FLYER Forums

After just having my IR(R) application rejected by the CAA for the second time I have a query for you all...

Do you log flight time as decimal (a flight from 0900-1015 as 1.25 hours) or Hrs:Mins (same flight as 1:15).

The second rejection was due to the fact that I apparently don't have enough hours logged.
After playing around with the figures in my digital logbook, I've worked out what they've done - they've added up the following flight times:
1
0.9
1
1
1
1.8
1.1
1.25
1.1
1.5
1.5
1
1.1
...and come up with 12hrs 55mins.

Not withstanding the fact that the actual flight times are just to the left of the flight time for them to confirm - surely no-one logs flight times of 1hr 1min?

Well I come up with 15.25 hours.

Question - are you certain that your conversion from hours:minutes to decimal is absolutely accurate?

If yes, then I think they person at the CAA is unable to either add up or use a calculator.

Get your CFI to counter sign your adding up - and re-submit.

I always used hours and minutes and round up or down to the nearest 5 minutes using standard rounding.

SteveC wrote:I always used hours and minutes and round up or down to the nearest 5 minutes using standard rounding.

Me too, because it seems easiest.

However, decimal hours are allowed and work well too.

The problem that the OP has caused the person adding it up at the CAA is because of the '1.25' entry. A decimal entry of time must be to the nearest 0.1 hour. So 1.25 isn't allowed and a time of 1hour15minutes should have been entered as 1.3 hours.
Seeing 1.25 has caused the CAA to say "oh, these must be minutes"

HTH

SteveC wrote:I always used hours and minutes and round up or down to the nearest 5 minutes using standard rounding.

We used to do that for the tech log... the trouble was that some members of the group could not add up or take away. This was exacerbated when a group member used the GPS flight times to the minute which made the columns not end in 0 or 5!!

What sort of idiot would assume

a) 0.1 is the same as 0.01
or
b) 0.1 is hours/minutes when your job is looking at logbooks where that would be expressed as 0:01

when no one would book a flight if one minute duration anyway?

A CAA one?

Ring the department that refused your hours and ask to speak to the supervisor.

Peter

I log my flight times in Hours & Minutes, but have always suffixed the relevant numbers with H and M to avoid confusion (i.e. 1H 35M)

I would be very amused if your "9minute" flight was between two different airfields 90 odd miles apart... Fastest PA28* in the world?

Regards, SD..

(*insert GA type of choice here.)

My logbook has, after the totals on each page, the text "mins/decimal" with the idea that you cross out whichever you're not using.

When I began my PPL my instructor taught me to use decimal. Looking at it in the round now, I think I'd rather be using minutes. I did contemplate changing when I began a new page in my logbook recently, but decided not to bother as I'd probably mess something up shortly afterwards.

lobstaboy wrote:The problem that the OP has caused the person adding it up at the CAA is because of the '1.25' entry. A decimal entry of time must be to the nearest 0.1 hour. So 1.25 isn't allowed and a time of 1hour15minutes should have been entered as 1.3 hours.
Seeing 1.25 has caused the CAA to say "oh, these must be minutes"

HTH

Oh! I've always used:
00 - 0.0
05 - 0.1
10 - 0.2
15 - 0.25
20 - 0.3
25 - 0.4
30 - 0.5
35 - 0.6
40 - 0.7
45 - 0.75
50 - 0.8
55 - 0.9

Whilst not quite perfect, I could see the logic - what does you conversion chart look like then?

I was taught and have always used:

00 = 0.0
05 = 0.1
10 = 0.2
15 = 0.3
20 = 0.3
25 = 0.4
30 = 0.5
35 = 0.6
40 = 0.7
45 = 0.7
50 = 0.8
55 = 0.9
60 = 1.0

I use decimal hours - much easier to add up.

I round up 15 minutes to 0.3 but I round down 45 minutes to 0.7.

How many hours of instrument flying did you log?

Was the 15¼ hr to which you refer the total flight time, or the IF time? For the IR(R), the requirement is not less than 15 hr of instrument flying - which obviously does not include taxying, take-off, bad weather visual circuit etc.....