How do I deal with "Total Time" and Simulators (FTD, PCTAD, etc.)?

We get this question a lot. Roughly, it boils down to how you are going to log the time. This all depends upon which rules you fly under. But, for the purposes of this discussion I am going to assume you fly in the US and under FAA regulations.

Total Time

The FAA has no definition for Total Time. Therefore, Total Time can be defined by the pilot as Total Pilot Time, Total Aeronautical Experience, or Total Aircraft Time. To make matters even more confusing, the FAA allows some simulator (Level D or higher) time to be logged as Total Aircraft Time, whereas other simulator levels can not be logged towards Total Aircraft Time. Oftentimes, when a pilot is interviewing, that particular airline will specify what time they want to see (Total Aircraft vs Total Experience) - and this is where people get confused and also very particular in how they log time.

At Coradine, we have not defined Total Time as one particular way or another. Its up to the individual to log the time how they choose to define Total Time.

The default behaviour of LTP is to calculate a Total Time if you use an OUT/IN or a HOBBS OUT/HOBBS IN value. Else, it becomes a field that requires manual entry.

Simulator Time

So you can see you can get quite detailed in how you want to log your simulator time. For the most part, it boils down to the type record in LTP. In cases of full motion or full flight simulators (FFS), you'll have a type for that aircraft, then duplicate the type so that you have two, and call one B733SIM, for example, with Category set to Simulator. You can then assign an aircraft ID to have type B733SIM each time you do recurrent in the simulators. Each time you log a flight in that aircraft ID, then the time also gets added to Simulator time.

Training Devices

The same is true for Category of Training Device. The time will automatically get added to the respective Training Device or PCATD column (see below). It wont, however be added to Simulator time as this time is not a Full Flight Simulator (FFS). The way these are all categorized can be explained here.

We do track and differentiate time by Category. You can show these columns if you use Configure LogTen Pro... from the Manage menu and check the box next to Category: Airplane or Category:Simulator. And if the Type records are properly categorized, the time shows up properly in Airplane or Simulator as required.

Recommendation

Our recommendation is you keep one logbook and differentiate the simulator sessions by using a flight record with a SIM type. It's your choice how you want to log Total Time and most people tend to not include Simulator time in their Total Time (definition=Total Aircraft Time). But again, that is up to you. As long as you are consistent, LogTen Pro allows you to report on and segment your time nearly any way you like. So if you are ever audited, you can clearly show them the difference between Aircraft vs. Simulator or Aircraft vs. Training Device.