Logging Flight Time

The regulations distinguish between the time you must document and the time you may document. You are only required to record the training and aeronautical experience used to meet the requirements for a certificate, rating, or recent flight experience — but in practice pilots log all their flight time to build a complete history. You may log pilot-in-command time when you are the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which you are rated, when you are the sole occupant, or when you act as PIC on an operation requiring more than one pilot. Note the subtlety: being sole manipulator lets you log PIC time even when you are not the person acting as pilot in command, such as when receiving instruction. Each entry records the date, aircraft type and identification, route or points of departure and arrival, and the conditions and type of pilot time.