#216 “Recommended time cross country leg and flight?”

All right, day 216, coffee with Kenny on the Pacific Ocean. Absolutely love it. I'm Kenny Cutler, creator, Helicopter Online Ground school, and I have a question today from Van, who we just did a question for him a couple days ago and he was asking about how to stay current and I told him about the FAA webinars and he said thanks for a great video. I'll check that out and get on the FAA webinar list. He's got another question and this is a good question. I like this question. Never really covered this one. In this specific form, Van says, when planning cross country or other long flights, what's the most recommended time to fly in the helicopter in one stretch? Okay, I'm gonna give you what I do. I don't think there's really a recommended because there's so many variables here. And I'm going to continue on with the rest of this question, but I'm going to give you what I do may not be what works best for you. This, this is really going to depend. Aircraft, temperature, terrain. Oh my God, so many things. So anyway, when plan cr. When planning cross country flights or long flights, what's the most recommended time to fly in the helicopter in one stretch? What I do, I like to fly about an hour and a half. That's me personally, about an hour and a half. I'm really getting antsy and I want to stop and I want to take a break and I want to get out. I know people that do two or three hours on a leg on a cross country trip. If you got the fuel for it and you can handle it, that's great. What works for me is about an hour and a half. I just. That's about all. The longer I can stand being in the helicopter before I need a break and for me it's a good place to stop, take a break, you know, get some fuel, hit the bathroom, get a drink, take a little break, continue on. How many legs would I do in a day? That's going to depend again on too, on weather. How tired am I? How much rest did I get? You know, how stressful is the flight? Because it might be a pretty low stress flight, it might be a high stress flight. It all depends. Do you do a couple of legs each day? Sure. When I'm doing an hour and a half legs, I might do five to six hours of flying. And I know there's guys that can jump in and fly 10 hours in a day. That's great. I can't do that. Five to six hours in A helicopter for me. When you put the brakes in between that five to six hours of flight time, that's turning into a, you know, eight or nine hour day for me. And with, you know, parking for the night and find a place to stay and trying to go get supper and refresh, whatever you're doing. For me that works out pretty good, about five to six hours of actual flight time. So maybe three legs at about an hour and a half apiece, maybe more. But that's. I'll have number three. Right, so number three probably worked pretty good. And again, this is for me, love to hear down below. What works for you? Does the time in the air make a difference if there's someone with you or if it is day or night? Yes and yes. If that's answering correctly. Is it different? Yes. When you have somebody with you to help with charts, changing frequencies, that is a huge help. And it's less stress when you're going cross country by yourself. And I'm not talking about the guy who's been doing it for 30 years. When you're newer to this, cross country can be stressful. And yes, if you're alone, the workload is just so much higher when you're by yourself. So having somebody with you a huge factor in maybe how far you can go, how tired you're going to get, because that's going to help with your stress factor. I love having somebody with me just to help. Even if they're a non rated pilot, they can help with radios, charts, you know, navigating, help with gps. It's so nice to have somebody there with you then. Day or night? Oh yeah, of course day flying in general is more comfortable and easier for most of us because most of us don't fly that much at night. So flying at night is more stressful, you know, it's harder to see, it's more of a strain on your eyes. And I can tell you something, I did when I was new, I went across the mountains at night with a little handheld GPS and an old 1970 some instrument. I will never do that again. Guarantee you I will never. As long as I live, I will never do that again. That was scary. I was young, dumb, hurting for time and hours, hurting for money. I took this, this job moving in Enstrom south. And the guy was like, can you go? He calls me like five, can you go? You can leave now. I need you halfway there by, you know, such and such time. Anyway, those days are gone for me. I know everyone has different limits, but was wondering if there Are any general guidelines, Take care and have a safe trip home. VAN it boils down to what's safe. I think the biggest thing thinking about this question, when I read it this morning, right when I first got up, I've been thinking about it and I think the bottom line is whatever, safe. Really there are so many factors. Daytime, nighttime, how much sleep did you get? How are you feeling? How stressed are you? What type of terrain are you flying over? Is it hot, is it cold? Man, there are so many factors involved. I think whatever works for you, that's safe, you will get tired. And I remember doing a trip one time taking a helicopter from Indianapolis, not Indianapolis, Indiana, all the way to the southern tip of Florida. I did it by myself in a 480. Here comes the water. And I remember charging all day and trying to make it in one day. And I can tell you what, in the Georgia, certain areas of Georgia at night, even on a clear night, there ain't. There isn't much ground lighting out there. And I can remember being tired, flying into the night, going past a little town and then getting out in an area where there was like maybe a ground reference light maybe way off in the distance over there and one way off that way and that was it. And I was like, I was tired and I'm like, you know what? Turn around, go back to that little, that last little town, call it off, stay the night. And I did. And again, that was because I'd been flying all day, doing it all by myself, nobody in the aircraft. And that was pretty stressful. And I can remember getting to that tired point. So when it gets to be nighttime, if you're tired, it's so much harder on the eyes. It's so much harder to make clear decisions. And you just get tired. I mean, traveling cross country can make you very tired. All right, I'm gonna wrap it up. Day 216, right? That's right. Coffee with Kenny. Beautiful view. Absolutely freaking amazing. Hey, do us a favor and subscribe to the channel. When you subscribe, click that little bell. You'll be notified of the daily video. Leave us some comments down below. I'd love to hear what you do on a cross country trip. What works for you? What doesn't work? How long do you guys fly? Or girls, how long are your legs? Any general rules that you follow? One more time. I think it's whatever safe and whatever works for the individual. It could vary so much. Alright, I'm gonna give you a nice little shot here as we sign off. Make sure you subscribe, click the bell, give us a thumbs up, and we'll see you in day 217.