Flying time is a thing treasured by pilots. We write down every tenth of an hour in hardbound logbooks and measure every facet of our flights. Things like night and instrument watching are all measured against the clock.
Our coming up in the profession of flight is also measured and regulated by time. You can’t apply for a commercial license or an ATP or any other step up the ladder without first producing proof that a clock made its appointed minimum rounds of the dial while you were yanking and banking.
Airlines definition of what makes an experienced pilot varies based on your background and how badly they need crewmembers. Military types usually get in with fewer hours than old check and banner haulers like me.
Once you fly for a living, time literally becomes money.
Even though most pilots and the public measure a pilot’s worth by the total time in his or her logbook many of your safer and most careful pilots are the ones with the lowest clock dial rotations in their records. Enthusiasm for flight is outside the realm of the clock as well. I have had bored primary students with no future in the business because of their ennui and have flown with 30,000 hour pilots who were still absolutely giddy about slipping the surlies.
Many people, including me, believe that time is not only an illusion like my favorite author Douglas Adams said, but that it isn’t even linear.
I can say this with confidence because even though I have gathered over 20,000 hours in my long flying career, I still feel like a three hour total time teenager every time I land the Champ.
*quote by Douglas Adams
--Karl
