Top all-time · #10708
Maria Langer
Personal blog · aneclecticmind.comother
Maria Langer writes An Eclectic Mind, a personal blog at aneclecticmind.com. Since 2014, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 8 times, most often “The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-15, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Blog by pilot Maria Langer covering helicopter and aviation economics, including hourly operating costs and the realities of flying for a living. HN readers cite it as a source for helicopter cost figures.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Web site and blog for Maria Langer, helicopter pilot, content creator, jewelry artist, boater, and serious amateur photographer.
Most-linked posts?
- The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-04-29
What Hacker News says?
The operating cost per hour of an r44, according to some quick googling, is $190. The cost after ownership is too high, and probably the reason that everyone still has cars instead of helicopters in their garage. Reliability and maintenance will be the most important thing here and will determine their success. And that's notoriously tough in the aviation market. https://www.aneclecticmind.com/2010/12/28/the-real-co…
Comment linking /2010/12/28/the-real-cost-of-helicopter-ownership/
on “Regional Air Mobility: Why we don’t plan to operate flights under 20km”Submitted The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009) as a story · 147 points
HN discussionShe. Her name is Maria Langer, bio: https://www.aneclecticmind.com/bio/
Comment linking /bio/
on “The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009)”Submitted The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis. Exactly this is why it's significant. Even a small piston powered Robin helo is around $500 to operate per hour[1], and the smallest turbine powered ones are going to be around that figure just for the fuel: ~500 lb/h fuel consumption [2][3], JetA at > $6 / gallon [4]. So for one hour helo ops, you can purchase 2-3 parrot drones [5]. [1] http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2013/09/12/why-i-charge-545hou... [2] http:…
Comment linking /2013/09/12/why-i-charge-545hour-to-fly-passengers-in-my-helicopter/
on “Drone operator explains how he found missing man”Submitted Why helicopters don’t takeoff vertically as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFuel only makes up a small part of that $1000. The lion's share of the hourly charge goes towards paying off the amortised cost of buying and maintaining the helicopter itself. If you magically eliminated the costs for fuel and for the pilot, you're still probably paying $700+/hr. Source: https://www.aneclecticmind.com/2017/08/07/about-helicopter-f...
Comment linking /2017/08/07/about-helicopter-fuel-consumption/
on “The flying taxi market may be ready for takeoff: study”Submitted The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion