Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

Logging flight time at the commuters

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web

flight-crew

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 16, 2001
Posts
167
We have ACARS in our RJs. So the out and in times are automatically recorded. The ACARS then gives you a total block number when you pull in to the gate and open the door. My question is this- when converting the time over to decimal format, should you round up or down? Example, if the total block time was 45 minutes... when entering that into my log book, I would divide 45 / 60 to get 0.75. Should I enter 0.7 or 0.8? Up until this point I have been rounding down. But I realized that I am cheating myself out of time.
 
We have the same at my airline. I only log time per day, not per leg. That has kept me from having dozens of log books over the years. However, I do round down since ACARS time doesn't acurately reflect the definition of flight time.
 
My company uses the following chart to convert to decimal.

Min 1/10
------- ------
00-03 .0
04-09 .1
10-15 .2
16-21 .3
22-27 .4
28-33 .5
34-39 .6
40-45 .7
46-51 .8
52-57 .9
58-60 1.0
 
Logging time

J41's chart is how I'd go about it. I'd tend to round down. You might be cheating yourself out of a little time, but sometimes conservatism is better to avoid any impression of logbook padding.

Just my .02.
 
We're splitting hairs here folks. Nobody really cares how you round your time.

UAL interview:
"Well, you're a very qualified individual, and you're exactly the candidate we are looking for, but we cant hire you. You see, you rounded your flight time the wrong way. Have you tried Southwest?"

I don't think so.

But since you brought it up...
When your paycheck is $XXXX.275 what is it rounded to? $XXXX.28
It is generally accepted in every industry that 5 and up rounds up; 4 and below rounds down. Doing this is neither cheating yourself nor "padding".
 
Hmm, we're talking about 3 minutes here. . .:p

Of course just ask any ramp agent whose flight just went out at D+1 the value of one minute. . .

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll probably use the chart. I guess you could say that in a way that ACARS doesn't totally represent true flight time. Since the definition of flight time is when the a/c first moves for the initiation of flight and then comes to a stop at the final airport (stops at the gate). There have been many times when we have closed the door and the ACARS has started, but we don't actually move the aircraft (i.e.- push back), until 10 minutes later. So the ACARS is already giving you a little extra. But then again, the way ACARS measures flight time, is very similar to a Hobbs meter.

I know it sounded like I was splitting hairs, but if most of my legs were around 1.0 and I always rounded down 0.1. I'm cheating myself 10%. So after 1000 hours, I would only have around 900 hours. To me, that is significant enough to matter.
 
If you use the chart earlier in the thread you will be rounding up half the time and down half the time. Statistically, it's a wash.
 

Latest resources

Back
Top