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)
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.

Ok, training flight times are six, 10 minute flights. This is to match the discharge time of standard battery packs for the plane and transmitter so thats 60 minutes per day. I am not sure where you fly at but typical season fuel is only around 6 gallons going out every weekend until the weather turns to crap. The 10 oz. tank is correct but in training sessions because of the lower throttle you only use 5-8 oz. per flight. My 2 cents.

11gal of fuel is a LOT of fuel though a .40 size engine, so something is wrong with your assumptions there. I posted more rounds of combat than you have listed as flights last year. Each round pretty much emptied a 6oz or 3 oz tank. Add in practice and sport flying (quite a bit of both, though many guys flew more). If I recall, I went though about 8gal last year.

However, I think your hours of flight time aren't at all far off. 45min is a good amount of stick time per trip to the field. A lot of beginners don't even get that though.

The interesting thing there is that a lot of guys get the basics down in such a short amount of time, very little real stick time in the air.

Even considering the over estimate on the fuel usage.

It simply occured to me how little actual stick time one gets in a season
I know that This year I won't get anywhere near my own estimate[:-] (Family and Work)

I was only throwing the numbers out as sort of a rough (very rough) gauge to be used in figuring out how much time one actually gets flying. After all FS pilots keep logs detailing how many hours they have flown and I thought it was used in part as a rating of proficiency thought it might be interesting to see other viepoints

My 9C's timer said it was on for 2 hrs and 37 minutes Sunday at field. Bear in mind of course that includes starting, taxxing and range checks. I figure I got probablly 1 hr and 50 min's actuall stick time, and that used about 1/2 gallon of fuel. I might be a bit over on the flying time though.

Andy

The kid and I flew 13 flights on Saturday. Minimum duration was close to 15 minutes. We flew the PT-60 for 50 minutes on a 14oz tank. We did a lot of floating around passing the transmitter, trying for a one hour flight. Used less than 1/2 gallon.

Hey, I'm on my 7th gallon of fuel going on three months now..
Which is FAR more than I put in the other "gas hog" I use
to get to the field.. But that may change since gas prices
"Seem to be SO LOW now days" :-(

Anyway, I would like too keep that up(flying alot) But I'm
not sure my wallet can continue at that pace...

I'm on my 6th gallon of fuel this season.

I don't think there could ever be ENOUGH stick time. Its kind of like money, you can never have to much.

I would fly 40 hours a week if I had time.

I wouldn't necessary base ability to move to a new plane on stick time alone. All people learn at different rates. If you are tired of your plane and have the extra cash to buy a more challenging model, why not?

Are all athletes at the same skill level if they have the same amount of total practice?

How about chess players? Poker players maybe?

Na, everyone is different. Stick time isn't everything.

I did have one guy come up to me at the field and say, you know, most people get a model a fly the entire season before they move on to the next. He said this to me because I had my four star and Spacewalker. I didn't know this guy. I don't think it is really of anybody's business how many planes I have , or how many planes anybody has.

Some people need to worry more about themselves instead of what others are doing.

Interesting numbers Crashem, and I agree that the fuel consumption is much too high.

I'd point out one other interesting "statistic". I heard not all that long ago, that the average RC flight is actually more like 6 minutes. I've casually observed at our field(s) and found that to be basically true. So, your figures for total hours flown in a season may be twice as high as what really occurs.
Dennis-

Surely 11 gallons isn't THAT high. Like I said, I am on gallon # 6 and its still May. On top of that I live an hour from the field and can only go on weekends.

But when I do go I make it an all day thing. I have been staying untill the sun goes down every trip the field.

DBCherry made a good point. I use an elapsed timer and a throttle position timer, one is my countdown to flame-out and the other is just for interest. I find that my average flight is just over 10 minutes, the longest about 15 and some as short as 6. Maybee it's just me, but it takes a lot of concentration to keep that li'l sucker up there, and a few botched touch and goes, especially when I have to duck a lot, dosen't do anything for my state of mind.


