ORIGINAL: Crashem
After reading the many posts on flying and the amount og time it takes to learn I decided to to a little math and came up with some interesting numbers. Please note I'm basing my figures on what I consider to be an average northeastern (US) flying season and what I've seen to be typical of most of the flyers in my area others can and will draw different conclusions
First my Assumptions
1. Duration of Flying Season 6 months (approx 24 weeks)
Longer! Longer! Here in NY I have flown in every month of the year multiple times. Skis open up lots of places that are poor fields in the summer. And there is little competition for the pin in November when the ground is dry.
2. Numbers of times one will be able to fly per week 2
3. Number of flights per seesion 4 (based on about 12-15 minutes per flight)
4. .40 Sized Trainer with 10oz fuel tank
Now the numbers based on these assumptions
1. 48 trips to the field
2. 48 minutes of flying time per trip for a 2304 minutes of total flying time per season (38.4 hours)
3. 192 total flights per season
4. 1920 oz of fuel consumed or (10.2 gallons) per season (Yes I may have over estimated fuel consumption a bit)
So after flying for an entire season you will have consumed under 11 gal of fuel and flown under 40 hours.
What do you think? especially considering how quickly some want to move on to the next plane.
What do I think about what? I crunch numbers for a living and try not to take it home with me. If you are trying to statistically prove this is a wise hobby . . . forget it. It's as dumb and senseless as most others and a lot better than many. But so what? It's fun. We do this to relax. (I know lots of guys who spend hundreds of hours building many, many beautiful models and seldom fly them. They enjoy the building aspect.
I think I like hanging around at the field for hours with three or four flights worked in. Especially when someone has fired up the grill and the crowd is sociable. My schedule allowed Wednesday mornings and early afternoons at the field this year and I got to hang out with some of the retired "old timers" and had a ball.