The Proper Measure For Logging Pilot Flight Time

How should we pilots be measuring total flight time for our logbook? It’s the Hobbs meter, right? Well, no—even though many of us were taught to log time that way. Nor is it the engine/tach hour meter. According to the regs, the proper measure of a pilot’s flight time for logging is the time from when the aircraft first moves under its own power (pulls away from parking) for the purpose of flight until the flight crew is no longer required to remain in the airplane after landing. Here’s why.

14 CFR 61.51(b)(1) requires that pilot logbook entries include “total flight time.” Whatever “flight time” means in that regulation is how we should measure it for our logbook entries. 14 CFR 1.1 defines “flight time”. That definition governs all of 14 CFR Parts 1 through 198 “unless the context requires otherwise.” 14 CFR 1.1. For Part 61, the context does not require otherwise—so let’s look at 14 CFR 1.1.

“Flight time” means “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.” 14 CFR 1.1. If you taxi away from parking for the purpose of flying the airplane, your flight time has begun. Even if you taxi away to a de-icing area, that time still counts without interruption as long as you remain on the airplane: your airplane has moved under its own power for the purpose of flight. Your flight time continues after landing, until the airplane comes to a rest—usually at parking or customs (or the gate, if you are an air carrier). The regs do not define an airplane coming “to a rest”. However, the FAA has clarified that flight time doesn’t terminate (aircraft does not come “to a rest”) if conditions require the flight crew to remain onboard after landing. So think of the airplane coming “to a rest” as meaning that flight crew can now step out of the airpane. For example, bringing the airplane to a complete stop on a taxiway after landing does not terminate the flight time. But landing and taxiing to customs, where the crew deplanes, does terminate flight time—and thereafter re-starting and taxiing to the FBO is not flight time because the aircraft was not moving under its own power for the purpose of flight.

So in a normal flight, your flight time begins as soon as the airplane begins moving under its own power (taxi from parking) until shutdown at destination parking (when the flight crew can step off of the airplane).

Here is how I efficiently manage logging flight time. I use ForeFlight for my logbook, and I have it set to automatically draft logbook entries. Before taxi, I assure that ForeFlight is up on my iPad EFB. When we pull out of the block for taxi, I press the “REC” button on ForeFlight’s map page. That starts a flight Track Log and sets the “Time Out” for a draft logbook entry. When we shutdown at parking after the flight, I press “REC” again on ForeFlight to stop the Track Log, which also sets the “Time In” for the draft logbook entry. Those two times—Out and In—are then where flight time begins and ends according to the regulations.

Sources: 14 CFR sections 1.1, 61.1, 61.51; FAA Legal Interpretation Letter dated 1, Aug. 5, 2016; FAA Legal Interpretation Letter dated Apr. 7, 2014; FAA Legal Interpretation Letter dated Apr. 29, 2004.