direct drive engine?

[Hedley]

fly low revs in order to reduce the tach time

There's another way to do that.

Think.

[MichaelP]

Bomber Command must have one hell of a bill!

Don't mention the war!

There's another way to do that.

Maybe, but remember my position, I can't be setting a bad example by telling anyone this.

Today pilots do a lot more hours for their PPL training partly because they pay for Hobbs time and they are damn well going to log that time!
I usually log five or ten minutes less than my students as I grew up with chock to chock, brakes off to brakes on, and I don't think it's correct to log twenty minutes waiting at the hold line before I get my clearance...
That's just me, the way I was originally taught.
I hate Hobbs meters with a passion, they are not good for engines and are counter to safety sometimes. I did not have them in my aircraft!

[Hedley]

they are damn well going to log that time!

This obsession - fetish? - with logging hours is quite tiresome.

If you met someone who logged how many miles they
had driven a car in their life, or each time they had
intercourse - and kept running totals of each, complete
with columns of particulars - you'd probably think there
was something a bit strange with them.

FWIW I had never, ever met an airplane that could
read your logbook, and in turn grant you the respect
you deserved (or not) depending upon how many
hours you had logged, and what licence you hold.

There seems to be some idiotic implicit assumption
that pilot A, with twice as many hours as pilot B,
must be twice as good as pilot B. It doesn't matter
than pilot A just crashed for the third time, and pilot
B has an accident-free record.

Skill and knowledge are clearly asymptotic with
respect to experience.

I'll let you in on a little secret:

You are only as good as your last flight.

P.S. Can I use the word "asymptotic" in this crowd?
How about "orthogonal"? "Modulo"?

[MichaelP]

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Asymptotic.html I had to look this one up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal I knew this one!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulo_operation, except in aviation 'n' is used to denote load

Thank you professor... glad to see you didn't mention the war!