Tenth of hour

[run]

Easy question. I am a european pilot wanting to convert my hours to "american standard" ie 10th of hour. I have seen two different ways. Which is correct?






0-3 = 0.0
4-9 = 0.1
10-15 = 0.2
16-21 = 0.3
22-27 = 0.4
28-33 = 0.5
34-39 = 0.6
40-45 = 0.7
46-51 = 0.8
52-57 = 0.9
58-60 = 1.0

or

1-2 = 0.0
3-8 = 0.1
9-14 = 0.2
15-20 = 0.3
21-26 = 0.4
27-33 = 0.5
34-39 = 0.6
40-45 = 0.7
46-51 = 0.8
52-57 = 0.9
58-60 = 1.0

[Bealzebub]

Ask yourself who cares ?
Just take it to the nearest 6 minute block, be it up or down. At the end of the day it is only a minor bit of adjustment. I have always used decimal logs and one day a 2hr 33 min flight may be logged as 2.6 hrs the next day it might be 2.5 hours. I am sure that over the course of the last 15,000 odd hours it all evens itself out in the end.

[run]

Well - I do - else I wouldn't be asking would I?

I am in the process of writting several thounsand logbook lines into an electronic version and would prefer to get it right.

[Bealzebub]

Sorry I thought I was being helpful.
Clearly you cannot get it right unless the block time is divisible by 6 minute units ( unless you use two decimal places !) Given your need to achieve micro accuracy you could convert them to the nearest decimal unit of 6 minutes then keep a running total of a plus and minus column to achieve a sort of running balance.

good luck (don't get too bored. )

[run]

I guess you are not logging time in tenths yourself. There is one right way of doing this. I flew a couple of years in the states and remember there was a table in the aircraft log (Form 781) that showed exactly how to make the transition.(Just like the table examples in my post)
With a couple of thousand flights it could make a significant difference.

[Bealzebub]

I guess you are not reading my replies. I have been logging hours in decimals for over 15,000 hours (27 years). Anyway whatever you decide have fun

[AerocatS2A]

I had always been under the impression that you round up if it's half way, so 3mins is 0.1 and 2mins is 0. That is how I do it anyway.

[scroggs]

Would it not be sensible to start a new, American-format, logbook, and transfer your current hours to that logbook in decimal format? That is, rather than trying to re-log each and every flight, take your current total and start the new logbook with that total converted to decimals. That way the largest error you can possibly have is .05 hours (3 minutes) total!

Scroggs

[run]

Hi scroggs

Well the problem is I need to convert to civilian time (my current time is military - ie real flying time, wheels of the ground) to apply for the airlines.
It all depends on the Airline how much they allow you to ad and most of them want it logged line by line. On top of that PIC time is also different depending on what airline you apply for.
When I have all my stuff in a database it will be so much easier to ad conversion to each individual line.

[scroggs]

OK, I see your problem. Over here, the CAA and the airlines accept a ballpark 10 minutes per flight (fast jet and rotary) or 15 minutes per flight (heavies) as a reasonable conversion of miltary to civil hours - that took me some time to add up after 22 years in the military! Thank goodness I didn't then have to convert it to decimal.

However, once you've made the adjustments to calculate your civil hours total, I'd then start a new logbook (or computer program - I use an Excel spreadsheet) from then on. So, say if you have 3250 hours 40 minutes, after adding on the civil frig factor, then you start the new logbook with 3250.7 hours.

Anyway, hope you find an easy way of doing it! I strongly recommend the spreadsheet approach - I found my written logbooks (4 of them!) were 200 or more hours under the real total once I'd transferred everything over!

[4Screwaircrew]

I work to the first of your charts, copied from the tech log of an N reg aircraft flying on part 121 ops.

This seems to be a reasonably accurate method without useing 2 decimal places.