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How do you log flight time?


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With your budget going from $5.9 billion to a FY17 of $3.6 billion, you all will be logging a whole lot of nothing next year!

 

Sorry...too soon.

 

Yea, I read that. Good thing the Flippers are getting 13, brand new MYII Ch47s in April. And we are fully funded, so I am flying 40 hours a month as an IP.

 

Next year? Who knows. If I dont fly, this job sucks.

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Then under whose power are they spinning and for what purpose?

 

Would you count an airplane's propellers turning as "moving under its own power"?

 

Until the fuselage starts moving with the intention of taking off (for those helicopters with wheels...skids are pretty obvious), it's not flying. Otherwise, you could start the rotors going at low idle and just build your hours at a nice, fuel efficient rate. Hobbs probably isn't going, so you don't even have to pay for the rental!

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Would you count an airplane's propellers turning as "moving under its own power"?

 

Until the fuselage starts moving with the intention of taking off (for those helicopters with wheels...skids are pretty obvious), it's not flying. Otherwise, you could start the rotors going at low idle and just build your hours at a nice, fuel efficient rate. Hobbs probably isn't going, so you don't even have to pay for the rental!

I was just asking how is the rotor spinning and why, according to the FAA?

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I was just asking how is the rotor spinning and why, according to the FAA?

 

It's a silly question. The FAA doesn't care if the rotor blades are spinning under their own power or in an autorotation. The fuselage moving under its own power (not being moved by a tug), and doing so for flight, not to taxi to the other side of the ramp (in the case of a wheeled helicopter).

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It's a silly question. The FAA doesn't care if the rotor blades are spinning under their own power or in an autorotation. The fuselage moving under its own power (not being moved by a tug), and doing so for flight, not to taxi to the other side of the ramp (in the case of a wheeled helicopter).

Does the FAA actually say "fuselage", because that's not in the definition of flight time?

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Does the FAA actually say "fuselage", because that's not in the definition of flight time?

 

Well unless you start counting any moving piece as flight time, the fuselage is the "aircraft" (which it does say). The rotors are just a part of the aircraft, just as the prop on an airplane, or the Compressor blades/fan on that type of engine (not applicable to helicopters, but these are broad definitions that don't discriminate on type of engine or method of lift production). The APU is also only a part of the aircraft that doesn't move the aircraft under its own power (i.e. the fuselage) but just a part (the APU generator, and its own internal mechanisms), which you pointed out above.

 

Since you asked, the FAA says "aircraft". It doesn't say "rotor blades" or "engines" or "propeller".

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Does the FAA actually say "fuselage", because that's not in the definition of flight time?

No, they use "aircraft." As in the entire aircraft movement.

 

This was covered 10 years ago by the Chief Counsel and several threads on here as well. The FAA mentions the plain language of the definition. I'd agree. Seems pretty logical to me that when they mean moving under its own power, the aircraft itself must have started movement from its resting position. Not sitting there vibrating because the blades are spinning.

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Flight time means:

 

(1) Pilot time that commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when the aircraft comes to rest after landing;

 

According to this definition "flight time" isn't just the aircraft in flight, but "pilot time" (the first 2 words) which is the time I begin acting as a pilot, which is when the "aircraft" moves under its own power "for the purpose of flight".

 

When I want to go fly I start the engine and engage the rotors. As they begin to spin (as they are part of the aircraft) it is moving under its own power. Why is it moving? Because I'm going to fly, not a maintenance run up, not just sitting there tweeting on my phone, but for the purpose of flight.

 

If I'm misunderstanding this definition I'd simply like to know why?

 

We're all typing at the same time, ha

Edited by eagle5
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Flight time means:

 

(1) Pilot time that commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when the aircraft comes to rest after landing;

 

According to this definition "flight time" isn't just the aircraft in flight, but "pilot time" (the first 2 words) which is the time I begin acting as a pilot, which is when the "aircraft" moves under its own power "for the purpose of flight".

 

When I want to go fly I start the engine and engage the rotors. As they begin to spin (as they are part of the aircraft) it is moving under its own power. Why is it moving? Because I'm going to fly, not a maintenance run up, not just sitting there tweeting on my phone, but for the purpose of flight.

 

If I'm misunderstanding this definition I'd simply like to know why?

 

We're all typing at the same time, ha

 

 

For the same reason that when you start the engines on an airplane and sit there and wait, you're not logging flight time. The *aircraft* is not moving under its own power. People seem to like getting wrapped around the axle that the rotors are turning, and they're wings, so they're producing lift, and thus flying, and blah blah blah. It doesn't matter. Until such time as the entire aircraft is moving under its own power, flight time hasn't started yet.

 

Don't read into the definition, assigning things about when you begin to act as pilot. You were acting as a pilot when you woke up in the morning and decided that you felt well enough to fly, and when you looked out the window and saw the weather probably looks good enough to make the drive to the airport. As you said, and I said, the rotors are PART of the aircraft, they are not the aircraft. The engines are part of it, too. So are the electrically operated gyros. None of those are *the* aircraft, and you don't seem to consider logging time when those are moving under their own power, so why would you want to log time because a different part (the rotor) is?

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