Hacker15e

Yes, the current 11-401 does allow INST time to be logged in "an accredited flight simulator or flight training device". I chased the AFI references down the rabbit hole a bit and couldn't find a list of which sims or FTDs were accredited.

Regarding what you quoted from my earlier post, I can't speak for the actual verbiage in 11-401 in whatever editions were available between 1998 and 2010, but of the 150-ish hours of F-15E WST time in my ARMS records, exactly two of the entries credited under INST and all of the rest was credited under SIM INST. Hard to believe that the ARMS folks would have been wrong the vast majority of the time; it is more likely that either 11-401 changed between then and now, or the F-15E WST was not an accredited simulator (non-moving with no visual, so not even a Level C equivalent).

That being said, one of the main points of this thread is OP's question, though, is "how do I explain this to the airlines?". 14 CFR doesn't allow "actual instrument" time to be logged in a sim, regardless of the fidelity of that sim. If your audience for your logbook is an airline application, it would be wise to understand this difference.

Personally, I logged military experience in my personal logbook using as close to the civilian definitions (or the "airline definitions", as the case may be) as I could for ease of translation to an airline app or discussion in an interview room. Although, as I've posted many times, unless you do substantial GA flying outside of the military or are so close to the minimum flight times that you need to, it ultimately doesn't seem worth it to even bring anything besides your ARMS reports to an airline interview anyway.

Phoenix21

That’s not particularly good advice if they’re looking for future flying employment on the outside. Many places limit or specifically exclude simulator flight time for applicants all together. Logging actual instrument time when in an simulator goes down the road of mixing excluded flight time in with acceptable flight time. Down the road they’re going to have to go back in and cut out the “actual” time they logged in the sim and potentially explain why their are hundreds of hours difference between what they logged and what they actually flew in an aircraft.

yeargab

No, they don’t cross streams. My initial point was just a quick reminder for any young AF pilots that aren’t familiar with the AFI11-401 that all Simulators are accredited for logging primary instrument time according to AFI 36-2251 (management of Air Force Training Systems). Those primary instrument hours logged in a simulator will NOT be included in your total primary Instrument hours that you claim as instrument time and print out to bring to your next interview. Im simply stating a procedure that many people get wrong when filling out a 781. This could be beneficial for young Guard or Reserve Lt’s trying to get their ATP or land their first regional and irrelevant for anyone else. That’s all. My advice for the main point of this entire post is have a good scanner app on your phone and scan every single 781 that has your name on it from day one. This is most helpful for heavy guys trying to figure out the infamous “how much PIC do I have?” question

ARAMP1

I only interviewed with one company so YMMV, but when asked about flight hours, I handed them my single page ARMS summary (I had my complete file with me just in case). They spent a total of less than 10 seconds looking at it and handed it back without asking me anything about it.