10,000 Hours!
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 1999
Posts: 223
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From: Somewhere
10,000 Hours!
Woo hoo! Just tootin my own horn....broke 10,000 accident-free helo hours 175 nm offshore Nova Scotia in a 332L today, wind blowin 50 knots, 30 feet seas, just perfect! Started flying Bell 47s in Northern Ontario in '85 so it's been a long time coming. I know there's alot of guys kicking around with far more hours but I'm still excited.....
Hope the next 10,000 are as much fun!
Hope the next 10,000 are as much fun!
)
Joined: Jul 2002
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL(H)
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From: UK
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 943
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From: Gold Coast, Queensland
Well done!! The first 10,000 hours seem to come quite quickly but the next 5000 hours seem to take for ever!! Don't let the occasion make you think you now fly twice as well as when you had 5000 hours. Can be a big trap, so fly safe!!
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 292
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From: Sydney
Experience is a harsh teacher.....
....first the test then the lesson. I clocked up a thousand hours in a ten year fling with a little R22 Bladestrike. It was a stormy torrid involvement, the first few hundred hours were the scariest. I still remember the words I wrote at the milestone, "My thousand hours in choppers taught me patience & respect for the machine, fear & loathing of wires & weather, gratitude & appreciation for the experience. Most of all I’m relieved that I’m still here, the first few hundred hours were a steep learning curve & the definition of an optimist is a low hours chopper pilot who gives up smoking."
I can only begin to imagine what secrets you've learned in the next nine thousand?
I can only begin to imagine what secrets you've learned in the next nine thousand?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 1999
Posts: 223
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From: Somewhere
Thanks for the kind words guys. It's all I ever wanted to do since I was a youngin...
Got the first thousand under my belt before I turned 20, best year was 980 hours, but years of EMS with breaking 200 considered a good year, kind of messed up the average.
Got the first thousand under my belt before I turned 20, best year was 980 hours, but years of EMS with breaking 200 considered a good year, kind of messed up the average.
Joined: May 2002
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 18,633
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From: Downeast
Just a miss spent youth it sounds like.....you should have taken up the Piano instead....at least the girls in the bawdy house are better looking than most of the passengers you have carried. 
Ten Thousand Accident Free Hours is a worthy accomplishment....how many total hours you got?
Ten Thousand Accident Free Hours is a worthy accomplishment....how many total hours you got?
, continued safe flyingJoined: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,957
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From: Australia
congratulations Bladestrike, you've done a good mile,
had my first flight about the same age, but it was a DH82. another long 15 or so years before I sat in one what them wings on top turned round on.
cheers tet
had my first flight about the same age, but it was a DH82. another long 15 or so years before I sat in one what them wings on top turned round on.
cheers tet
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 181
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From: In the desert southwest
avoidance
After the first 1500 or so the goal is to avoid flying as much as possible. 
It seems at times that the harder I try to not fly, the more time I get. I recall one in particular when the commander offered a 2 hour mission on a cold winters morn. I reccommended (from my comfy office chair) that he give it to the young warrant officer across from me. The boss took me up on my offer and my co-pilot thought he had just witnessed a grand act of senior wisdom. 2 hours later the 5 hour grinder came down the pipe and I was left to perform! Co-pilot lost his respect for my scheming abilities. Argh
Congrats and Cheers
It seems at times that the harder I try to not fly, the more time I get. I recall one in particular when the commander offered a 2 hour mission on a cold winters morn. I reccommended (from my comfy office chair) that he give it to the young warrant officer across from me. The boss took me up on my offer and my co-pilot thought he had just witnessed a grand act of senior wisdom. 2 hours later the 5 hour grinder came down the pipe and I was left to perform! Co-pilot lost his respect for my scheming abilities. Argh Congrats and Cheers
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 458
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From: Kings Caple, Ross-on-Wye.orPiccots End. Hertfordshire
Hours
Ahh ..... Just passed the 'one year, seven months and 22 days airborne with a quaint bit of rotating metal strapped to my bum. But as a 78 yr old have I been even lazier?
Regards to all out there. Dennis K
Regards to all out there. Dennis K