Hours limit

[nick14]

Hello all,

Just a quick one, does anyone know whether the 900 hours a year limit includes ALL types of flying or just those for commercial gain?

Im wanting to keep flying for fun at weekends or on days off at the local flying club but without compromising my hours limit for work and annoying the boss

N

[LDG_GEAR _MONITOR]

if its private and under 1600kgs it doesnt count - details are in cap 371 on the caa website. all flying over 1600kgs along with aerial work/commercial work etc counts, the 1600kgs is a pain in the butt - means if you go do a flight in a seneca private the hours come into the 900 total per year !

[dynamite dean]

were a biz jet operator in uk and were limited to 700 flying hours per year our SOP's say.

[BALLSOUT]

The limit does depend on what country of issue covers your liscence.
For example, If it's JAR UK, no problem. If it's IAA JAR the 900 limit is total of all flying.
Best check with the issuing authority, or at least be more specific.

[nick14]

Ah right,

Ok well its an irish licence, orignially issued by UK CAA but converted to Irish.

I could always ask the licencing department.

Many thanks all

N

[nick14]

For those interested,

I think that the IAA now conform to EU-OPS.

So I found a copy and the Flight time and duty limitations are Subpart Q:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...01:0238:EN:PDF


Although there doesn't seem to be any info on what type of flying counts towards the 900 block hours??


Happy reading
N

[Superpilot]

From CAP371:

A flight crew member is required to inform anyone who employs his services as a flight crew member of all flight times and flying duty periods undertaken, whether professionally or privately, except for flying in aircraft not exceeding 1,600 kg maximum weight and not flying for the purpose of public transport or aerial work.

Aerial work includes flying instruction for which the pilot is remunerated. It is also aerial work where valuable consideration is given specifically for flying instruction, even if the pilot receives no reward.

This sucks as it effectively means that an airline pilot cannot fly most piston twins (including the featherlite DA-42 which has MTOW of around 1750 Kg) on the odd day off, even for pleasure. It's insane. Surely the weight limitation should've been in line with aircraft weight categories, where the hell did this 1600 Kg figure come from?

[fireflybob]

It's insane.

Superpilot, I could not agree more! Also notwithstanding the 1,600 kg limit it seems a bit daft that professionally employed pilots cannot do a few hours instructing a year without it counting towards the 900 hours. You could be doing all sorts of other "fatiguing" escapades but they don't count such as skydiving, bungee jumping, going out clubbing all night etc.

[nuclear weapon]

In some countries i think you can log a maximum of 100 hrs a month but not sure what the annual total is allowed to come to under such circumstances.

[parabellum]

When I worked for an air taxi company way, way back F/Os from BA would fly Aztecs on their days off for remuneration, hours in those days were never a problem. I suspect that the 1600kg limit is specifically to stop pilots flying every spare minute for air taxi type operations and possibly getting over tired, particularly now that new pilots are often starting out with a mountain of debt.

[Superpilot]

There must be hundreds of captains who spend every spare hour of their lives G-ing themselves out doing aerobatics in their sports planes. This activity in a plane that has a MTOW of around 800 Kg is clearly much more fatiguing than flying your family to Nice in say a Twinstar.

[nick14]

An update,

I emailed the IAA and aparantly any flying in any type of aircraft counts towards your 900/year under JAR-OPS.

Rather annoying really, means I cannot get out of the local strip for an hour a weekend

N

[fjordviking]

Get a job in the corporate world

Get a corporate flying job and you will have 600-800 hrs. of flying to be done on your free time. Problem solved.

Never understood the allure of getting into a plane after spending 900 hrs. at work in the darn thing. What`s wrong with boats? Have they gone out of fashion?
Maybe I´m old school.

fjordviking