West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours . . .
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West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours . . .
Victoria News In his 47-year flying career, Jim Devlin has logged 42,000 hours of flying time (that's almost five entire years) and of that, more than 20,000 hours were on a Twin Otter seaplane. On Thursday, he retired.
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Wow! Talk about a long career, wonder how many pilots starting out now will get to this mark.
Welcome to Redneck Airlines. We might not get you there but we'll get you close!
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
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Last edited by jeta1 on Sun May 06, 2012 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Enjoy your retitrement Jim. I enjoyed flying with you back in the dark ages.
Peter Bjarnason
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Congrats!!! But can he still hear?
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
IIRC, Jim believed/es that he has more time on a Twotter on floats than anyone else. HArd to beat a guy who flies the harbour sked every day for the last 20+ years...
Say, what's that mountain goat doing up here in the mist?
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Happiness is V1 at Thompson!
Ass, Licence, Job. In that order.
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Wow. The harbour sked for twenty years straight? By now his uniform pants and shirt should be able to do that route without him in them.
I'll bet he'll be missed.
I'll bet he'll be missed.
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
WOW!!!
Congratulations seems to be such a small word right now....Don't know what to say!??
All the best and hope he enjoys his well reserved retirement!

Congratulations seems to be such a small word right now....Don't know what to say!??
All the best and hope he enjoys his well reserved retirement!
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
The image of Jim Devlin sitting in that seat will likely be ingrained in my memory forever!
I flew with him almost every shift for the past two years, and I can tell ya, he's not lying about the 42-44 thousand hours. The guys been flying for a long long time. Miraculously, his hearing is in tact, and he certainly hadn't lost any of his hands and feet to old age.
Not every day flying with Jim was a walk in the park, but overall I feel pretty privileged to have flown with him!
Jim will be missed, and he does indeed have big plans for his retirement, enjoy it old friend!
Joe
I flew with him almost every shift for the past two years, and I can tell ya, he's not lying about the 42-44 thousand hours. The guys been flying for a long long time. Miraculously, his hearing is in tact, and he certainly hadn't lost any of his hands and feet to old age.
Not every day flying with Jim was a walk in the park, but overall I feel pretty privileged to have flown with him!
Jim will be missed, and he does indeed have big plans for his retirement, enjoy it old friend!
Joe
Flying airplanes is easy, you just need to PAY ATTENTION. Finding a good job on the other hand takes experience, practice, and some serious talent.
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Yes, impressive indeed. And not only that if you compare the number of take-offs and landings he's done v.s. other high time pilots he likely vastly exceeds them, that vanc/vic run is what 30 minutes? and if I remember correctly they never went very high .. sometimes veeeeery low around my parents house in oak bay 
Actually just heard the other day about the victoria and vancouver harbours getting noise etc. complaints from the rich folks in those million dollar condos that are springing up.. sigh..

Actually just heard the other day about the victoria and vancouver harbours getting noise etc. complaints from the rich folks in those million dollar condos that are springing up.. sigh..
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
My hat is off for you Jim. Flying the Van to Vic run in the winter is probably one of the most demanding missions in aviation. Every one of those hours was well earned.
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
All the best for your retirement, Jim. Worked with you at Airspan back in the dark ages...
"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Regarding the "most demanding mission" part, that's an overstatement if I've ever heard one! There's definitely some lousy days but by and large the bigger challenge is not becoming complacent.whisair wrote:My hat is off for you Jim. Flying the Van to Vic run in the winter is probably one of the most demanding missions in aviation. Every one of those hours was well earned.
Last edited by ragbagflyer on Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Check out the headset. DC - probably an H10.3. Guess that answers anyones questions for which headset to buy. I like the GO PRO camera on the dash too.
If a pilot walked into a forest and had to make a decision, and no one from AVCANADA was there. Would the pilot still be wrong?
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
does anyone know how many hours Ray Camron has in T.O. I think Devlin might be close but Ray might have him?
Panama Jack wrote:I'm afraid I will have to agree with aviator2010
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Ray may have more twin time.. but not on floats.
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
All the best Jim
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
Average government employee works 70,560hrs in 35 years....
Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
It was an honour to fly with you Jim!
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
42,000 hours? Is it possible to like flying that much?
I'd probably be bored after 10,000 but I'd like to find out for myself.

I'd probably be bored after 10,000 but I'd like to find out for myself.

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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
41,683 hours to go... 

Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
High Flyin. And 65000 of those hours is spent putting up road blocks, red tape, and jumping through hoops for those that pay their way. So it's not really productive working hours then is it.
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Re: West Coast Twin Otter pilot retires with 42,000 hours .
How many duty hours did he put in to log those 42,000 hours? I'd suspect you could almost double it.High Flyin wrote:Average government employee works 70,560hrs in 35 years....