Can you log OH-58 time

Helihead · April 23, 2008

Hi, cant seem to find a straight answer to this one. If you are flying for a government agency. And they are using military surplus OH-58's. Can can you log that time, would the FAA recognize that, how about future employers? Would you log it as OH-58 or Bell 206 if you can. I just would like to know how that works.

helopilot2be · April 23, 2008

Hi, cant seem to find a straight answer to this one. If you are flying for a government agency. And they are using military surplus OH-58's. Can can you log that time, would the FAA recognize that, how about future employers? Would you log it as OH-58 or Bell 206 if you can. I just would like to know how that works.

As long as you already have your Private Pilot's Certificate (H). You can not log it toward initial training, however after that it is fair game. We log it as OH-58 (A, A+, or C). Most operators will know it is a B206. A partner of mine did all of his cross country hours toward his commercial in one.

Chris

rick1128 · April 23, 2008

Hi, cant seem to find a straight answer to this one. If you are flying for a government agency. And they are using military surplus OH-58's. Can can you log that time, would the FAA recognize that, how about future employers? Would you log it as OH-58 or Bell 206 if you can. I just would like to know how that works.

Yes, employers and the FAA recognize flight time in restricted category/public use aircraft. After all they accept military flight time in the same aircraft. The biggest restrictions seems to be who you can carry. As for training, it really depends. I have seen some agencies do initial training in TH55's and OH58's with no problem. I suspect it depends on the DPE and the Local FSDO. As for what type to log flights under, what does the airworthiness certificate say? I would use that designation and if it saids BH206, put a note in the remarks section at least for the first flight or two about it being an OH58.

500pilot · April 23, 2008

You can log any flight time you are flying the aircraft. However any time flown in the OH-58 cannot be used towards the hour requirements in getting a particular certificate unless you logged that time while in conjunction with your duties while flying it. What that means is, if you are trying to get a commercial certificate and need x amount of cross country flight, night etc you cant just go out and fly the aircraft around because you feel like flying. However if you are lets say a police pilot flying the OH-58 if you have a mission that calls for you to fly out at night to some podunk airport greater than 25nm you can now count that flight time towards the hour requirement towards a rating. (i.e. night cross country time) You can log any flight time meanwhile just it must be part of your mission to count it towards a rating. Hope this helps.

Helihead · April 23, 2008

Thanks everyone, good info.

Gomer Pylot · April 23, 2008

Why would mission requirements have anything to do with it? Flying is flying, whether you're renting an R22 to get the time or flying a police helicopter. The only time mission requirements would matter is if the police department was upset at your using its helicopter for personal flights. That could be a problem, but logging the flight time isn't. If the aircraft is flying, and you're manipulating the controls, you can log the time.

gr8shandini · April 23, 2008

Why would any time be discounted? I'm not sure if the gov't gets an exemption, but to conduct commercial operations, the aircraft needs to be TC'd. So I don't see why logging time in a -58 is any different than any other helicopter. And even if it is given an experimental designation, there's still no difference than if you were flying a Rotorway.

Edited April 23, 2008 by gr8shandini

apiaguy · April 23, 2008

The reason you can't "just go out and fly" and log the time is the aircraft has no airworthiness certificate. It is being operated as a "public use" government operated aircraft and as such doesn't need an airworthiness certificate or rated pilot to fly it. So the problem is when you go fly to log time specifically for your rating and not in conjunction with the "public use".

Yes, if you are allowed to fly the aircraft for the police dept. or any other public use... by all means you can log that time and log it for a rating.

If your department is doing actual "training" you can go out and just fly around and log that time also.

gr8shandini · April 23, 2008

The reason you can't "just go out and fly" and log the time is the aircraft has no airworthiness certificate. It is being operated as a "public use" government operated aircraft and as such doesn't need an airworthiness certificate or rated pilot to fly it. So the problem is when you go fly to log time specifically for your rating and not in conjunction with the "public use".
Yes, if you are allowed to fly the aircraft for the police dept. or any other public use... by all means you can log that time and log it for a rating.
If your department is doing actual "training" you can go out and just fly around and log that time also.

Again, there may be an exemption I'm unaware of, but I'm reasonably certain that unless it's military, the FAA has to issue a CofA even if it's registered to the gov't. A quick search of registered -58s shows that most of them are even TC'd:

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/ac...mp;cmndfind.y=8

I'd say that if they let you fly it, then you can log it.

Edit: Upon further inspection, it seems that you are correct. No CofA's. I'd still go by the above statement, though.

Edited April 23, 2008 by gr8shandini

permison · April 23, 2008

Do what I did. Take your records down to the local FSDO (or call and fax your records). They approved mine right away. Make sure you keep the name of the person who approved them. I lost my log books and had to take Army training records and they approved with no questions. I even got a thank you for my service

Permison

Gomer Pylot · April 24, 2008

True, public use aircraft are not governed by the FAA. However, flight time is flight time. You can log military time, and no military aircraft have airworthiness certificates, nor is the maintenance governed by the FAA. You could log time in a foreign registered aircraft, which the FAA doesn't oversee, or in an experimental type. Logging time has nothing at all to do with whether the aircraft has a US type certificate or airworthiness certificate.