Pursuing the 100-Hour Year in Your Ideal Aircraft

What seems like a reasonable goal can become challenging when life gets in the way.

Jonathan Welsh

Tuesday, January 02, 2024 at 12:20 PM ET

Verified

Start the year with a detailed plan for spending more time flying. [Credit: Jonathan Welsh]

Key Takeaways:

The author and fellow pilots are committed to "Fly more in 2024," aiming to surpass their flight hours from 2023 after the author fell 20 hours short of a 100-hour goal last year.
To achieve this, the author plans to proactively integrate flying into family activities and everyday life, leveraging their personal aircraft, "Annie," for trips typically made by car or commercial flights.
Specific plans include flying for his son's volleyball tournaments and college visits in the Northeast, as well as several family leisure trips to destinations like Northampton, MA, Fisher's Island, NY, and the Outer Banks.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Several colleagues and other fellow pilots have vowed to spend more time aloft in their aircraft this year than they did in 2023, and I am determined to join them. We all have made similar New Year’s resolutions before, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The battle cry of “Fly more in 2024”—#flymorein24—is catchy enough to remind me of my commitment and help me stick with it, as it turns out.

A year ago, having just bought Annie, our Commander 114B, I planned to log 100 hours by year’s end—more than double my previous annual record. The goal seemed reasonable given the significant uptick in flying activity that typically comes with owning an airplane instead of renting.