I haven't been keeping too close an eye on the ever-changing admin rules in all the changes.There seems little point, since they seem to change again every few months. However, at some point in the not too recent past we seem to have moved from the old "when it first moves under its own power until rotor stop" into this new version.
I am contemplating the effect of these changes, particularly in the context of flying school operations. Early time students presumably still spend forever between engine start and the first lift into the hover. If this is now "flight time" it must have considerably lengthened the average flight time to get a licence, and make it even less feasible to do the course in even anything approaching the set down minimum.
Have maintenance flying hours been aligned with these changes? I could imagine that there might be scope for a disguised price-hike on charge-out rate for some.
In a non-flying school context, does everyone include into flight time sometimes significant periods spent at flight idle? That would certainly cost some types of European operations dear?