CW5 Ken Jones' Time With Boeing Apaches Started With The A Model In 1986

Army Chief Warrant Officer Ken Jones has reached a milestone in his flying career to which many may aspire but no one else has reached. He's racked up 10,000 hours in Apache helicopters.

Jones was featured in a video posed to the Boeing website marking his accomplishment.

Flying 10,000 hours is like spending 416 days in the cockpit. Jones began his career flying Apache helicopters with the "A" variant in 1986. He served in the  Army and the Utah National Guard, completing three tours in Afghanistan and one tour in Kuwait.

Jones is currently an Apache instructor in the Utah National Guard supporting special forces training in the mountains and deserts of Utah.

During his tours of Afghanistan, Jones accumulated 2,270 combat hours in the aircraft. On one mission, he extracted five special ops soldiers who were aboard a Huey helicopter that was shot down by the Taliban.

Now, Boeing says that Jones is getting ready to fly its latest variant before he retires. "Boeing has made great progress on the Echo model," Jones said in an interview for the video. "It restored the performance of the original "A" model Apache, and then some, so it's a much faster aircraft."

(Image from Boeing feature video)

FMI: Boeing video