Logging flight time

[rodsmith]

May seem like a strange question, but what is standard for logging flights. Takeoff to touchdown? I've heard tailwheel pilots say it's appropriate to log from start up to shutdown. I looked in FAR part 61 and there is no definitive answer that I could find.

[AKKen07]

The common practice is startup to shutdown

[alaskabearhawk]

FWIW, I have a Hobbs meter with an oil pressure switch. That’s what I base my flight time on.

“For a private pilot logging flight time, a "flight" is considered to be the period from the moment an aircraft begins moving under its own power for the purpose of takeoff until it comes to a complete stop after landing, essentially encompassing the entire time the aircraft is airborne, including taxiing on the runway; this is defined by the FAA regulations regarding pilot logbooks, specifically FAR 61.51.“

[Nev]

Yep, what alaskabearhawk said above (start up for the purposes of taking off) to shutdown, for the pilot logbook, also often referred to as Hobbs and run off a Hobbs meter.

Wheels off to wheels on (tacho) for the aircraft logbooks. The Garmin / Dynon type setups use a choice of oil pressure or RPM, and IAS or ALT gain as triggers.

[svyolo]

I have to confess to asking the exact same question to a group of Sunday morning coffee hangar mates a couple of weeks ago. Not just my logbook, but for the aircraft as well. "Somebody else" told me what my time was since 1988........

[rodsmith]

Thanks guys, that is what I was thinking, but wanted to verify.

[500AGL]

On an interesting side note to this discussion, if you use Foreflight to auto-record track logs, it will "back-date" the start time to when you started flight planning. (This is something new)

An example is you hopped in the plane and prior to start, you opened up Foreflight and laid out a route to a destination. Then you fired up the plane, completed your checklist, taxied out and took off. Since you have the track log record feature set to Auto, it starts recording over your preset speed. But, the difference now is once you depart and it started recording, it looks back and records the start time when you started using Foreflight.

After the flight you can open the track log and see an "idle time" that's longer than just the pre-flight check after engine start.

I discovered this once as I had planned out a trip in the office, got distracted and didn't close foreflight, so when I took off it thought I had been "planning" for 2 hours.

pb