GOM newbie

[Schlong]

I just started in the Gulf and need to update the logbook. Hey I'm still new and these hours are valuable.

How does everyone else log this time?

I asked another forum what counts as cross-country. The answer I got was that there is no minimum distance, is that right? Every flight we do whether 10 or 100nm is cross-country.

I haven't found any reference to 135 ops.

[Gomer Pylot]

Cross country has nothing to do with Part 135. An ops check that returns to base isn't cross country, but pretty much everything else is. There is really no written definition of cross country time. There are distance requirements for the experience necessary to get a certificate, but if you have a commercial certificate, you don't need to worry about them. Most people tend to log cross country for the entire day's flight time, except for flights staying in the pattern or very close. It's up to you to decide what to log, but these are what I understand to be the usual guidelines, and what I've always used. The customer heliport may only be a mile or so away, but you're continuing on after the pickup there in most cases, so I count it, mostly because it's more trouble than it's worth to try to break out these types of flights.

[Schlong]

Thanks Gomer, another good informative reply.

[PhotoFlyer]

Excerpt from 61.1

 

(3) Cross-country time means—

 

(i) Except as provided in paragraphs ((3)(ii) through ((3)(vi) of this section, time acquired during flight—

 

(A) Conducted by a person who holds a pilot certificate;

 

( Conducted in an aircraft;

 

( C) That includes a landing at a point other than the point of departure; and

 

(D) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point...

 

...(v) For the purpose of meeting the aeronautical experience requirements for any pilot certificate with a rotorcraft category rating or an instrument-helicopter rating, or for the purpose of exercising recreational pilot privileges, in a rotorcraft, under §61.101( C), time acquired during a flight—

 

(A) Conducted in an appropriate aircraft;

 

( That includes a point of landing that was at least a straight-line distance of more than 25 nautical miles from the original point of departure; and

 

(C ) That involves the use of dead reckoning, pilotage, electronic navigation aids, radio aids, or other navigation systems to navigate to the landing point...

Edited November 11, 2007 by PhotoFlyer

[Gomer Pylot]

That's specifically for the purpose of meeting the requirements for the issuance of a certificate. Once you have the certificate, that no longer applies. You aren't required to log any time other than that used to meet the requirements for the issuance of a certificate or rating, but you can, and how you log it is really up to you. If Schlong is flying for a GOM operator, he obviously already has a commercial certificate, so logging the time is only for the purposes of getting a real job (as we used to say) or for his own amusement. 61.1 doesn't really apply for that, and the usual practice, AFAIK, is to log pretty much anything out of the traffic pattern, or away from the base. I'm not religious about not logging time as cross country even if the landing is at the same place as the takeoff, because I've flown a hundred miles or more offshore, been unable to land for weather or something else, and had to return to base. Don't even try to tell me that isn't a cross country flight. It's also common to fly a mile or so to a customer heliport, pick up passengers, and then fly offshore, and drop them off there on the way back. You may also fly very short flights between platforms offshore, sometimes just a few hundred yards. Breaking out that short flight, and the 2 or 3 minutes of flight time, is just more trouble than it's worth, so nobody bothers most of the time. Some of us are more religious than others, so follow your religion and do what you think is right.