Logging to the nearest minute or 5 minutes?

[Sprawler]

I'm in the process of hour building before I start my CPL. For my PPL, most of the instructors that I flew with always used to round the time to the nearest 5 minutes but some used to make me log it to the exact minute. As I want to make sure my log book is as kosher as possible when presenting it to the CAA, what is the acceptable format? Rounding to the nearest 5 minutes looks neat and tidy but also looks unrealistic. I'm assuming the CAA would prefer the more accurate time or is rounding perfectly acceptable to them?

Many thanks,
Sprawler

[foxmoth]

For personal logbooks rounding taxi time to the nearest 5 mins is the norm (or.1/hr if using decimal)and accepted by the CAA. For AIRCRAFT logbooks it is AIRBOURNE to the nearest minute:hmm:

[rotatrim]

I log everything to the nearest 5 minutes and it has always been acceptable to the CAA. On some flights you lose a minute or two and on some you gain, "swings and roundabouts" as they say.

Datcons tend to count in decimals, so

0.1 = 5 minutes
0.2 = 10 minutes
0.3 = 20 minutes
0.4 = 25 minutes
0.5 = 30 minutes
0.6 = 35 minutes
0.7 = 40 minutes
0.8 = 50 minutes
0.9 = 55 minutes
1.0 = 60 minutes

[Milt]

Forget minutes.

Do it in decimal

And never use port or starboard.

Continue to use feet for altitude and spot heights.

I had to go through that conversion of IAS from mph to kts. Even had some of the same types on one or the other for a while.

Life wasn't meant to be easy!!

[Dusty_B]

I've always logged to the nearest 0.1, but may have shot myself in the foot:

During my IR course, the school logged in decimal, but to as good as to the nearest minute. As a result of rounding errors, whilst my training records show just over 50 hours course time, my logbook totals exactly 49.9 hours.

How anal are the CAA going to be about that??:uhoh:

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I put what's on the invoice and in any records that the aircraft owner might be keeping of my rentals. (I appreciate that nobody is ever likely to try to verify my logbook entries, but if they did they'd find that the audit trail adds up.)

So, as I've sometimes rented from people who charge by the five minutes and sometimes from people who charge by the tenth hour I've usually got some "odd" minutes. (I've never met anyone who charges by the minute.)

[Halfbaked_Boy]

Sometimes I have gone to four decimal places to make it as accurate as possible! For example... 25 minutes is written as 0.4167 hours... just make sure the CAA understand it might be worth popping a little note at the top of the first page saying how you're writing in the hours.

[S-Works]

nearest five minutes is enough taking it to a million decimal places and putting notes to explain is just anal. The CAA is apparantly staffed by real human beings who are quite happy to accept the sign off of the CFI.

Perhaps people should concentrate less on doing everything in minimums and more on quality?

[englishal]

0.1 = 5 minutes
0.1 = 6 minutes ;)

I log decimal hours, makes life so much easier. There really is no need to get stupid about this, the CAA and FAA have no problem with my logging.

[S-Works]

I log my airframe and engine in decimals but for some reason have always hours and nearest 5 minutes for flying log book.

Not sure why but there are way too many hours under the bridge now to change habbits!

:O

[A and C]

If you are flying in a place that uses datcoms you are flting in the wrong place !.

The nearest 5 min is good enough.

[Final 3 Greens]

Sometimes I have gone to four decimal places to make it as accurate as possible! You're flying a light aeroplane, not the Starship Enterprise - Starfleet Central Control may not be happy if you log to the nearest 5 minutes or .1 of a decimal hour, but the CAA will be perfectly relaxed ;)

[NinjaBill]

If there are 3600 seconds in an hour, and you are logging to the nearest 1/10,000th of an hour, you need to be right to within about a 1/3rd of a second.

This raises a few questions, like do you log from when you turn the started motor, or when the engine turns under its own power. Does your plog have enough spaces to log start time as 13:24:38.2. Does your watch have a 1/10th of a second hand?

If you have 6 25 minute flights which is two and a half hours, you get 2.5002, which pus you log book 2/10000s of an hour out. Could you live with this level of inacuracy?

[Halfbaked_Boy]

which pus you log book 2/10000s of an hour out.

Errr, who goes more innacurate than like 1/10,000th of an hour out? :p

Oh yes, FTG, the Warrior is my little Enterprise!

Cheers,

Jack.