NY Approach

Logging Vs. Acting, a question for the PIC

I get asked this question a lot, and I mean a lot! There's a real confusion among pilots about the concept of logging Pilot In Command time. I've already gone over, in previous posts, about how important it is to log PIC time. If you desire a flying job anywhere, PIC time is your key to getting hired. The more, the better! Even if you're not looking to cut your salary in half (by taking a flying job, over a real job), PIC time will help with insurance rates.

The core of the confusion, I believe, stems from the term that we use to describe it: PIC time. We have a column in our logbooks, which says “Pilot in Command,” and it is here we fill in all the time which we legally can. The initial assumption is that anytime we are ACTING as PIC we can LOG PIC. The truth cannot be further from that assumption!

I will, for the purposes of this post, call the time which we log in the PIC column in our log books “P1 time.” This is a term which I have acquired from my chap Milton. I'm not sure if all British pilots call it P1 time (while drinking tea and toasting the queen, of course :) or if that's his term, but I like it.

So the question is this: when can we log P1 time? Well contrary to what most pilots believe, we cannot log P1 time simply because we are the PIC. The regulation for logging P1 time is in Part 61.51 (e). It lists the following possible situations where a pilot can log P1 time, in an order which I have chosen:

The pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft. Well that's pretty easy. If we're solo, we log P1 time (we also log solo time). No one else will aruge with us, so that's solved.

An Airline Transport Pilot can log P1 whenever they're acting as PIC and they're required to have an ATP. Keep in mind this is for ATPs only, and only when they need their ATPs, usually part 121 operations. Don't try to apply this to our normal argument.

A CFI can log, as P1 time, all the time that he ACTs as CFI. Personally, I disagree with that one, but it is in the regulation. A CFI can go up with a student, not be the PIC, not EVER touch the controls and still log the entire flight as P1 time.

Now for the tough one, a sport, recreational, private or commercial pilot may log P1 time only under two conditions. The first is when he is the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which he is rated. The second is when he's acting as PIC and two pilots are required to be on board.

The confusion on the first condition comes with the word “rated.” Rated (as confirmed by FAA legal) means category and class and (if necessary) type rating. It DOES NOT include the requirements for ACTing as PIC as defined in 61.31 (tailwheel, complex, high-performance, pressurized). So, yesterday you took your ASEL private pilot check ride, and you have none of the 61.31 endorsements. Can you ACT as PIC for a Beech Bonanza (HP and Complex)? No, of course not. Can you LOG P1 in a Bonanza? YES, absolutely if someone else is the PIC for the flight.

There's another wrinkle to consider. Imagine I'm your buddy and I take you for a flight in Gigi (Bonanza, complex and HP). We've already established that I have to be PIC, and we established that when I give you the controls, you can log PIC. However, what do I log??? Nada. I'm only ACTING as PIC, not logging P1 time. That's how I have a flight in my logbook from LDJ- TDF-LDJ (685 miles) and I only logged ½ an hour. I handled the takeoff and landing, Milton flew the entire rest of the time!

Now for the second condition. If two pilots are required to be on board, then the PIC can log P1 time. Since most of the aircraft we fly only require one pilot, this doesn't come up frequently. Where it does happen is when two pilots takeoff and one puts on a hood (view limiting device) so that he can log simulated instrument time. In this case, if the first pilot is the sole manipulator of the controls and the second pilot (who, hopefully isn't wearing a hood) is the PIC, then BOTH pilots log P1 time. If the second isn't able to be the PIC (for insurance or 61.31 rules), then he will log SIC time since he is the second in command.

What does it mean to ACT as PIC: “You are the person solely responsible for the safe outcome of the flight.” If something goes wrong, you're the guy they pin it on. That's all, no big deal.

If you take the time to read them, the FARs really do spell all of this out in detail. Now go back and re-read this post but change all the P1's to PIC and you shouldn't be confused anymore. It's really easy to see how one would think that PIC=PIC, but hey, this is the FAA and law, it's not supposed to be that easy!

Safe flying!

GPS Direct

I know that some of the people who read this blog are pilots and others are not.  This post is directed at the pilots in the audience.  For the rest of you, you are welcome to try to hash through this, but expect that you probably wont understand it all.  Sorry, this isn't intended as flight instruction, just my review of regulations and an explanation of why I operate the way I do.

GPS is a great tool, we use it in our cars to get from point A to point B.  Without GPS Gloria would be perpetually lost, as she has no sense of direction.  Fortunately, Gloria knows that the GPS is just a guidance tool and she trusts her eyes for driving.  Frequently the GPS has told her to go the wrong way up a one way block, or make an illegal left turn.  It's faliable.

GPS in the airplane has, seemingly, revolutionized the way we navigate.  For VFR operations, you can use a handheld which costs a few hundred dollars to navigate directly through a restricted area without knowing it.... Not what you thought I was gonna say was it?  I almost did it.  We were VFR direct on a beautiful clear day, I was working a new handheld GPS that had the airspace display turned off.  I accidentially (may have, not 100% sure) clipped a restricted area.  Turns out, the area was cold at the time, so it didn't really matter, but that's not an excuse.  We're still responsible for flying properly, and GPS is making us lazy in our planning.

Now for IFR operations, we've got another wrinkle.  IFR GPSes aren't cheap, they're just the opposite.  A certified installation starts at about $5,000 and quickly can go up from there.  Most today will cost about $11,000.  So we'd like to use that for it's largest benefit, and get some savings on our gas to offset that large cost.  Lets think of the most obvious way... well if we were able to go direct, that would cut out some time, right?  So lets go direct.

