Just wondering,

How do you guys log long haul time? For instance, 2 crew operation on a 14 hour flight. You are the relief captain and you spend 6.5 hours in the bunk and 6.5 hours in the left seat in cruise. How much time do you put in your log book and how is it logged?

I'm an American B777 captain for a foreign airline. I'm just curious if the way it is done in my country is the same way I should be logging it in my USA logbook.

Thanks,
Got2Fly

I log the whole flight. Right or wrong I don't know. That's how I do it.

Additionally, Delta's log for FAR time shows full flight time too. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

I log the whole thing. That's what is shown when I pull up my flight times in our company's software. We also don't have designated relief pilots.

I spent the last three years at a foreign airline on the B747. That country required you to divide the time you logged by the amount of people flying. For example, three crew members operating a 12-hour flight would be eight hours in my logbook. For this reason, I kept two separate logbooks. In my US Jepp logbook, I logged the entire flight, as I was a required crew member operating as defined by the FARs. In my foreign logbook I only logged eight hours.

I think you are only suppose to log time in an operating seat minus physiological needs. If you are in the bunk for 2/3/4 hours or so, I do not think you log that time.

Instead of just thinking, why don't you actually look up the regulation???
FAR 61.51
That's the answer. Period.

How much of the flight are you the Captain?

When you're on break are you no longer the Captain? If there's a problem, the flight deck will call you to participate in any required decision, right? I'd log all of the time.

14 CFR 61.51(e)(iii). When the pilot, except for a holder of a sport or recreational pilot certificate, acts as pilot in command of an aircraft for which more than one pilot is required under the type certificate of the aircraft or the regulations under which the flight is conducted.

There may be two captains assigned to a trip. The one designated PIC logs all the time.

61.51(f)(1) pertains to second in command, in most cases a first officer. 61.55 states SIC qualifications. They can log the time they occupy the seat.

That said, savvy logbook reviewers may or may not take a dim view of a SIC from logging the entire time for a long haul flight.

How about 61.51(f)(2)? (1) and (2) are separated by an "or", not an "and".

It's a good question. The two captain/two F.O. answer is pretty simple to me. When you are in the left seat and the other captain is asleep in back you are PIC. When you are asleep in back the other captain is the PIC. Simple as that. It may not be the way the airline says to log it, but to me it makes the most sense. Your logbook is a record of your aeronautical experience so that time in the left seat with an F.O. in the right seat is PIC time. Time in the bunk is nothing and does not belong in the logbook in this example.

Example two would be one captain and two F.O.s on a 3 crew flight of 8-12 hours. Now there is only one PIC on the airplane. So you log the whole flight as PIC, even the time in the bunk.


Typhoonpilot