of that flight time, your daughter is not likely to go straight from there to the right seat of a wide-body airliner, at least not in the States. Hiring departments at the majors, in all of their "wisdom", usually view pilots from small corporate operations as too much as an unknown factor to hire straight away. Even with that much flight time, most people would want her to spend some time at a regional carrier, a job for which she is already qualified on paper. After spending so much time working that hard, ending up stuck for too long in the right seat of an RJ at one of the crummier regional airlines would be pretty taxing to anyone's sanity.

I hate to sound so negative. Your daughter is light years ahead of 99% of her competition, but she needs to find a better sense of balance than what she has now. Not to mention the fact that she'll need a four-year college degree to be considered by any major airline. Take a lot of pride in her accomplishments (trust me, a LOT of pride), but I wouldn't see any need to continue at quite the pace she has. A 21 year old with under 3000 hours would be no less impressive.

[Wilton Shagpile]

I can't really comment on the previous post as I don't know much about the US market, but is sounds like very good advice. If she has enough to get into the regionals....there you're probably looking at a better lifestyle and more rest. I gather that 1,000 PIC turbine is the magic number over there, so if I had that (and I am sure she probably has) I would get out right then. Our company takes people with a corporate background, but I don't think that somebody with 3,500 hours would be in any better a position than somebody with 1,500 - the upgrade time would still be the same and they might take a dim view of somebody who had pushed themselves to the limit.

I fly a regional jet and am limited to around 90 hours/months. At that I am getting tired so I can't imagine what over twice that is like, especially with the added noise and vibration of the C90, going to a load of new and possibly unfamiliar airfields and plus all the potential additional work involved in dealing with the passengers.

If I found out that I was a passenger on an aeroplane where they flight crew had consistently flown 50 hours a week (50 hours flying means generally a LOT more duty hours) then I would probably be getting off. Fatigue just kind of creeps up on you and no matter how skilled a pilot your daughter is, she is human and humans need rest. I wouldn't want to deal with a complex malfunction with such an extreme lack of rest.

As the previos poster said, she already has way more time than other people her age (when I was 21 I had around 60 hours!) so if I were her I would stop hour building and look for the next step to the airlines if this isn't it...

[shaun ryder]

3500 hrs with over 1500 twin turbo before she is 21

Its amazing, bordering on ridiculous. So she is not even 21 yet. On average your daughter will have been flying some 700hrs a year since she was 16 years old, this takes what we call hour building to new extremes. Do you not want her to have some form of a normal life? Have you phoned Norris McWhirter yet? She will be bored shtiless of flying by the time she is 22, not to mention having a flat arse to boot. I suggest you have a word in her shell and tell her to slow down a bit, that much cosmic radiation is no good for anyone, even if you were born with wings.

[SkyCamMK]

My concerns would be how much genuine pilot time is involved. Do you have an oil field or bullion truck to finance this. Is she really doing commercial operations on her CPL to gain all these hours. The young often feel invincible but they are not. For a prodigy she should have a mentor with her interests at heart as yours no doubt are. Has she done the exam and studied and understood human factors. The airtime seems unwise may not be legal and seems too good to be true. Flying fatigue is a well known phenomenon but the last to see it is often the pilot. Support her but get her to seek guidance from some other crews. At her age I was keen but would have had to deny myself a life to achieve those numbers. Burn out is a common cause of injury and in a 3D environment might be a contributory factor to early retirement before long!

[shaun ryder]

You might want to read this aswell.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...prodigy130.xml

[BigGrecian]

Also likely highly illegal:

91.1509 States the maximum hours achieved can be, 8 hours if single pilot, 10 if twin crew required.
Also:

(1) 500 hours in any calendar quarter;

(2) 800 hours in any two consecutive calendar quarters;

(3) 1,400 hours in any calendar year.

There are also limitations on duty time.

If the aircraft is operated under 135 or 121 then the hours are even more more restricted.

A desire to impress at this stage in a career will be taken advantage of - and sometimes to the detriment of the pilot involved. Many a pilot has been killed due to fatigue. I would also question them, honestly how professional they consider themselves if they are operating the aircraft under such blatant unsafe conditions.

[nh2301]

91.1509

What would that be then?

Edit:

I assume you mean 91.1059 which, as part of subpart K, only applies to managed fractional ownership operations, and not to be confused with shared ownership, or students timebuilding!

[BigGrecian]

Well if your only hour building for 200 hours a month - those hours are next to useless when you go to an airline.

May be part of subpart K but I'm pretty sure that the authorities that be wouldn't be happy hearing of such hours.