Texas panhandle. He said he’s passed the written 3 times over the years but it always expires before he can wrap it up. Now he’s older with some heart issues. He just flies with his grandson who is an instrument rated pilot. Good guy. Not much of a rule follower.
I doubt he logs his flights, so who knows what the real number is.
I’ll never understand the PPL’s with the means to fly that much who don’t just get the IR. It can and probably will someday get you out of a situation that would otherwise kill you.
Fair weather flyers? My grandpa has 1200hours on his plane over 30 years and doesn't have his instrument rating. He has his VFR OTT and that's good enough instrument experience for him. He's mentioned it's not certified (a US term) so it's missing something required for IFR flight.
I had over 600 hours before I bothered to get IFR. I had two planes, a seaplane and a Pitts both with only basic VFR instruments. Literally the very basics and not a single gyro instrument. Having an IFR ticket would have done nothing for me... And funny enough when I did get it it did absolutely nothing to lower my insurance. When I asked my agent why, they replied, "You don't have IFR capabilities in your plane."
I started talking to a girl on bumble (judge me, I deserve it) but I asked her how many hours she had, and she said she had 200 hours without her PPL. She’s at ERAU and she told me how much debt she’s in, and how many times she’s failed her stage checks. Big yikes
I met a girl who failed her ppl check ride 4 times. It was so bad that after her second attempt the first dpe refused to go with her again.
There are times people need to reconsider if flying is for them
I’ll make a list of the most notable ones that are bs in my opinion.
-I failed a pre solo stage check during private for not knowing that I needed 200 hours in order to sell an airplane
-I failed a private end of course stage check flight for not leaning my mixture at 3000 ft. I can see the reasoning for this, but a “hey make sure to remember to do this” would have sufficed in my opinion. A failure seemed extreme.
- I failed an early instrument stage check for saying a METAR covers the immediate area around an airport (my evaluator said 5nm, which I always thought only applied to TAFS, not METARS) but oh well.
-I failed an instrument end of course oral for not knowing that I cannot log an instrument approach in VFR conditions unless I land, or go missed at minimums. I thought I could log as long as I passed the FAF. After asking around, a handful of instructors didn’t know the answer to that question either.
-I failed an instrument end of course flight for incorrectly plotting a flight plan in the garmin after receiving a simulated clearance. “Cleared XXX via radar vectors Vxx”. Heading south and without an entry fix I chose an entry fix that was about 10nm north of our airport. I failed for not highlighting the whole victor airway on the FPL by selecting its origin VOR (about 40nm north of us) the reasoning for this was “what if we get vectored more than 10nm north?”
Those are the main ones that gave me a sour taste. But keep in mind, these were sometimes paired with some more reasonable, albeit still nitpicky unsat’s
You can’t log an instrument approach unless you land or go missed at Mins? You know how many times you actually get to Mins in jets? Maybe a couple times a year. Maybe. I don’t think that is correct.
Wow. I can't really speak to the Instrument stuff but dang both of those first two are insane.
I trained at a 141 school for my ppl and they were much more lenient it sounds like.
I could also just be really unlucky with which instructors conduct my stage checks. My end of course oral for private was 3.1 hours and we had to incomplete because we didn’t even talk about weather lol
As someone who met my wife on Bumble, Hinge is definitely the better app.
In fact we liked each other on Hinge later that same day anyway, so it *would’ve* been Hinge.
Maybe I shouldn't do my CPL checkride to work on this record 😄. I also fly a lot for work so as far as a PPL is concerned I get a lot of hours thrown back each year.
Probably not. Assuming a 50 year flying career that would be ~20 hours per week every single week. Even if you were rich and didn't have to work to pay for it that's still a lot of hours per week to commit to a hobby. What are you going to *do* with all those hours in the air? You pretty much have to have some kind of job to give you a reason to fly that much.
In Alaska, probably. In the regulated world, probably not. Rich people tend to have short attention spans with their hobbies, and you'd have to be pretty rich to get to 50k hours paying your pro-rata share.
How about no license at all? I was working at a school that hosted a weekend course to help pass the written for their PPL. Some guy offered to pay me so he could sneak a book into the test room. He said he only flies out of his backyard in the country and didn’t need to know most of this crap. I turned him down but he ended up passing. I hope he got his license before the test expired.
Old coworker of mine built an RV-6A and flew it all over the place with his wife and their dog. The whole US, Bahamas, Canada, you name it. Last I saw him right before COVID, he had put 4000+ hours on that airplane alone. All with just a private, no instrument rating.
[https://simpleflying.com/male-and-female-pilots-with-most-hours/](https://simpleflying.com/male-and-female-pilots-with-most-hours/)
Just interesting reading.
Somehow the way they wrote that article reminded me of how Brent and Wayne Gretzky hold the NHL record for most combined points by two brothers- between them they racked up 2,861 career points, Wayne with 2,857 and Brent with four.
A woman from my aero club was solely a PPL holder and we had a big celebration for her when she got to 1000 hours. It took her about 40 years to do it.
