150 hours

One reason I never wanted a twin engine plane before was that I always felt that you needed have a certain level of activity to make the plane safer.  Yes you get a lot more capability but when something goes wrong, the redundancy only helps if you know what to do and you do it correctly.

I used to fly 80-100 hours a year and I never felt that was enough to stay sharp.  As of today I have flown 163.7 hours total and 150.1 in the Baron this year.    I have a few more days left and expect to hit around 170 total.

I had been flying 160-200 hours a year in the Bonanza so I expect to stay in this range with the Baron.  In the new year I have some new missions planned for the plane now that I am through my initial training and familiarization.

Today I went for a flight to enjoy the holiday and to reach the 150 hour milestone.  I was alone and light on gas, only half tanks.  This made for a quick takeoff and climbing through 1000' I backed the power back to about 45% total.  The plane still climbed nicely at 300-400 fpm and I was soon at 4500' heading across the state sipping fuel.  Ok 19 gph but sipping for a twin.

It was a clear and smooth day and I went far enough to see the other coast.  Yes there is water on both sides.  The flight out was a bit slow with 20 knot headwinds but I had a nice push home.  It was such a nice day I swung out towards the beach before heading in to land.

Winds were down 23 and I set up for a short field landing to make the turn off at 1500'.  Vref was calculated at 81 but it was a bit gusty so I was flying 83-85.  These are close to Bonanza speeds and with the headwind I easily could have stopped in 1000' but let let it roll until the turn off.