[Rhodes22-list] Brad--Flight Time

[Steven Alm]

Hank,

We got most of June, July and August off although each year they seem to
creep further into June.  Then approx two weeks off for Christmas/New Year,
a week off at Easter/Spring break and another 6 or 7 miscellaneous days for
Presidents Day, convention day, MEA, and a few others I can't remember.
Maybe it's a bit more than 8 months but less than 9.

Rik,

Wow!  What do you do with all your spare time?

Brad,

In my business, like many others, there's a trend to hire younger and thus
lower paid performers.  We old Jedi Masters have to keep being more and more
masterful to stay ahead of the kids.  There ain't no seniority thing.  There
is a musician's union but it's just for certain jobbing gigs like the
symphony, the circus band, broadway shows and the old guy who plays the
organ at the ball park--I hope that's me some day.

Slim

On Feb 19, 2008 8:35 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Slim,
>
> Around 25,000 hours is in the ballpark (I'd have to pull-up the latest
> printout from the company). I spent a few years teaching in the 727 and
> the
> last few teaching in the DC-10 and don't fly that much during the teaching
> gigs.  We are limited to 1000 hours of "hard time" a year but you only
> approach that if you fly international (I don't do that anymore, been
> there,
> done that, got plenty of cheap T-shirts from all over the world). My guess
> is that "time on duty" is about double what the flight time is, especially
> if you fly domestic. Experience counts for a lot, but only if there is a
> learning curve to go with it.  I'd like to think my skill-set is still
> improving with age but there comes a time when the 'ole eyes' and other
> body
> parts don't react as well as they used to.  That's when the "old bull,
> young
> bull" operating modus comes into play to make-up for the difference. One
> benefit of being a 'senior' pilot is that you don't have to screw around
> with the rheostats in the cockpit anymore - you just crank all the lights
> to
> full bright and then complain about the dimmest bulb.
>
> Brad
>
> On Feb 19, 2008 5:49 AM, Steven Alm <stevenalm at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Brad,
> >
> > The History Channel is playing "History of the Joke" hosted by Lewis
> Black
> > and he's interviewing all these many comics on all the many aspects of
> > comedy.  One of the segments referred to experience and they were
> talking
> > to
> > Penn and Teller.  Penn said that when you look at a pilot, the first
> thing
> > you look at is his flight time hours.  He then equated his "flight time
> > hours" as an important part of the success of a comedian.  Like anything
> > else, experience is important.
> >
> > So just for the hell of it I've tried to calculate my "hours."  I'm
> > starting
> > with my first full-time band that I joined when I was 25 years old.  I'm
> a
> > music major grad and I'm in my first full-time professional music job.
> >  Like
> > you, I started performing for money when I was still a teenager--I'm not
> > counting that.  I'm not counting my college gigs, not counting commuting
> > time, not counting rehearsal time (biggie), I'm not counting break time,
> > not
> > even counting the few years I was a public shool teacher--just flight
> > time--when I'm in the air and have control of the airplane.  In other
> > words,
> > on stage.  I haven't gone through all my years with a fine toothed comb
> > and
> > made any exact totals but in very round numbers I think I have about
> > 25,000+
> > full-time, professional hours of actual "flight time."
> >
> > Now, for professionals like Elle, a teacher, her flight time hours will
> > exceed that by many fold.  Give flight time hours a shot, Elle.  You
> > probably teach 6 units a day, we're not including preps (sorry--I have
> > more
> > prep hours than anybody--I started "prepping" for my job at age 5.)  I
> > know
> > you put in more than 40 hours/ week but let's just start there.  40 X 4
> > weeks is 160 hours a month times 8 months is 1280 times (guessing) 30
> > years
> > is 38,400 actual flight time hours.  Am I close?  I don't know if I'll
> > catch
> > up to you before I'm retired--or dead.
> >
> > How many hours have you logged?
> >
> > Slim
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> >
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