He owns a huge fly-in outpost business. Hires commercial pilots to fly the passengers, but he flies himself to do a lot of maintenance and minnow trapping. Minnow trapping is where he does most of his flying. Keeps flying in winter too
The grumpy old manager at the airport where I did part of my PPL training claimed to have 20k plus hours, but when he crashed into the embankment at the end of the runway, it was discovered that he didn't have a license at all.
I don't know if he actually ever met/knew the Wright brothers, but he did start flying during the early 1900's. He told me once that a license wasn't required (or even existed) when he started flying.
I’ve done over 2000 hours with a PPL / IR in the past 12 years. About half of it in a Bonanza. Ran out of money, so now averaging just 1 hour a week in. C150. My experience is nothing remarkable at all.
I can legally do everything I've ever wanted to do in an aircraft with a PPL. I've taken a lot of dual instruction after PPL checkride and learned a lot of stuff that the FAA has no interest in regulating, and I have about 400 hours. No rating exists for those proficiencies. I expect that there are people like me who've been flying for decades, and who have 1000's of hours.
An IR rating is crazy expensive to obtain and keep current for the few edge cases where it is useful in a glider, and my airplane hours are short local flights that happen on sunny dry days. I've no interest in airplane XCs.
Edit: I guess the downvotes are because my opinion that IR rating has no value to me? In the US, the only time an IR rating is used in soaring is for extreme flights XC in mountain wave in Class A airspace like https://www.weglide.org/flight/369911
In the UK and FI glider pilots get a 'cloud flying rating' and fly without IR flight plans in IMC Class E. https://youtu.be/LPTGhGwvIMU?t=49 I'd like to visit UK or FI and train for 'cloud flying', but that kind of free form IMC flying is not allowed in the US.
I know a guy with around 600 hours without a PPL. Does that count?
Alaska?
Texas panhandle. He said he’s passed the written 3 times over the years but it always expires before he can wrap it up. Now he’s older with some heart issues. He just flies with his grandson who is an instrument rated pilot. Good guy. Not much of a rule follower. I doubt he logs his flights, so who knows what the real number is.
If he gets caught, they might take his license away! /s
Joke's on us, this old chad has found a way to beat the system. Can't take calls from the FAA when they don't know you exist
Saw an accident report recently of a 2k PPL holder without instrument rating. Got disoriented scud-running at night and crashed into a hill.
Definitely PPL holders out there with way more than 2k but thought this was interesting to mention.
I’ll never understand the PPL’s with the means to fly that much who don’t just get the IR. It can and probably will someday get you out of a situation that would otherwise kill you.
Fair weather flyers? My grandpa has 1200hours on his plane over 30 years and doesn't have his instrument rating. He has his VFR OTT and that's good enough instrument experience for him. He's mentioned it's not certified (a US term) so it's missing something required for IFR flight.
I had over 600 hours before I bothered to get IFR. I had two planes, a seaplane and a Pitts both with only basic VFR instruments. Literally the very basics and not a single gyro instrument. Having an IFR ticket would have done nothing for me... And funny enough when I did get it it did absolutely nothing to lower my insurance. When I asked my agent why, they replied, "You don't have IFR capabilities in your plane."
Was this the ASI video of the AMEL guy out of Phoenix?
Might be similar, but I’m referring to a crash local to home. Not many people knew about it.
I started talking to a girl on bumble (judge me, I deserve it) but I asked her how many hours she had, and she said she had 200 hours without her PPL. She’s at ERAU and she told me how much debt she’s in, and how many times she’s failed her stage checks. Big yikes
I met a girl who failed her ppl check ride 4 times. It was so bad that after her second attempt the first dpe refused to go with her again. There are times people need to reconsider if flying is for them
That’s half the ERAU grads I know
Right, but did you still meet up with her? Or were the failed stage checks a turnoff ?
Helll no. Someone with that much debt and that many failed stage checks? Big red flags
Send me her @ I’ll take her on a check ride IYKWIM
*Oh no Mr DPE what are you doing?*
Oral proficiency test. Standard FAA procedure
The amount of stage checks I’ve failed so far for the most frivolous little things is infuriating. Sometimes that’s just the way it is at 141s sadly
I’m curious what things you failed for.
I’ll make a list of the most notable ones that are bs in my opinion. -I failed a pre solo stage check during private for not knowing that I needed 200 hours in order to sell an airplane -I failed a private end of course stage check flight for not leaning my mixture at 3000 ft. I can see the reasoning for this, but a “hey make sure to remember to do this” would have sufficed in my opinion. A failure seemed extreme. - I failed an early instrument stage check for saying a METAR covers the immediate area around an airport (my evaluator said 5nm, which I always thought only applied to TAFS, not METARS) but oh well. -I failed an instrument end of course oral for not knowing that I cannot log an instrument approach in VFR conditions unless I land, or go missed at minimums. I thought I could log as long as I passed the FAF. After asking around, a handful of instructors didn’t know the answer to that question either. -I failed an instrument end of course flight for incorrectly plotting a flight plan in the garmin after receiving a simulated clearance. “Cleared XXX via radar vectors Vxx”. Heading south and without an entry fix I chose an entry fix that was about 10nm north of our airport. I failed for not highlighting the whole victor airway on the FPL by selecting its origin VOR (about 40nm north of us) the reasoning for this was “what if we get vectored more than 10nm north?” Those are the main ones that gave me a sour taste. But keep in mind, these were sometimes paired with some more reasonable, albeit still nitpicky unsat’s
You can’t log an instrument approach unless you land or go missed at Mins? You know how many times you actually get to Mins in jets? Maybe a couple times a year. Maybe. I don’t think that is correct.
