There's been some debate on that point. I'm trying to find the FAA interpretation I read awhile back...but it basically said if you return to the gate and don't fly, you're taxi time doesn't count for squat.

Edit: It wasn't an FAA interpretation, but an ALPA one. Take that for what it's worth. Personally, I'm of the belief that the taxi time DOES count, but ALPA must be getting their interpretation from somewhere.

http://cf.alpa.org/internet/projects...ftdtguide.html

 

Interesting. My company computer system tracks it towards your limits, which is the safe thing to do I suppose.

 

If I start a taxi with the intention to take off - regardless of if my wheels actually leave the pavement - I log it, get paid for it, and count it towards flight time limitations.

 

what exactly is not clear about it?!?! its black and white! you dont log and it doesn't count towards flight time limits unless you takeoff. i swear some people either dont comprehend very well or just choose to look too deep into things. i dont get it.

 

I think YOU are the one who is daft.

That interpretation (and the one that I am most familiar with and the one that I believe the FAA most commonly references) says that FLIGHT TIME is any time from when the aircraft moves under its own power with the intention of flight. So as soon as you fire up an engine and start rolling on your own power for the purpose of going flying, that is FLIGHT TIME. If you gate return, all that taxi time is STILL considered flight time because the intent to go flying was there.

If we follow your train of logic which states that taxi time is NOT considered flight time, you could fly for 6 hours and end up in JFK. Then taxi for 3 hours before the flight is canceled and you return to the gate. Then the company could LEGALLY reassign you to another 2 hour flight for a grand total in the cockpit, moving around with pax on the plane of 11 hours? I don't think so bub.

 

I guess some of you guys stop logging flight time after you land and have to hold short of the parallel, eh? After all, that would be when the aircraft "comes to rest after landing."

 

It's not black and white at all.

This part is clear: "Pilot time that commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight"

This part is not: "and ends when the aircraft comes to rest
after landing"

I think we all agree on when flight time starts.

But when does it end? Not clear at all...When you get to the gate? What about when you come to rest after taxiing clear but still waiting for taxi clearance? If you read the reg verbatim that's what it says...

The reg doesn't even cleary identify when flight time ends for a normal flight, much less a return-to-gate. In a return-to-gate the reg seems to give us a start time, but no ending.

The way you deal with FAR's like this is by going with the historical precedent, hopefully defined by something in writing from the FAA. In criminal law you could drive an A380 through a loophole this big....but in Admin Law ambiguities are almost always resolved in favor of whatever the agency in question desires. Many pilots have found this out the hard way by challenging FAR interpretation in front of the NTSB.