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From continental to UK reg

In France, Belgium, and maybe other countries, the techlog records the flight time as defined by ICAO: chock to chock
In the UK, the techlog records the actual airborne time.
So a French plane with 500 hours logged and 600 flights has flown as much as a UK plane with 400 hours if taxi time is 10 minutes.
When you transfer a plane from French/Belgium to UK reg, may you recalculate the total time like that for maintenance purposes?

Last Edited by Piotr_Szut at 01 Dec 17:54

This is a very good point, but it’s a consequence of logging time using a process which is less open to mistakes and to pilots (especially renters) faking their airborne time.

For example my engine is now at 1650hrs airborne time, but my “hobbs meter” (actually a hour meter which runs only above 1200rpm) is now reading over 2000hrs. I ignore this meter…

You can guess I am not offering my plane for sale otherwise I would have to execute the standard “GA pilot pre-sale procedure” (delete 17.378% of everything I have written in case a prospective buyer sees it)

AFAIK, everywhere in Europe and USA, the legal position is: pilot logs brakes-off to brakes-on, while maintenance is done on airborne time. If somebody chooses to log less for the former and more for the latter, that’s their loss

Also, a plane which has done 100hrs in the last 10 years, in Europe, is prob99 going to have a shagged engine, so a 10% or 20% difference is academic. And many (most?) planes which come up for sale have been sitting around – because most people don’t sell up until they have really no other option.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

In France and Belgium, it’s mandatory to log the chock to chock time in the techlog.

Does that affect the maintenance intervals, e.g., for engine TBO, which according to the manufacturer is on airborne time?

Biggin Hill

Many private/flying club planes in Belgium are using oil-pressure as reference for there maintenance intervals , but they get extension on the engine TBO (I thought 10%)

In France and Belgium, it’s mandatory to log the chock to chock time in the techlog.

What is the legal relevance of a “tech log”?

I have seen such a thing only in flying schools, where it may have been a CAA school-license requirement.

Many private/flying club planes in Belgium are using oil-pressure as reference for there maintenance intervals , but they get extension on the engine TBO (I thought 10%)

I think that’s common but only because the instrument is already installed in the panel and anybody can read the number off it. I have never heard of any law anywhere which attaches any legal significance to any panel mounted “time recorder”. It would not make much sense anyway because – see various threads on “Hobbs” etc here – you can have one instrument reading (practically or literally) airborne time, and another one reading engine running time (and you can imagine renters really not liking that one, and it encourages bad taxiing practices).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I believe a ‘journey log’ will be required by Part NCO.GEN.150 when it is mandated.

Now retired from forums best wishes

Peter wrote:

while maintenance is done on airborne time.

I would think it depends on what it is. Airborne time makes sense for an airframe, but for a piston engine there is a case, IMO, for tach time. For other things, cycles might be interesting. Obviously, one tries to follow manufacturer’s recommendations.

Airborne time makes sense for an airframe, but for a piston engine there is a case, IMO, for tach time.

I have never seen such a definition, in piston GA.

The whole plane can be maintained based on airborne time.

Obviously there can be specific limits e.g. landing gear cycle limits of say 10,000.

“Tach time” cannot make legal sense because there are numerous different “tachs”. It’s the same argument as a law requiring the carriage of printed charts… whose?

I believe a ‘journey log’ will be required by Part NCO.GEN.150 when it is mandated.

Yes – many threads here on the Journey Log business. I keep one and carry it in the plane. I thought it was mandatory already…

But that isn’t the same as a school’s Tech Log, which contains stuff like starting and ending fuel levels.

That reminds me of a bizzare scenario from when I started my PPL: I asked the instructor how can he be sure there is say 2hrs’ of fuel in the tanks, after several flights have been done, when the level isn’t physically visible unless you get up on a ladder (C152). His reply was “the tech log says there are 2hrs so there are 2hrs!”. This was the first step in me deciding very firmly to treat everything with suspicion and to escape from the whole training scene ASAP. I would always start every solo flight with full tanks.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@Peter. Obviously the manufacturer would have to specify. I don’t really see the need to convert number of revolutions into hours (why would anyone do that? would you measure water consumption in hours?). The nice thing about it is that it counts revolutions, not actual time. I have seen tach used for engine maintenance and not once (yes, different logbooks then have different times).

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