flight time

[macdu]

Anybody there with a quick definition of flight time. Specifically for a flag flight blocked at 8 hours exactly and 20 minutes of taxi. Flight plus taxi is the total flight time is what I thought. I think we need a third crewmember. Bueller..............

 

[midlifeflyer]

Quickest definition of "flight time" I know is is right out of FAR 1:
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Pilot time that commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when the aircraft comes to rest after landing; or
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[A Squared]

Anybody there with a quick definition of flight time. Specifically for a flag flight blocked at 8 hours exactly and 20 minutes of taxi. Flight plus taxi is the total flight time is what I thought. I think we need a third crewmember. Bueller..............

If it's exactly 8 hours from leaving the gate to arriving at the gate, you're within 8 hours. Or maybe I'm missing something. What exactly does "blocked" mean to you? To me it means time from starting taxi to ending taxi at destination.

 

[MAS]

What exactly does "blocked" mean to you? To me it means time from starting taxi to ending taxi at destination.

im not in the commercial arena but it was a question on a test i took a few months back... it asked "what is block time?" if i remember correctly... it had something to do with when the doors closed... so...say the a/c is hooked up to the jetway... or sitting on the ramp with the stairs on it... as soon as the jet way is gone or the stairs are gone and the doors close 'block time' begins... please correct me if i am wrong...

 

[A Squared]

im not in the commercial arena but it was a question on a test i took a few months back... it asked "what is block time?" if i remember correctly... it had something to do with when the doors closed... so...say the a/c is hooked up to the jetway... or sitting on the ramp with the stairs on it... as soon as the jet way is gone or the stairs are gone and the doors close 'block time' begins... please correct me if i am wrong...

No, you're not wrong, strictly speaking that is not exactly the same as the Part 1 definition of flight time but I think at quite a few airlines, that time is what they use for pay and flight time limitations. The reason I asked is bacause "blocked" is generally used to mean time from begine of taxi to end of taxi (or door closed to door open), yet macdu's post suggests that he means something different by "blocked"

 

[avbug]

The regulation speaks to flight time, which occurs when the aircraft first moves under it's own power until it comes to rest after landing.

Blocks refer to chocks, and the time is sometimes called "block time," or "block to block" time, or "chock to chock" time. Block time doesn't bear on the regulation, and I don't know any operator that uses block time in considering maintenance, pilot flight limitations, or in my own case, pay. I've always been paid on flight time, not block, excepting some government work which counts block differently; brake release on the takeoff roll until back in the cocks after the flight.

One thing to consider, however, is that if you're scheduled for exactly eight hours and you go over...it's hard to argue that you couldn't reasonably expect that to happen. Any time you play at the margins of legality you open yourself up to question. If you had seven hours scheduled and something occured that stretched it beyond eight, you have a much easier time explaining yourself than if you have eight hours scheduled and then bust it.

 

[macdu]

Thanks everybody. When I posted the original question I had about 40 minutes to argue with scheduling. They agreed the taxi time was to be added to the flight time on the release, that put us over 8. A IRO was called out subsequently to augment the crew. It is a block to block issue. This scheduler who put the trip together was just looking at flight time and assumed all was legit.