IFR pilots know they need to file a flight plan.  The required information is in 91.169 which refers you to 91.153a.  I'll focus on part 5 of that regulation.  "The proposed route...."  Humm, what route should we choose... Lets look at 91.181 "Course to be flown."  As with almost all regulations, it starts with "Unless otherwised authorized..." and continues... "On any other route, along the direct course between the navigational aids or fixes defining that route."

So lets file "HPN-DIRECT-BUF."  Well here's a problem.  HPN and BUF aren't fixes, they're airports.  So you just busted 91.181.  And the argument is, "file what you want, fly why you get, log what you need." 

Here in the northeast portion of the country, the computer will reject your route and clear you some other way.  That's not normal.  The rest of the country usually gets "Cleared as filed."  The assumption is that you put a lot of time and effort into your flight planning and you have nav logs that show you should be over such-and-such VOR as such-and-such a time.  So lets send you that way and save you having to replan your whole flight.

I can give you two good reasons why you won't be "cleared as filed."  One is that it doesn't work with the other traffic in the area.  You're not the only guy in the sky, the controller has to keep you separated by 3 or 5 miles (depends on approach or center) or 1000'.  So now you go on the airway and you have no idea which airway or what the route looks like, ugh.  Two is that the RADAR is inoperative.  Yes, that still happens and you can't get a random route without RADAR following.

Now lets look at the way it should be done.  Pick a flight, any flight you've done recently.  Go to www.fltplan.com and choose "flight Planning," plug in the departure and destination.  For our HPN-BUF flight the distance is 252NM, direct.  Along airways it's 274NM.  That's 25 miles difference, or about 10%.

What you're not seeing is that the direct isn't what you want!  IFR pilots can't go straight to the airport and land.  They need to shoot the approach.  Shooting the approach usually means vectors.  Vectors add distance.  Distance eats away at your cost savings.  If you're on an appropriate airway, most likely you will get to a point where the controller will say "clear for the blah-blah-blah approach."  No vectors, no PT, just straight on in.  Now isn't that easy?  You route is already programmed into the GPS and the plane will fly right along the path.  Maybe yuo'll have to load the approach, but not much else.

The other question that comes up with Direct is what happens with lost comms.  91.185 says follow the route that you were last cleared, vectored, expected, or filed in that order.  Shoot, we were cleared direct and filed direct, now we're going direct.  Lets say that our route takes us RIGHT OVER the VOR which is the start of the approach, we weren't cleared there.  We go all the way to the airport (our clearence limit) then turn around and go back to the VOR and start the approach...  HUGE waste!

So pilots, take 30 seconds out of your time and file a proper route.  A controller might one day thank you for it.

I love night flying

I just came back from a vacation/family gathering outside of the US, and couldn't bring Gigi (my Bonanza).  I want to religiously fly her at least once every two weeks, so being out of the country for a week meant I had to fly her when I left and right after I came back.  A red eye flight which got me in on Saturday morning meant I failed the "F" in IM SAFE (A six part check that pilots go through to confirm that they are medically ready for flight; F stands for Fatigue) for Saturday and Sunday.

Monday came and it was beautiful but we had errands to run.  The evening after the time change meant it would be dark at about 5:30 at night.  No bother, night flying is some of my favorite flying.  Gloria agreed and we packed Aidan in for a trip to the airport.

Gigi was ready to go!  When I got to the airport just before 6PM, she stood in the night just begging to be flown.  I untied her and made sure everything was attached properly before loading up the family.  We wanted to get Aidan back before his 7:30 bed time, so it was just going to be a quick exercise flight of about half and hour.

The prop turned slowly at first but before the blades had made one full rotation, the 6 cylinders were starting to come to life.  I released the key and Gigi was purring like a kitten with the prop turning at just about 1000 RPM.  "Good morning Gigi, ready for some exercise?"

As we taxied out to the runway a helicopter landing on the runway confirmed that there was no turbulence and visibility was good enough to see all the way to the horizon!  I waited just a few minutes for Gigi to get warm before I did my runup and made sure everything was truly right with her engine.  I confirmed that the family was all strapped in and ready and I put Gigi at the end of the runway.

Full throttle and lots of right rudder, but otherwise Gigi was doing all the work and we were following her lead.  60 Knots and I pulled the stick just a little bit back.  She jumped into the night air anxious to be back where she belonged.  Gear Up and confirmed amber light!  I climbed to 500 feet and I turned south bound to avoid the Newark airspace. 

I climbed her to about 1400 feet and pulled back the throttle to 21 inches of manifold pressure.  The prop was at 2300 RPM and Gigi was purring.  I completed the cruise checklist by closing the cowl flaps and leaning the mixture.

I hadn't done much lean of peak, so I decided to try it.  I'm still figuring out the best power settings but I seemed to find one which got me 110 Knots burning only 7.5 gallons per hours.  That's pretty darn good.  Checking rich of peak settings, I found that I could get 125 Knots at 10.5 gallons per hour.

We flew around for about half an hour before heading back to Linden for a sweet landing.  Unfortunately when I put the nose down, the nosegear started to shimmy, which means the shimmy dampener needs to be serviced.  Sigh, Charlie will have to look at that next time I'm there.

A beautiful night and 0.9 hours of flight time.  Even Gloria agreed that the night was perfect and Aidan enjoyed the flight everytime I made a left turn (he can't see the ground otherwise).  A few more years and he'll be up front with me working the radios.