Andy

What is a throttle position timer? Is that part of your tx? That sounds pretty neat, I've never heard of it.

Do you enter this size of the fuel tank and engine size and it counts down?

Wings,

throttle position timer is availble on Futaba 9CAP, 7CAP as I know, other brands and models might have it too.

Basicaly you put the thorttle stick where you want the time to start either up or down and it counts. I have it on 9CAP and it is really neat. Every minutes it makes a beep and last 20 second beeps increase.

Interesting numbers.

All the fuel in the tank is not used per each flight, though.

Assuming 8 ounces per flight, then

192 x 8 = 1536 ounces

What about rubber bands?

48 flying sessions x 12 = 576 rubber bands!!!!!

I cannot fly twice a week, but here in Florida we can fly the whole year; hence those numbers apply to me!!

Crashem,

...you go to the field... and FLY?

Not sit around and gab?

What kinda perverse....

Dave lson

Wow, the return of the 5.5year-old thread.

I looked back at what I posted last time, and the funny thing is that two seasons ago, I actually went through about 22 gallons of glow fuel in a year. Some of that was contest flying, but a lot was because my wife now flys as well, and she had a .91 4-stroke in her plane, later upgraded to a 1.20 four stroke. And I was putting a fair amount of hours on a twin with .46 two-strokes, plus a .70 two stroke. I also flew a gasser quite a bit, so that didn't count.

Anyway, last season, I pulled my wife's 1.20 and put in a 20cc gasser, I flew my 50cc gasser much more, my twin spent a lot of the time for maintenance so my glow fuel burn dropped off a ton, down to about 5 gallons in a season.

Much easier on the wallet, that's for sure.

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.

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.

What was the point of this excersise?  I mean who really cares?  I do this cause I like to, not because it is statistically meaningful.  So I guess you are smarter than me. 

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.

Charlie P

I agree with you and stevenmax50, but here's an interesting comparison just amoung a couple of my own other hobbies, which have dwindled a little since I started flying RC. Of course, after start up, the dollar per hour figure drops a little each year you stay in a hobby(a big drop for the ski boat after the first year) assuming you don't buy all new equipment every year. But still an interesting comparison for myself.

Deer hunting:

Bow $350+-
Arrows and tips per season $100
targets $150
arrows fired including sight in and practice - 150+-
time spent sighting in and practicing 35min/20 shots X 8-10 sessions = 3hrs+-
time spent actually hunting 5 to 6 times @ 3hrs each = 18-20hrs

Dollars per hour spent practicing and hunting = $26/hr

Rifle and scope - $600+
Amunition per season - $100+
Rounds fired including sight in and practice 100+
time spent practicing and sighting in 5-6 sessions/20rounds/ x60min per session= 5-6hrs
time spent actually hunting 6 to 8 times @3hrs each =20 to 24hrs

Dollars per hour spent practicing and hunting $29/hr

This doesn't even include the cost of hunting clothes, ATV, truck and fuel,and other accessories, or the time spent traveling!

Water skiing/swimming/etc.

Ski boat $35000
skis,tubes,wakeboard, life jackets,etc- $1000+
fuel per season 40gallon tank x 1/2tank+ per trip X 8 trips = 4+ tanks per season= $500
time spent actually on the water(not including travel or maintenance to equipment) 8 trips @ 6hrs each on average= 48hrs
dollar per hour = $760/hr


RC flying

Electric trainer plane and accessories $300+-
Nitro trainer plane and all needed accsessories $500+-
Second nitro plane (low wing sport) $400+-
Ama and club fees $140
fuel per year - avg two 12oz tanks per session =20oz per session
X avg one session per week all year= 52 sessions = 8gallons = $160
misc parts, pieces and repairs, $200+-
time spent actually at flying field avg 3hrs per session = 104hrs

dollars per hour flying RC planes = $16/hr