Instrument Currency

[mpflies2]

Ok heres my question.

I realized the other day that the FARs say something along the lines of to be current you need six approaches, holding procedures, tracking intercepting...yatta yatta in ACTUAL or SIMULATED conditions. I was looking back in my logbook and saw many flights where I logged approaches with no sim or actual along with the flight. Is it ok to still log those as approaches as long as when I speak of currency...I don't count those. Or because I wasn't under the hood should they not be in my logbook at all cuz they're really only visual approaches. The way I see it is that by logging them it shows I went over those particular approach procedures for practice but as long as I don't use them towards currency it should be ok.


Am I correct in still logging them, or should I not log approaches I do that arent under the hood or in actual or simulator etc...?

Thanks

Marc

 

[Tonala2k]

Keep logging them in your log book.

It's your log book for you to keep how you want to keep it. I'm still building flight time and have to keep track of all three types of x-country. I keep airport to airport in my paper log book and airport to airport >50 NM with flights > 50 NM recorded in my electronic log book. If you wanted you could log how many hours of flight instruction you gave your buddy, even though you're not a CFI.

What is important is to clearly mark the required items so they are easily identifiable.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Tonal touched on this when he said

What is important is to clearly mark the required items so they are easily identifiable.

But it's not =really= "your logbook for you to keep how you want to keep it." Whether bound in a book, electronic, or on a series of cocktail napkins, it's an official record that the FAA requires you to keep to show them qualification and currency.

For practical purposes, all entries in your logbook need to be accurate and self-explanatory. If you, for some personal reason, want to log your non-countable-for-currency approaches or the time you sat in seat 18E on United Flight 1234, you need do it in a way that, if the FAA looks at you logbook, it knows which ones are logged in accordance with the rules and which ones are not, without any explanation from you. ("Required" isn't the issue, "compliant with the rules" is.)

There are probably plenty of ways to do it so that it's clear, so long as you do do it. The NTSB cases make it pretty clear that anything else potentially can lead to a charge of logbook falsification. The standard penalty for making false logbook entries is revocation of all pilot certificates.

 

[Alamanach]

If you, for some personal reason, want to log your non-countable-for-currency approaches or the time you sat in seat 18E on United Flight 1234, you need do it...

I think I just found several hundred hours I never knew I had!

 

[Flying Ninja]

Ok heres my question.

I realized the other day that the FARs say something along the lines of to be current you need six approaches, holding procedures, tracking intercepting...yatta yatta in ACTUAL or SIMULATED conditions. I was looking back in my logbook and saw many flights where I logged approaches with no sim or actual along with the flight. Is it ok to still log those as approaches as long as when I speak of currency...I don't count those. Or because I wasn't under the hood should they not be in my logbook at all cuz they're really only visual approaches. The way I see it is that by logging them it shows I went over those particular approach procedures for practice but as long as I don't use them towards currency it should be ok.


Am I correct in still logging them, or should I not log approaches I do that arent under the hood or in actual or simulator etc...?

Thanks

Marc

First, when it comes to INST currency, you're talking about 6 approaches, holding, and tracking/intercept in the PAST 6 MONTHS. So all those approaches you did won't help you if they don't fall within the past 6 months. If you didn't do your approaches under the hood or in actual instrument conditions, they don't count.

Lastly, if you're shooting an approach and you're visual, what's the point? The spirit of the regulations is to have you proficient in "instrument conditions" while you're executing your approaches, holds, tracking/intercepts so that when you really are in instrument conditions, you won't be looking out the window wishing for something to look at. So regulations and logbooks aside, you're doing yourself a disservice thinking shooting instrument approaches while visual is helpful to your piloting skillis and safety.

As a side note, 6 approaches is a regulatory minimum. The FARs are written in blood and the FAA gives you enough rope in the FARs to hang yourself with.

 

[mpflies2]

I think from now forth, i wont even bother logging anything where i'm on a visual approach...as for the past, i didnt try to file and say I was current off of approaches I did that were visual....so I haven't broken any FAR's.

By no means was or am I trying to falsify the logbook. If something is wrong, its not because I was trying to cheat hours or anything and get ahead, it was simply a misunderstanding/mistake and I continue to learn, including asking questions like these to prevent sticky situations in the future.

Thanks for clearing some of my confusion up.

Marc

 

[midlifeflyer]

By no means was or am I trying to falsify the logbook.

I don't think that anyone thought you were.

 

[mpflies2]

I don't think that anyone thought you were.

oh yea i know...just making sure haha