Can I log these hours?

[737pammy]

I was a member of the Air Training Corps way back when, and flew about 10 hours in Chipmunks. Can I legally log these hours as pilot under training?

[Chinchilla.612]

Hiya,

I posed that question to the CAA a few years ago, and the answer I was given was that I could..... but only if the pilot held a Civilian FI rating and the flights were logged as instructional sorties.

So basically the answer is no we can't claim those Air Experience hours from when we were cadets.

All the best.

Chinchilla.

[Send Clowns]

I believe that's out of date. As far as I am aware (and it worked for me) the CAA now accept all military hours on any aircraft of a type on the civvy register, as long as you are entitled to log that class (so ruling out twins if you don't have 70 hours P1). Anything else must be negociated with the CAA.

My advice: contact the CAA. DIfficult job, getting through, but try it!

[Heffer]

I claimed all my chipmunk, bulldog and vigilant hours in my log but they didnt affect the hours i flew for CPL/IR and also had PPL so CAA probably didnt pay much attention!

[LFS]

You can certainly log the hours, the only real question is whether they can be counted towards a licence. They are definately worth getting in your log book. I am not too sure about the rules now although I think accreditation is restricted to QSPs and graduates of a JEFTS course.

[Scoob]

I logged my 8 hours in buldogs and chipmunks. Never knew if it was a FI flying with me. If I were you I would put them in there, count them towards your total and it would have to be someone with a pretty big stick up there *** to care. Save yourself £1000 and stick them in. If you do have a problem later just do another 10 hours. It will not be detrimental to obtaining a license as it is a reasonable thing to do.

[BEagle]

If you claim those air experience passenger hours as flight under instruction, beware that you could then be falsifying your PPL application.

An offence which, on conviction, could lead to a £2000 fine and/or 2 years' imprisonment. It is hardly something to take lightly. And it's clearly stated on the PPL application form.

If the pilot wasn't a RAF QFI or a civil FI at a Registered Facility, those hours of yours were passenger hours!

[737pammy]

I already have my PPL, I was just considering adding it to my total time.

[Jinkster]

I've logged my cadet hours - sent the logbook and 3822 to CAA when I applied for my PPL. Everything was ok and came back with no errors!

Looking forward to filling those job apps out with military hours in a Bulldog and Vigilant :p

[Piltdown Man]

That's because they didn't look at it! Why don't you chaps just sit at the end of a runway and log the flying that you see as yours? That might even give you heavy jet time! You could also log all the hours you've spent on Microsoft Flight Sim. If your amateurish approach to recording flight time is refected in your flying ability, please tell me when and where you are committing aviation - unless of course it's imaginary like your hours!

[737pammy]

As stated in my above post, I already have my PPL, did 45 hours with the one training organization, didn't even think about those hours at the time due to them being so long ago. Will also soon be doing my CPL, ME & IR, all of which I will be flying the full complement of hours required.

What I really want to know is whether there is anything wrong with logging these hours (in the hours-building, non-P1 sense?). A trial lesson counts towards total time, and what does one do during that? Not an awful lot!

Anybody got the official line on this?

[Alex Whittingham]

I don't have the official line but I suspect it would be that you can only log your Chipmunk hours if you were flying with a QFI. If not it cannot be considered to be under instruction and you were, legally, no more than a passenger. A trial lesson may not achieve much but you were flying with an FI.

If you falsify your logboook you'll get away with it nine times out of ten. On the tenth time they will catch you and you'll never fly for gain again. Don't do it.

[BEagle]

If I recall corectly, I had an hour on a PA-22, 1:45 in the coal-hole of a Sea Vixen, another hour in an Auster and a couple of trips in a Tiger Moth before I did my PPL.

Did I log them? They were all air experience flights and, apart from the Sea Vixen trip, I had a go at the controls on each trip. But to consider them as 'hours building' non-P1 sense hours? Of course not - I was merely a lucky passenger.

[silverknapper]

I tend to agree with the don't crowd on this one. You have a PPL and are continuing training - I don't see how much benefit they'll be in the long term. By the time you do the required hours for the CPL and IR I can't see you being short on dual hours. It also brings the question where do we draw the line. Looked at my old 3822, and have AEF flights in chipmunks when I was 13. Adding it all up I have 30 odd hours - all before I was 17. To log these I think would be laughable, indeed I hadn't even considered it till this post.

[paddyboy]

This thread is becoming rather remanicent of the Panini sticker syndrome suffered within the school playground.

"Got ,need ,got ,got ,need.. .

Many moons ago, post PPL I garnished my logbook with numerous P1/P2 hrs in my mates brand new flex-wing microlight jobby...

And I did actually take off, fly and land this contraption!

Problem is, matey was not a FI so so my heaving logbook was returned with the CPL application attempt.:(

More £££'s equated to less hours...:{

[737pammy]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I've decided to play it safe & not do it, not worth jeapordising my (hopefully!) future career over.

737P

[Piltdown Man]

Good man! But how about some prep work to impress potential employers? Get your self up to date with at least the UK's publications on ais.ork.uk and other such niff naff and (at times, rather worthwhile) trivia. Totally free and it works rather well.