The recording of flight time is something that comes up all the time, and there are some discrepancies in the wording within various documents.
The ANO is quite clear on this, and overides anything within a JAA definition.
Section 1 Part IV of the ANO deals with recording of flight time in personal flying logbooks, and states that ' for the purposes of this article, a helicopter shall be deemed to be in flight from the moment the helicopter first moves under its own power for the purpose of taking off until the rotors are next stopped'.
In other words, you don't get to record the warm-up as flight time, but you do get the cool down and the blade rundown.
That's what it says, so that is what we must do....but I can think of a couple of issues with this. If you are in your ship, rotors running and warming up, you are not logging flight time according to the ANO, so are you deemed to be in command? I would think you are, and if so, its command time which must be recorded in your logbook as PIC....which is generally accepted as flight time for the issue of ratings etc.
If you are not deemed to be in command of all that rotating machinery because of the ANO definition, then who is in command? Would the CAA deem you to be in command if someone walked into your tail rotor whilst you are warming up, and prosecute you accordingly.....I bet they would, which makes a nonsense of the wording of the ANO.
Seems to me that it is reasonable to record the time that you are in command of the helicopter, as during this time you are performing your duties and of course are at risk if anything goes wrong......I think some common sense has to prevail, and if the CAA would consider you fair game whilst warming up, they could hardly tell you not to log the time.
Any input, Flying Lawyer - does it raise any legal issues ?