Originally Posted by
Shadre Reevis
It is interesting that 121.436 does not specifically require flight hours to upgrade, it only says hours. Once the door closes you are still operating as a crew member with intention to fly, even if you are not 117 flying yet. Same principle with the old Hobbs meters running before movement. Block hours should be sufficient for logging purposes.
There is no maximum for block in FAR 117 AFAIK, the limitation only applies to flight time. So, I don't see why you couldn't block more than 8/9 hours as long as your flight time remains within limits. But if you do record more than 8/9 hours of block in a day (good luck with that), just be ready to explain the difference between block and flight time, and how you and your company keep track of each. On the RARE occasion that you ever get that much block, just make a small note of the day's total flight time in the logbook..
That's the best argument I've seen to support block vs flight.... you're absolutely correct 121.436 a.3 itself says "hours" which fully supports your argument. However 121.436 c says "(c) For the purpose of satisfying the
flight hour requirement in paragraph (a)(3) of this section, a pilot may credit 500 hours of military flight time obtained as pilot in command of a multiengine turbine-powered, fixed-wing airplane in an operation requiring more than one pilot." There's no other hour requirement in (a)(3) except the 1000 hrs, so I think we're forced to conclude that must be a flight hour requirement.
You're also correct as far as I know about there not being a
block hour limit in 121 or 117 but I'd still be careful about logging more than 9 hours a day in my logbook because I'm not real interested in having a block hour vs flight hour discussion in an interview. As we all know, block hour logging has been the standard but we didn't have a good way to track flight hours, now we do.