Student Pilot wrote:Don't you have a legal requirement to log flight time? What happens when FAA or whoever compare flight times to maintenance release times or don't some of you folks log time on your Aircraft as well?

Don't know how it is in Australia or anywhere else, but as far as I know all we have to log as far as aircraft records is repair & maintenance. The only indication of flight time in the aircraft logs is the tach readings. If you had a wreck the feds would no doubt wanna see the aircraft logs to be sure the airplane was in annual at the time.

Eric

I use my watch and at the end of the year when I check my aircraft engine time to my flight time I am usuallly pretty darn close. I am the only one that flies my plane so that works ok. Bob

Funny timing on this thread- I just spent this morning creating "Ski Landings" and "Ski Time" headings in the blank columns of my old log books, and tallying them up just for personal interest. I subscribe to the diary value: records of different airports, different passengers, how much ground roll to take off with 2 on board and full fuel from such-and-such a strip. How much time in different planes. What the call out number was to get the fuel truck to drive out from town, and what hours they actually answer. How long a backcountry strip was when I actually paced it off, and where the soft spots and hummocks are on it. The name of the guy who runs the bootleg hunting camp on one remote strip I use, so I don't get met with a loaded gun next time. Sometimes I write down when it got actually dark in an entry, and a couple years later I'll pull out the log book in flight to find out when it will get dark on me this time. Functional civil twilight is pretty inexact in Alaska. Oh yeah, it's useful for insurance and currency, but that's the least interesting aspect of it, really. I just use my watch from engine start to engine stop.

-DP

One more thought: If folks are really going into off-airport situations, this is probably the best reason of all to log the conditions you encounter, as that stuff may not be published or recorded anywhere else. Besides keeping out of trouble yourself, you might even be able to help out a fellow BCP'er. Feel the love!

Im a little different than everybody else I guess. I use the stopwatch in the panel, I usually punch it shortly after starting up the engine and then look at it again as I am shutting down. Works for me.

I just use the clock. 6 mins = one tenth/hour. Easy to use.