Confessions Of A Type Hunter

What, you may logically ask, is a type hunter? Well, they come in degrees, but a dedicated type hunter is a severely addicted person with a clear goal to fly as many different types of airplanes as possible. He or she can’t explain why. It just is.

- Budd Davisson

Part of the explanation might be rooted in the fact that flying a new airplane type is like meeting a new person. Each has its own personality and can challenge the pilot in learning its individual characteristics so as to make friends with it. It’s unknown how many different types of airplanes there are out there, but, given that aviation is now well over 100 years old, the types to be flown are endless.

I know it’s an addiction because for most of my life I’ve been at its mercy. So many airplanes, so little time. The net result is that I’ve acted as PIC (pilot in command), doing both the takeoffs and the landings, unassisted, of around 320 totally different types. And I mean totally different types. Subvariants of a type don’t count. A Cherokee, for instance, is a Cherokee whether it’s a 140, 180, or 235.