Do u guys log decimal time?
 

Having searched PPRuNe I can't seem to get a definitive answer on this... Do airline pilots log time in decimals?
GA pilots tend to log time in minutes (to the nearest 5). As a wannabe looking to go commercial should I be logging in decimal time? I was taught minutes but having met a commercial pilot who logs in decimal now I'm not sure..

cheers!
digga

What you could do is fill in your log book in hours and minutes untill you've got your ATPL and yes, just round up or down to the nearest 5 minutes. Personally, I would be conservative here.

Once you've got your ATP and you don't feel like writing that much, then by all means write in decimals, once again rounding up for block time (personal log book) and rounding down for flight time (company A/C log book)

These are just my personal thoughts. Everybody has his or her own style and that's what flying is about.

We tend to round up or down to five minutes too.

Don't know about log-book time logging but some time ago I worked for a company that operated a flexi-time system based on 6 minute 'slots' (i.e. tenths of an hour). This led to the situation that happiness was clocking on at 08:59:59 (i.e. 08.9) and misery was clocking on at 09:00:01 (09.0), having lost a tenth of an hour over the couple of seconds.

It also led to odd conversations when you asked someone what time it was. They would always reply 'three point two' rather than 'quarter past three'.

Personally, I fly commercially and log decimal. More accurate, and what I'm used to.:8

I have seen both used, it seems to be a matter of personal preference and where you learned. If you do use decimals, don't forget that you have to work to 2 places (according to the notes in the log book I have) so you should get fairly good accuracy.

Personally I was taught decimals and have used them since. I look at minute people and think 'perhaps I should do it that way' :-)

The grass is always greener...........

Decimals.....my calculator prefers them. ;)

Minutes ..... my watch prefers them.

An interesting topic and a very good question:
I have an Australian issued logbook in which I was instructed to fill in hours and decimal hours while undergoing flight training in Dunnunda.
I agree with Zaptain in that you need to fill till .00 but still you lose or gain depending on the left out 1 to 2 minutes.
Now that I managed to have a new logbook (CAP407) by the CAA I fill it with hours and minutes since it has been the practice in my current outfit.
And BTW we also use rounding up or down to the nearest 00 or 05 in the hour.

I have made up a few log sheets and spread sheets for recording time to monitor oil consumptions, check flight times and other data. If you use MS Excel, you have to use two columns, one for hours and minutes and if the mins are greater than the hrs, make an "=IF" function to add time on to the hrs. Sounds complicated but it is quite easy.

I always choose to use hrs and mins because it is more accurate, it is either 14 mins past of 15 mins past - too easy!

And if the bods who figured time out eons ago wanted us to use decimal, they would have done it then!

Hay Ewe

Decimals here. I've never known it to be any other way.

Decimals..
 

round up or down....it all averages out in the end. :ok:

Have used decimals to one place since starting flying, I remember reading an AIC once that suggested that you use decimals as it was much easier for the CAA to check logbooks for new rating and licence issues. It only means that you log to the nearest 6 minutes instead of the nearest 5 so it's not a big deal and it all evens up in the end. Also I don't record departure and arrivals times, they are not required by the UK CAA so being a lazy sod I just never bothered. Now I work for an airline doing multiple sectors a day I just use one line per day and just put the total time for the day in.

When I started training, in 1972, I logged hours and minutes to the nearest 5 minutes, using 3 minutes as the dividing line between rounding up or down. Once I started flying commercially, I didn't have enough time to be bothered with that and started using one decimal place. If there was an odd 3 minutes, I disregarded it.

I still do the same thing now and keep my logbook up to date via a database program. So much easier to write code that counts in decimals. This system means that I miss out on the odd 3 minutes every once in a while, but it takes twenty such entries to make an hour's difference, so I'm not all that bothered.

Every mob I've ever worked for has required logbook entries to one decimal place and I can't think of any of them that were fussed about how the minutes were rounded. Indeed, the mobs that kept the logbook records for me would give me a weekly print-out of all flights, to one decimal place and I never bothered to ask how the rounding was done.

Decimals, as well for each aircraft we are flying in our company.
The reference is the Canadian AIP, section AIR 4.1:

00 - 02 =.0
03 - 08 =.1
09 - 14 =.2
15 - 20 =.3
21 - 26 =.4

etc....

Each log got a copy of this table :ok:
So no guessing for accuracy.

Hay Ewe,

Depending on Excel version you use, you can format the cells straight in hh:mm, no need for any function.
I log hours and minutes rouded to the nearest 5.

ATN

Decimals. Stopped using minutes while still a student or early PPL. Stuff hours & minutes for a joke.

The scale of error is negligible compared to logging to the nearest 5 minutes. As Stallie says, round up & down IAW normal rounding rules & it all balances out over time.