Originally Posted by
Ray Blaszak
I think there is maybe only one more person in the US that has more floatplane time. The lady I did mine with has over 50,000 hours on floats. Her and her husband petitioned the FAA to get rid of stalls during the checkride after they almost couldn't recover from one. You will learn very quickly that floatplanes are fun and highly dangerous at the same time. Oh if you plan on flying floats a lot I also recommend waiters (?) and a life jacket.
DANG! That is a lot of time.
I thought I remember hearing about a true "little old lady" flight instructor from somewhere down in the southeastern US who had the most flight time in the US at least - 80,000 hrs and most of it instructing but I can't find any reference for it now.
I did find this article from the late 90s:
Ed Longs office is the cockpit of his small plane, and the view out his office window is the Alabama countryside. Its not a bad job, flying all day at 2,000 feet, checking power lines for an Alabama utility.
Still, its a little lowprofile for a guy who should be one of the most famous pilots in the world, if he werent so determined not to be.
I dont care anything about fame or fortune, says the 83yearold Long. I just ... boost the aviation business.
John Edward Ed Long is in the Guinness Book of Records for most flight time by a pilot. Hes amassed more than 64,000 hours seven years in the air.
USMCFLYR
Edit - found an 2009 article referring to the pilot I was speaking of - the "little old lady", but my memory was off on the flight time - ONLY 57,000+ hrs!
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/11...bryan-johnson/