Average Lifetime Hours?

[RTN11]

What would be the average lifetime hours for a professional pilot?

I started flying when I was 16, went into instructing at 21 and airlines at 25. Assuming I now average 500 hours a year I should retire with well over 15,000 hours.

Is this a reasonable estimation? looking at military guys they always seem to leave with only a few thousand hours.

[bucket_and_spade]

They 'fly' less but handle more!

[parabellum]

Well, let's work it out; 65 minus 25 = 40 years @500hrs per year = 20,000hrs plus whatever your total is/was at age 25 before airlines.

[Capt Claret]

At 55 I've a tad over 15,000 hours but didn't start flying until I was 26. A mate at work, perhaps a year or two older than I has over 25,000 hours. We've both got up to about 10 years left in us, if needs must.

So I'd have thought your calculation of 15k to be slightly underdone.

[Exaviator]

A lot depends on the type of flying you do throughout your career. GA pilots flying bush and charter tend to do more than airline pilots, particularly long haul who seldom do 500 hours per year.

I started flying at 18 and retired at 57 having logged a total of 22,000 hours, of which 11000 were on the B-747.

Doing 800 - 1000 hours per year in the early stages of my career soon tapered off to about 450 per year.

[redsnail]

I do roughly 300-400 hours a year (bizjet) whereas my husband who flies for an orange lo-co does over 800 hours a year.

[de facto]

my husband who flies for an orange lo-co does over 800 hours a year.

You mean EASY JET?
Who brings home the most dinero?

[Notso Fantastic]

20,700 hours over 40 years, with over a year between jobs in early retirement before deciding I wanted more! And got it. Thank you, crappy second rate airline, you've made my retirement comfortable!

[redsnail]

In raw terms, he does, if you consider the pay WRT number of days worked versus salary, I do.
If you look at it pay per hour, I definitely do.

[scotbill]

Never really understood why flying hours are such a big deal. Surely the number of TOs and Ldgs are a much better guide to a pilot's level of experience?
A shorthaul FO might get one or two a day; a longhaul FO might struggle to get one or two a week.

[Alt Crz Green]

Never really understood why flying hours are such a big deal. Surely the number of TOs and Ldgs are a much better guide to a pilot's level of experience?

Agreed completely. The facts it's always been hours used to count experience doesn't mean it's the best way.
No question a short-haul pilot doing a 4 sector day of 7 hours total time gains far more experience than a long-haul guy doing one 7 hour sector. Most incidents occur in land, descent or on the ground so I make that 4 times more experience for the short-haul guy.
For the equivalent skill level, a guy with 10,000 hours short-haul is vastly more experienced in real terms than 10,000 long haul hours.

[parabellum]

a guy with 10,000 hours short-haul is vastly more experienced in real
terms than 10,000 long haul hours.

A bit of flawed logic there, the long haul pilot will have worldwide weather and ATC conditions experience that the short haul pilot may not have. The flying experience is relative to the job on offer, if you are a short haul airline then the short haul experienced pilot is the favourite, if you are running a long haul airline etc. etc.

Now, if you want an interesting argument regarding the relevance of hours flown try convincing the Chief Pilot of a jet airline that your hours as a helicopter pilot, hands and feet on at all times, always fairly close to the ground, a rotor speed of .73Mach is at least as relevant as the long haul F/O's hours when he is PNF on the sector, say, UK to LAX, with the Capt. doing the flying and an FE sat behind on the panel!! Maybe today, but not a few years back.

[Exaviator]

No question a short-haul pilot doing a 4 sector day of 7 hours total time gains far more experience than a long-haul guy doing one 7 hour sector.

The accumulation of aeronautical experience is not just a matter of doing T/Off's & Ldgs. That just improves your motor skills. If it was, surely the crop duster would be the most experienced pilot.

Gained experience is an accumulation of all the challenges that one is faced with, to safely pilot an aircraft from A - B.

Having been exposed to both short and long haul flying during my own career, in my opinion, total hours, particularly for an airline pilot is a perfectly adequate measure of overall experience.

[RTN11]

I pitched my estimate rather low, rather than just saying 500 hours per year x however many years, I'm rather hoping that later in my career I would be in a training role which would mean more time in a simulator.

[Dan Winterland]

''A shorthaul FO might get one or two a day; a longhaul FO might struggle to get one or two a week''.

Or less! I was flying Ultra Long Haul for a period of my life. One sector a month was the norm. Sometimes it was a struggle to maintain the 3 landings in 90 days. It led to a serious erosion of my (limited) skills. Some say I never recovered!



My history: 4500hrs in 17 years with the RAF, 7000 in the ten years since. As I expect to be working to 65 (thanks to UK tax and school fees), at this rate I will be retiring with 23,000.

[Exaviator]

RTN11 I spent over half of my career as a Check & Training Captain and certainly did my share of sim time, but those hours don't count towards overall aeronautical experience and are in addition to any flying hours.

[Oceanic815Pilot]

I started flying for the airlines at 25, I'm 40 now and have 14,000+. That was with a 1 year layoff in between somewhere. I really don't care how much flight time I have. Experience and competence are two different things. Regional leg/short haul pilots get lots of "practice" where long haul pilots get less "practice" but vast experience in many different airspace systems, weather conditions, contingency planning and execution, etc. I've known regional pilots logging 900 hours a year and 4-6 legs a flight day who always used the autopilot and couldn't hand fly an approach to save their life in IMC when the autopilot took a break. Being "experienced" is a combination of currency, management skills, CRM, social skills, intelligence, situational awareness, systems knowledge, and flying talent.

[Dan Winterland]

Once you get into five figures, total time matters very little.

[con-pilot]

Once you get into five figures, total time matters very little.

Basically true. When I passed 10,000 hours I was somewhere between PDX (Portland Oregon) and OKC.

When I passed 20,000, I've really not a clue. I'd have to go back and look it in up in my flight logs. Stopped keeping a log, per se, years and years ago, instead I have copies of the aircraft flight logs that I flew. (Makes more interesting reading.)

Me, basically 43 year professional career and 21,000 hours going back to when I first started logging time, at the age of 13.

[fade to grey]

Alot of the UK airline guys I know retired with 13-15k, the reason being as many of them progressed they went into management or sat in the sim more and more.
I was an instructor 20 years back at the age of 20, in those 20 years I've logged a pitiful 8k. Being made redundant twice hasnt helped...