Montycosmos racer

hours versus 'cycles' (again!

Last updated by Monty Comments (4)

Categories: Trike Talk

Comments

  • Monty

    the boob-tube reported there are 7000+ accidents per year involving private aircraft, most of which ocurred during landing and takeoff, the most dangerous part of any flight. an airline pilot, driving his 'heavy' accross big ponds, accrues many less t&l's than say a shuttle -pilot on intra-island duty in hawai, yet is judged, rated by hrs 'in command'. same goes for engines/airframes etc'. a garbage truck, or newspaper deliverer will burn through their brakes in very few miles, whereas an 'over-the-road-semi will get up to a million miles on his running gear, between o/haul. t&l,s on aircraft are way more taxing on running gear than the 'easy' bit in between. yet the maintenance o/h required depends solely on hours 'on the clock'. detroit knows this and programs their ec modules to recognize cycles, a cycle being 'switch on, run, switch off, every 60 cycles, if no problems the 'slate' is wiped clean, the next cycle starts fresh. a bit off the track, but hours 'in command' versus 'cycles' seems to me an unfair way to rate a pilot (or bit of machinery). 'cycles' involving maximum 'stress' should be a factor. PHEW! you can all resume your lives, those who are still awake, that is, just another 'pet peeve'   monty

  • Doug Smith

    Monty , I have zero engineering knowledge. The routine examples you gave of a Garbage truck, Paper deliverer and Shuttle Pilot are good examples of the "cycles" of use you mention.  But ( IMHO ) G.A. flights are mostly one-off non repetitive use. One day you are flying for a hundred dollar breakfast, the next your flying to a friends place, etc.  I've never taken the same flight twice in my trike.

  • Doug Smith

    Regarding the Accident rate, I just watched a report from NTSB via CBS. It aired a day or so ago.  From that story....Between 2009 and 2013, there were more than 7,000 general aviation accidents -- four a day -- causing 2,011 deaths in that time period. 

  • Monty

    yeah doug, i think that's the blurb i saw. (my bad, not year, but several years.) even so, still a lot of misery! i know a lot of factors are present in accidents, many of which are never reported, theres not much impetus in re-reporting yesterdays news, but with (in particular) aviation accidents, whether ultra lights or 'biggies' seldom give the reasons for the 'incident' probably in some cases never will be resolved , so we aren't able to learn how to 'avoid' these particular 'situations'. as far as 'hrs versus cycles', i don't know if 'sully' of hudson fame had many many lds to his credit, (i suspect he did!), concurrent with his hrs in command , and he was able to glide a 60 ton 'anvil' to a very successful  conclusion (if that wasn't the most stressful part of that particular incident, i dunno what was!) cycles! cycles! cycles! .......monty  ps, eons ago as shop foreman at an audi dealership i remember a lady with a 'fox' , new, 3000 miles on it came in with brakes wore out, metal to metal. she delivered news papers. cycles! cycles! cycles!