Logbook Time Format

[CorsairPilot]

So I am new to this forum and aviation, so this might be common knowledge. Does it matter whether your time in your logbook is in hour-minute format or in tenths of an hour? Thanks.

 

[RyanB]

Tenths of an hour

 

[CorsairPilot]

Is that up to the individual or is it according to regulations? I flew with one instructor who did it in tenths, and another who listed it with minutes.

 

[Pilawt]

When I started flying it was all according to the grains of sand in the hourglass.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Doesn’t matter which you do. Tenths is more common in the U.S. from what I’ve seen, but minutes show up frequently elsewhere. Hobbs/tach time is in tenths, and that’s what a lot of us use for logging.

 

[Initial Fix]

Hours to the tenth is what you will use for all your FAA applications so I would stick with that format. Besides, doing the math in your logbook will be much easier than hour minutes.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Hours to the tenth is what you will use for all your FAA applications so I would stick with that format.

I’ve always just put what’s on the left side of the decimal point or colon…I’ve logged both ways.

 

[RussR]

You can track it however you like, there is no regulation on this topic. Hours and minutes seems to have been something done more often "back in the day", you will see older logbooks like this.

But I'd say within the last 30 years or more, hours and tenths has become pretty much standard in the U.S. It's far more common, and would strike most people as odd if you did it another way.

 

[jordane93]

Tenths is the norm.

 

[Charlie Golf]

Canadian pilots log time in metric.

 

[Dana]

I use hours and minutes because I've never owned a plane with a Hobbs meter, but they all had clocks.

 

[flyingron]

Nearly all recording tachs, hobbs meters, and other electronic timers in planes do tenths, so that's what we used.

 

[jnmeade]

Many glider pilots use hours -minutes. I used hours-minutes in my glider logs but when I enter in my pilots' log I use hours-tenths.

 

[GaryM]

French Revolutionary time: ten hours to the day, 100 minutes to the hour, and 100 seconds to the minute.

 

[Larry in TN]

Logging in h:mm was very common before airplanes had Hobbs meters. Now days, not so much.

You can use either system. The regulation only requires you to keep a reliable record. The problem with h:mm is that it lends itself to more errors in adding up the columns and you really aren't getting any benefit by doing it that way.

 

[flyingron]

And flight time is not defined by the recording tach or hour meter, though the FAA will accept that approximation.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

The way I do it is the only correct way.

 

[Sac Arrow]

I use degrees, minutes and seconds in my logbook.

 

[IK04]

How would you add up Hours and Minutes?

My total flight time would be 8,522 hours and 5,682,312 Minutes?


Taken from the Army Form: DA 2408-

 

[MauleSkinner]

Taken from the Army Form: DA 2408-

View attachment 100475

Because you build time faster if you always round up.

 

[IK04]

Because you build time faster if you always round up.

...And commercial operators will add 20% to your military logged time because of the way the fAA defines "flight time."

 

[MauleSkinner]

...And commercial operators will add 20% to your military logged time because of the way the fAA defines "flight time."

…and the FAA effectively doubles THAT to issue an ATP.

 

[AggieMike88]

When I started flying it was all according to the grains of sand in the hourglass.

"...so are the days of our lives"