I hope this trip has two pilots...

jrh said:
If we're comparing whose is bigger when it comes to trips, I've got a few.

Did Meridan, CT to York, NE in a Cherokee Six in 10.3 hobbs hours, 8.6 of which were at night, and 1.5 in IMC with no autopilot...including a blown tire on landing at York. I was more than happy for that trip to be over.

Did El Paso, TX to Lincoln, NE in 8 hours in my C-140.

Did Las Vegas, NV to Lincoln, NE in 5.1 hours, nonstop, in an SR-22...the hardest part of which was wearing a full face O2 mask for 3 of those hours.

Did Reading, PA to Walla Walla, WA in six days and 31 flight hours using my C-140.

Did Leesburg, VA to Alamogordo, NM in 11.5 hobbs hours in a T206H.
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Well, I think these long-haul jet guys have us all beat, but if we're playing the brass balls game here's a picture I took 100 miles north of the Dominican Republic on that ferry:

triangle-2.jpg


NDB all the way, baby (and a little GTK VOR)! :D
 
My longest flying day was for Wings of Mercy, picking up a young mom and her baby who were stranded in Texas after 9/11.

2001.JPG
 
That is a lot of flying in one day. I have done nearly 12 hours in a 727 in one day and that was exhausting. I can't imagine doing a trip as long as that guy did in a C172. If I remember right the C172's only have wing levelers and not full autopilots. Did Cessna change that?

Don't forget that the Long Haul guys fly more hours at once but it is all in cruise with an IRO and some bunk time too.
 
Bandit_Driver said:
I can't carry that much gas...65000 lbs only goes so far. lol
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Was in the A-10, about 11 air refuelings. Was being escorted by the tanker. lol....sorry for the confusion. But just being strapped in the ejection seat that long was painful.

Then you get ready for the next air refueling and call the tanker (they have to slow up, get the boom extended, etc), and they say "give us about 5, getting our dinners out of the oven...." :D
 
Bandit_Driver said:
If I remember right the C172's only have wing levelers and not full autopilots. Did Cessna change that?
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The new Cessnas, like the one in this case (a 1997 C-172R), oftentimes come with a KAP140 two-axis autopilot. They're pretty decent, actually...altitude/vertical speed hold, as well as HDG/NAV/ROL/APR control options.

But they're optional and not all of the newer Cessnas are equipped with them. Judging by some minor deviations in the track log, I wouldn't be surprised if this pilot was hand flying.
 
MikeD said:
14.9 IIRC, LPLA to KCEF with a nice headwind and low groundspeed.
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MikeD said:
Was in the A-10, about 11 air refuelings. Was being escorted by the tanker. lol....sorry for the confusion. But just being strapped in the ejection seat that long was painful.

Then you get ready for the next air refueling and call the tanker (they have to slow up, get the boom extended, etc), and they say "give us about 5, getting our dinners out of the oven...." :D
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Nice...I heard some stories about guys having to be pulled out their hogs after missions like that. I can't imagine being that cramped for that long on a rock hard seat. Not to mention I heard the A-10 A/P sucks
 
Bandit_Driver said:
Nice...I heard some stories about guys having to be pulled out their hogs after missions like that. I can't imagine being that cramped for that long on a rock hard seat. Not to mention I heard the A-10 A/P sucks
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The A/P in the A-models I flew (when they worked) were just alt and roll hold only, often the alt/pitch hold portion didn't work so well, and that too depended on the particular tail number.

Yeah, I was sore alright. But one of the longest missions for a fighter-type aircraft on record, were the F-111s and EF-111s that took off from Lakenheath UK, went south around Spain, through the Gibraltar Strait, down the Med, and return the same way, to strike Libya in 1986. Over 14 hours of flight time, and some of those guys had to be pulled out of the cockpits by the time they landed.
 
my longest was 12 hours and the last 1 hour of the flight, I had the hardest time trying to keep my eyes open.
 
Bandit_Driver said:
That is a lot of flying in one day. I have done nearly 12 hours in a 727 in one day and that was exhausting. I can't imagine doing a trip as long as that guy did in a C172. If I remember right the C172's only have wing levelers and not full autopilots. Did Cessna change that?

Don't forget that the Long Haul guys fly more hours at once but it is all in cruise with an IRO and some bunk time too.
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The really new 172's probably have a better autopilot than the 727's has. G1000 with the GFC700. HDG/NAV/ROL/APR with Altitude pre-select and vertical speed and flight level change options. Its amazingly smooth too, it'll keep the plane on the ILS to minimum's with a 15 knot crosswind. Lots of fun, to punch buttons in a 172 you know. :bandit:

I've done 9.5 in a day in a DA-40 once, solo. It was a really long day, but lots of fun. Saw a large portion of the country I'd never been to before.
 
yeah the 12.6 day i had was in a '75 M model with no autopilot and the plane didnt fly real straight anyway. all hand flown.

autopilot... pfft.


7+ hobbs in a day is perfectly normal at my job. and thats not point to point, thats flying +-100 foot localizers all day long. enjoy that.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
The really new 172's probably have a better autopilot than the 727's has. G1000 with the GFC700. HDG/NAV/ROL/APR with Altitude pre-select and vertical speed and flight level change options. Its amazingly smooth too, it'll keep the plane on the ILS to minimum's with a 15 knot crosswind. Lots of fun, to punch buttons in a 172 you know. :bandit:
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You can say that again. The GFC700 is incredible...best autopilot on the market, for light planes, IMO. What really impressed me was its ability to compensate for flap extension/retractions without any bump in pitch or altitude. It's unbelievably smooth.
 
TXaviator said:
yeah the 12.6 day i had was in a '75 M model with no autopilot and the plane didnt fly real straight anyway. all hand flown.

autopilot... pfft.


7+ hobbs in a day is perfectly normal at my job. and thats not point to point, thats flying +-100 foot localizers all day long. enjoy that.
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yeah exactly. keeping that airplane on the lines all day long gets very very tiring. especially when you've flown 500miles but didn't actually go anywhere.
 
Done SAT-RDU in the Van, climbed to 230 and had a strong tailwind. I don't remember exactly how long that took, except it was much too long to be inside a Caravan and much too long to wear an O2 mask. Was in one of our rare /G aircraft and got Direct and watched a DVD and read a book on my Kindle... err, I mean reviewed my GOM.
 
Any military guys here do any SAC stuff? I imagine back in the day, they were up for....quite a bit of time.

Or anyone do any trips back and forth to the mid-east? I'm sure that's absolutely brutal in some of those planes.

-mini
 
minitour said:
Any military guys here do any SAC stuff? I imagine back in the day, they were up for....quite a bit of time.

Or anyone do any trips back and forth to the mid-east? I'm sure that's absolutely brutal in some of those planes.

-mini
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I think that was operation Chrome Dome. If I am not mistaken SAC had a BUFF base in KOSC (Wurtsmith AFB) & a couple other in Michigan too. Don't know where the rest were.

Mike D you are probably more up on this than I am.
 
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