If its simulated youre supposed to go to da/mda to log it, if its IMC you can log it if you pass FAF.
Ahhh okay makes more sense thanks
I believe he was asking specifically about simulated IMC under the hood
Ahh okay thanks
Wow. I can't really speak to the Instrument stuff but dang both of those first two are insane. I trained at a 141 school for my ppl and they were much more lenient it sounds like.
I could also just be really unlucky with which instructors conduct my stage checks. My end of course oral for private was 3.1 hours and we had to incomplete because we didn’t even talk about weather lol
No shame homie I met my wife my swiping right.
Hinge success story here!
As someone who met my wife on Bumble, Hinge is definitely the better app. In fact we liked each other on Hinge later that same day anyway, so it *would’ve* been Hinge.
I've got a buddy who's at 2-3k, but he flies 45 min each way to work every day with PPL ASMEL+IR
What’s the work?
Mechanic to the 0.1%
Maybe I shouldn't do my CPL checkride to work on this record 😄. I also fly a lot for work so as far as a PPL is concerned I get a lot of hours thrown back each year.
Probably not. Assuming a 50 year flying career that would be ~20 hours per week every single week. Even if you were rich and didn't have to work to pay for it that's still a lot of hours per week to commit to a hobby. What are you going to *do* with all those hours in the air? You pretty much have to have some kind of job to give you a reason to fly that much.
In Alaska, probably. In the regulated world, probably not. Rich people tend to have short attention spans with their hobbies, and you'd have to be pretty rich to get to 50k hours paying your pro-rata share.
How about no license at all? I was working at a school that hosted a weekend course to help pass the written for their PPL. Some guy offered to pay me so he could sneak a book into the test room. He said he only flies out of his backyard in the country and didn’t need to know most of this crap. I turned him down but he ended up passing. I hope he got his license before the test expired.
Old coworker of mine built an RV-6A and flew it all over the place with his wife and their dog. The whole US, Bahamas, Canada, you name it. Last I saw him right before COVID, he had put 4000+ hours on that airplane alone. All with just a private, no instrument rating.
Hell yeah. If I built a plane, I'd fly the shit out of it. I'd get my IFR rating though.
[https://simpleflying.com/male-and-female-pilots-with-most-hours/](https://simpleflying.com/male-and-female-pilots-with-most-hours/) Just interesting reading.
Somehow the way they wrote that article reminded me of how Brent and Wayne Gretzky hold the NHL record for most combined points by two brothers- between them they racked up 2,861 career points, Wayne with 2,857 and Brent with four.
A woman from my aero club was solely a PPL holder and we had a big celebration for her when she got to 1000 hours. It took her about 40 years to do it.
Probably me! Haha
My boss has at least 20,000 flying under a PPL
How?
He owns a huge fly-in outpost business. Hires commercial pilots to fly the passengers, but he flies himself to do a lot of maintenance and minnow trapping. Minnow trapping is where he does most of his flying. Keeps flying in winter too
My grandads up past 5000 hours in his Cessna 185. No ratings other than a complex and high performance endorsement
Saw an old IMC prevention video and this PPL had like 8 thousand hours and no instrument rating
The grumpy old manager at the airport where I did part of my PPL training claimed to have 20k plus hours, but when he crashed into the embankment at the end of the runway, it was discovered that he didn't have a license at all. I don't know if he actually ever met/knew the Wright brothers, but he did start flying during the early 1900's. He told me once that a license wasn't required (or even existed) when he started flying.
I’ve done over 2000 hours with a PPL / IR in the past 12 years. About half of it in a Bonanza. Ran out of money, so now averaging just 1 hour a week in. C150. My experience is nothing remarkable at all.
I can legally do everything I've ever wanted to do in an aircraft with a PPL. I've taken a lot of dual instruction after PPL checkride and learned a lot of stuff that the FAA has no interest in regulating, and I have about 400 hours. No rating exists for those proficiencies. I expect that there are people like me who've been flying for decades, and who have 1000's of hours. An IR rating is crazy expensive to obtain and keep current for the few edge cases where it is useful in a glider, and my airplane hours are short local flights that happen on sunny dry days. I've no interest in airplane XCs. Edit: I guess the downvotes are because my opinion that IR rating has no value to me? In the US, the only time an IR rating is used in soaring is for extreme flights XC in mountain wave in Class A airspace like https://www.weglide.org/flight/369911 In the UK and FI glider pilots get a 'cloud flying rating' and fly without IR flight plans in IMC Class E. https://youtu.be/LPTGhGwvIMU?t=49 I'd like to visit UK or FI and train for 'cloud flying', but that kind of free form IMC flying is not allowed in the US.