Ilyushin76
Your question gets asked with amazing regularity. There is a rather simple way to look at your ‘experience’ in terms of hours spent doing whatever it is you’re doing in an aircraft or simulator accumulating those ‘hours’. A simple YES/NO answer to your question as far as what to log and how to log it, isn’t so straight forward. Despite a variety of opinions, including mine.
Let's be honest, once you obtain your ATPL, no one gives a sh*t how you log what you log, except YOU. However, it just makes sense to divvy up your experience across the columns in your personal logbook sensibly so that YOU see what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. It’s YOUR record, easily explained to anyone. Including a prospective employer. Because, at some point, what you claim as your true qualifications and experience will come out on the flight deck for all to see. The same goes for a prospective employer once they open your logbook up for review.
You’ve already read from other posts that simulator time isn’t worth sh*t in a handbag.
Not so. All your simulator time should be logged. But again, it should be broken down and entered into the columns that make the most sense. There is also the very important requirement that when you claim simulator time it's flown in an “approved” device.
For example: a Level 6 or 7 ‘approved’ ATD/FTD. A Level C or Level D ‘approved’ FFS.
You can google any authority for ‘approved’ simulators. As examples, the Dash8-300 simulator in Downsview has an EASA ‘approved’ ID of EU-PT019/CU. The Dash8-300 simulator in Seattle has a Transport Canada ID of 187. The same Seattle Dash8-300 has an FAA ID of 1243. If you logged time in any of these simulators you’d use the applicable Authority device ID as the Aircraft Registration in your logbook.
Firstly, I’d recommend you log your time electronically then hand write it in your logbook. While there are many electronic logbooks out there, I highly recommend the mccPILOTLOG. You can do amazing things with this logbook. You can even separate your time logged in simulators if you ever had a need.
Time spent training, whether it’s in an aircraft or an ‘approved’ simulator is valuable. Keep an accurate record of both. Most Canadian logbooks, as previously stated, total columns 1 through 10 for total flight time. But be realistic, when logging simulator time be sure to claim only those flight hours that represent value if you enter them in any column between 1 and 10. Whatever you claim is up to you. It's your logbook. There are no violations or fines for tracking your experience. Only the numerous referees out there who think they know what you CAN and CAN'T log.
Sitting at FL350 at 40 West sending position reports every 40 minutes may be considered valuable experience. So is training in a simulator where in 40 minutes you can do a V1 cut, a single-engine instrument approach, a single-engine go-around followed by a second single-engine approach to a single-engine landing. Unquestionably, valuable experience. Record it. Don’t sell yourself short.
Don’t worry about whether or not somebody agrees with the way you log YOUR experience. An employer knows what they consider valuable. The numbers of hours in your logbook beyond the ATPL level doesn’t really mean a whole lot. It’s what you did while accumulating those hours so make sure you can illustrate that through your logbook.
Bottom line? If you're looking for a higher licence be very careful how you log your flight time. Make sure it is acceptable to your authority and always have your claim CERTIFIED correct.
...that's all I got.
Willie Everlearn