Can I Log This?
 

So earlier today, I taxied out and, during the run-up, discovered that my carb heat wasn't working. I tried everything I knew to fix it, but nothing worked (turns out the wire was broken), and I taxied back to the, ramp, switched planes, and went out and did my x-c flight as planned.

However, I did log quite a bit of time taxing out, trying to fix the problem, and taxing back, and was wondering if this time was still "loggable." I remember hearing somewhere that, as long as you intend to go flying, all time during that period can be logged, but I might be wrong. Please, help!

I think that technically you could, but if you are building time for a rating I would probably not.

In 121 (and 135?) you would have to log it, because it counts against your legal flight time limits.

I think the right answer here is a grey area...what do other folks think? Any DPE's?

I would log it since you had taxid out with the intention to fly. Where I do not log is if i specifically taxi out to do a runup after maintenance.

Part 91 I no longer log that stuff and typically if I take my plane up just to do one lap around the pattern to check something out I usually wont log that either since it is peanuts at this stage in the game but when you are building time every (legitimate) tenth counts towards your goal.

You are not being dishonest by wanting to log the time and it is your discretion I would tell my students whether or not you choose to do so.

I'm with rick and sgt about the time being logable... but I'm not sure if I, personally, would log it tho.

I guess on if it depends on if you had to pay for that taxi time or if your school (whoever owns the plane) paid for it... if you had to pay, log it, if you didn't, I wouldn't log it... IMHO

I could be wrong, but my understanding was that you had to actually takeoff for the taxi time to count. You could taxi around for an hour, takeoff and do one lap around the pattern, and log the entire time as flight time, but since you switched planes before taking off, I don't think it's flight time.
From FAR 1.1:

Flight time means:
(1) 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

The fact that it says "after landing" seems to imply that you had to actually takeoff.

oil pressure = flight time.
duh

Thanks for all your suggestions, guys. I really appreciate it.

I went down to the airport and the general consensus amongst the CFIs there is that as long as you intend to fly, even if you never leave the ground, you can log it.

Just because something is loggable it doesn't mean you should log it. Keep this in mind for future reference especially if you plan on flying professionally.

Just ask Marc next time you are there. He is the resident DPE and a wealth of knowledge.

I totally agree however I do not feel that this would fall into the shady logging category. A student pilot intending to fly and then returning to the ramp for maintenance is legit in my oppinion. I used to teach at the airport he is training at and it is not a .1 issue at your small GA field it ends up being .3-.4 all said and done.

I think the shady logging category ends up with the safety pilot gig that all these schools run when you know that there is no hood involved on half the flights and they are just joy rides to such and such a field where they both log PIC. Or when a private pilot rides along in a King air 350 and logs it as dual recieved because the pilot is an ATP. The list goes on and on and we could all list countless examples. I just do not want to mislead this student pilot into thinking he is being dishonest in logging this time. In the end it is your logbook and to each is certainly own.

I've only time to look at 14 CFR 61.51, so my comments are based only on this.

First, I do not see in this section "intent" as being loggable.

Second, Sec 61.51 (b) talks about "logbook entries" like this:

(b) Logbook entries. For the purposes of meeting the requirements of paragraph
(a) of this section, each person must enter the following information
for each flight or lesson logged:
(1) General—
(i) Date.
(ii) Total flight time or lesson time.
(iii) Location where the aircraft departed and arrived, or for lessons in a flight simulator or flight training device, the location where the lesson occurred.

The conjunctive here implies the aircraft must have taken flight in order to be loggable.

Third, this section goes on to talk about solo flight time and PIC flight time. It does not appear to talk about non-flight time.

The original poster is still in the learning stages, and I well appreciate that any flight time is expensive to get. I think that if you, unlike me, have plans to work for an airline, you will need thousands of hours. And by the time you get those hours and find yourself sitting in an interview, this maintenance episode could be considered de minimis. You will have to decide for yourself whether logging this time is legally defensible if ever you get questioned on it.

Finally, I'd go with whatever TonyC says. :)