Prepare for take-off ... and landing: world's shortest air route

[Mark Grima]

Originally Posted by Greg M

"A pilot who has completed the world's shortest scheduled flight more than 12,000 times is to take to the skies over Orkney for the last time."

Rather interesting this. Based on 2 minutes per flight and 12,000 flights, this is only 400 hours, nothing at all in comparison to most commercial pilots i'm sure. (Granted he would have flown other longer routes etc and thus i'm sure has a more impressive log book than 400 hours...)

However, surely at 12,000 take offs and landings (plus) there wouldn't be to many more experienced commercial pilots out there.

Cheers

M

[Rob Fluke]

Going back a few years, Virgin Blue 737 Brisbane to Gold Coast (Flying up from Sydney had diverted to Brisbane due to storms) I think was only 7-10 minutes....

[Mick F]

12,000 to be honest Mark, isn't really thaaaaaat many over the career of a commercial pilot. I've got nearly 5,000hrs and at a guess, I reckon I've probably done 6-7,000 landings. Never counted so couldn't give an accurate figure. The average total time of a pilot by the end of his/her career could be around 20-30,000hrs. Depending on what they did during their career.

Mick

[Mark Grima]

Thanks Mick. Interesting for me to read seeing as though I don't fly.

Cheers

M

[Glenn M]

When I worked for East Coast Airlines in 1985 I think, which became Eastern, Eastern Australia and now Qantaslink, some of their flights from Newcastle to Sydney went via Maitland or vice versa. I think the Willy-Maitland sector was about 7-8 minutes in the Bandit and I travelled on that many times.

[Justin L]

Here is another really short flight which will start in April. A 10 minute hop from Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia to be flown by FlyNiki.

http://roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/01...rth-your-time/

Maybe only really practical for connections?

[Thomas Collins]

Have done Avalon to Tullamarine on the A320 once.

[Grahame Hutchison]

My shortest flight was ferrying a Cessna 172 from Bankstown to Hoxton Park, just over 12km as the crow flies. The exciting part was there was no door on the left side, and I remember checking my seat belt several times before take off - 1500ft is a long way down.

[Rob R]

Back in my GA days I had to very numerous aircraft (including turboprops) SY-BK-SY.

The BK-SY flight could take up to 30-40 mins, but SY-BK could be done in around 10 mind or less. My quickest flight (in a turboprop) was taking off in 16R, on contact with DEPs I reported BK in sight and they cleared be direct to final for 29R. Flight time was 5 mins.

Also while in GA I used to fly a freight aircraft on the BK-PEC-WLM-MND (and return) with the PEC-WLM and WLM-MND legs taking 6-8 mins.

A few years latter when I moved to regional airlines we routinely flew sectors around 10 mins in turboprops.