135.243 IFR PIC "actual flight"

[midlifeflyer]

I tend to agree with all who have opined that simulator time is never flight time, due to FAR 1 and common sense. But, I don't think it's quite that simple. When the FAR states that 1200 hours of required flight time can include 25 hours in a simulator, it appears that in at least this case the FAA has decreed that simulator time equals flight time.

With maybe a minor quibble, I agree with most everyone about what the regulation is supposed to mean. But, unlike you, I think that when the FAR states that 25 hours of the instrument time requirement may be in a simulator, FAA has made a drafting error rather than make a one section change to fundamental policy of not counting sim time as flight time. In other areas where the FAR permits crediting simulator time toward requirements, the distinction is maintained.

I would not count the 25 hours in a simulator as part of the 1200 hours of "flight time". Instead, I would read the regulation as requiring

1. 1200 hours of tota "flight time"
2. 500 hours of cross-country "flight time"
3. 100 hours of night "flight time"
4. 75 hours of instrument time, at least 50 hours of which is instrument "flight time"

(Of course, at some point the question whether the 25 hours of sim time "counts" toward the 1200 hour "flight time" requirement becomes an academic exercise)

 

[7B2]

Please take one more look at the first post after the original post.

C'est tout.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Please take one more look at the first post after the original post.

C'est tout.

That

50 hours in actual or simulated (=hood-time). That simple.
the other 25 can be in a sim

was pretty much a no-brainer.

The part of the question that folks were kicking around was whether that 25 hours of sim time counted toward the 1200 hour "flight time " requirement.

 

[7B2]

I just answered the original question.
I leave splitting hairs to others

I've also heard proffesionals say the following about similar "problems"
Don't worry about it.

I must admit it's an interesting issue, that I don't know the answer to.