P1/P1S/PICUS/PUT etc
Hi,
Like many people I recently found myself totally confused by the old question of club or flying school checkouts and whether to log these hours as P1, P1S, PUT, PICUS etc etc. I was building hours towards the start of my ME rating and needed 70 hours P1, which I thought I had, until I dug into the issue a little deeper.
Working full time and flying relatively infrequently led to me having about 9 hours of flight time 'with an instructor' whilst they checked me out on the company's aircraft to check I was OK for solo hire. To be clear this is a checkout by the holder of a valid SEP rating, within the 90 day rule and legal to carry passengers - merely to check that you are competent before you solo hire. I have had these checkouts over a few years with 2 different flying schools/clubs, with 4 different instructors, and each time I have been instructed to log the checkout as P1S, which I did. The instructor, presumably, logged P1 since he was "supervising".
When I came to count my hours up, it occurred to me that the instructor must have logged these hours as P1, and counted the hours as his "in command" time, as I had. Obviously this can't possibly be right in a single crew aircraft, as we have both taken credit for the command hours. Digging further into LASORS and searching message boards like these we can deduce that P1S is purely for use in the event of a successful skills test, and cannot be used in any other capacity, or for any other company check. PICUS can't be used either. In fact, you can only log either P1 or PUT in this situation.
The result was that I found myself with 9 dubious hours - I could have scrubbed out the "S" and logged them as P1, but then I am 99% sure that my instructor would have logged P1, making my hours 'illegal'. In the event I frantically crammed 9 more hours in solo so that I could sleep at night with a clear conscience! This caused considerable inconvenience and, obviously, expense and worry as I was due to start my MEP a couple of weeks later.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the instructor logging P1, since he signed the aircraft out for the check and ultimately took responsibility for the flight, but my point is that there are several flying schools/clubs out there who clearly have absolutely no idea about what the rules are, and as a result are, possibly inadvertently, misleading students. I must have asked at least 5 instructors at two seperate unaffiliated schools and each were adament that I could log the hours as P1S, and the instructor could log P1.
In my opinion the CAA need to issue guidance on this subject, to the effect that it must be decided prior to the flight whether the instructor or the student logs P1, and the other must log either PUT (if a student) or SNY (if an instructor). Of course everyone is responsible for what they log, and I should have wisened up quicker, but it is confusing and it's easy to be misled or misinterpret the rules.
I'm surprised more people don't get to the end of, say, a multi-engine course, only to find that the CAA reject the application because the hours are logged incorrectly.
I know this is a thorny subject but I nearly came a cropper and I wouldn't like it to happen to anyone else.