Gee Whiz Statistics

[Ironflight]

So I was catching up my logbook today, and got to thinking wistful thoughts.

It?s been over forty years since I first took control of an airplane, and no, I don?t have airline-type hours up in the tens of thousands (No need to get into total hours in anyone?s book for this exercise ? first liar doesn?t stand a chance anyways). Many entries have gone into the logbooks over those years, but what can we take away that is incredibly simple? Maybe something tells the tale of how we spend our time? I have used my airplanes for many things, but they can be boiled down into local or cross-country flights. Lots of the local flights are training, practice, or Acro. No record of Acro time, but I do log total landings. I took a look at the bottom line in the last book, and came up with two numbers ? you can do the same. ? Divide ?Cross-Country? hours by your Total Flight Time. Then divide ?Total number of Landings? by your Total Flight Time. Like this:

Cross Country Ratio = 41%
Landings per Hour = 1.96

What do these numbers mean? Well, I have spent a little less than half my flying career droning along (in peace, or in terror) on cross-countries, watching the scenery and weather go by. And when I am local, I like to land airplanes! I used to spend a lot of time shooting Touch and Goes in my old Grumman. And I have quite a few logged landings (and more I never logged) in the old ?Heavy Glider? simulator at work. I shoot far fewer landings in the RV?s for some reason ? things happen fast in the T&G pattern in an RV I suppose. I bet the career heavy guys here will have a much higher cross-country percentage. The career CFI?s will have lower X/C and higher landings/hour.

Doesn?t mean much ? it?s just a curiosity about how we spend our time off the planet?s surface!

Paul

[Vlad]

Cross country ratio = 77%
but landings per hour = 1.29

[jbDC9]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

I bet the career heavy guys here will have a much higher cross-country percentage.

Ehh, hard to say... I quit logging X/C time 15,000+ hrs ago.

[nharwood]

48% Cross Country
2.3 LPH (if you count touch and go's) 1.3 LPH (if you only count full stop landings)

[Bob Axsom]

Lifetime numbers:

XC = 52.9 %
L/hr = 1.35

If I just look at 2012:

XC = 195.5/214.6 = 91.1%
L/hr = 130/214.6 = 0.6058

The only flights I make are travel, cross country air racing, or testing. I never go out to the airport to practice flying or for the fun of flying anymore. Life changes and we have to move on. The JOY part of life is over for me and it's all about the racing now.

Bob Axsom

[pmccoy]

Cross Country Ratio = 32%
Landings per Hour = 4.3

My landings per hour are high as I am still building. Lots of T&G practice in rental LSAs. I tend to stay close to the pattern for quick flights during the build.

[Skykingbob]

Cross country ratio = 80.5%
Landings pr/hr = 1.27

Just flying around the local area all the time gets boring....gotta have a mission

[n82rb]

x/c 89 %

I stopped counting landings 12 years ago, i'm going to guess about 8000 landings, so it should be a little under 1 per hour.

I should break out SEL numbers, i would guess that it would be about 80% local for SEL time.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

[RV6_flyer]

Cross Country Ratio = 0.556
Landing / Hour Ratio last 12-months = 1.998

Dual Received Ratio = 0.0499
Night Ratio = 0.00768
Actual Instrument Ratio = 0.00089

Since I had to look at my log to figure this out, I wanted to know a few additional items.

[Don]

Cross Country = 32%
Landings per hour = 2.2

I hope to see these numbers change when I start flying an RV...with a bit of luck and good weather, that'll be this Friday (can you see my RV grin, yet?).