Logging hours as a Relief Pilot/Cruise Pilot

J777Fly

Well-Known Member
Some long flights carry relief crew. So if you are relief pilot first officer and type rated in the aircraft, when you jump in the seat to relieve one of the flight crew, how do you log those hours? PIC? SIC? something else?
 
SIC. I have a PIC type rating but when I lose the coin toss, fly relief and replace the captain, I'm not the "Captain of Record" so I don't log PIC.

In an interview, perish the thought, I'm not sure if I could do the verbal gymnastics to explain how I got 2.5 PIC on a 8.2 block flight when I'm the relief pilot! ;)

Addendum:
In my operation, either FO can be designated as relief, but the company doesn't keep track of that. They'll log PIC to the PIC (Captain) and SIC to the FO's equally.

Four-man crews, I think NOW we have a "captain of record" for legal purposes I presume both captains log PIC ***I think***, but that's just on a company record level. I have no idea what the FAA thinks about this.
 
Ok, so normally, how long does the flight have to be for a relief crew to be needed? Anything over 8 hours?
 
Ok, so normally, how long does the flight have to be for a relief crew to be needed? Anything over 8 hours?


In the USA it's over 8 hours for the major carriers. At foreign airlines flying under CAP 371 or some other regulation we can go up to 10 hours with only two pilots in some cases. I'm doing an Istanbul turn at 8:55 block later this afternoon then I've got a Dhaka turn next week that is blocked at 9:35, both with two pilots. We go by duty time as our limit more than flight time.



Typhoonpilot
 
In the USA it's over 8 hours for the major carriers. At foreign airlines flying under CAP 371 or some other regulation we can go up to 10 hours with only two pilots in some cases. I'm doing an Istanbul turn at 8:55 block later this afternoon then I've got a Dhaka turn next week that is blocked at 9:35, both with two pilots. We go by duty time as our limit more than flight time.



Typhoonpilot

Supplemental 121 in the US is all sorts of a mess when it comes to that, as well.
 
SIC. I have a PIC type rating but when I lose the coin toss, fly relief and replace the captain, I'm not the "Captain of Record" so I don't log PIC.

In an interview, perish the thought, I'm not sure if I could do the verbal gymnastics to explain how I got 2.5 PIC on a 8.2 block flight when I'm the relief pilot! ;)

Addendum:
In my operation, either FO can be designated as relief, but the company doesn't keep track of that. They'll log PIC to the PIC (Captain) and SIC to the FO's equally.

Four-man crews, I think NOW we have a "captain of record" for legal purposes I presume both captains log PIC ***I think***, but that's just on a company record level. I have no idea what the FAA thinks about this.

Captain of Record, huh? I'm sure the FAA will probably, for FAR/AIM purposes, rename it "captain of record" and "flying captain" just to confuse things for us lay people. :sarcasm:
 
SIC. I have a PIC type rating but when I lose the coin toss, fly relief and replace the captain, I'm not the "Captain of Record" so I don't log PIC.

In an interview, perish the thought, I'm not sure if I could do the verbal gymnastics to explain how I got 2.5 PIC on a 8.2 block flight when I'm the relief pilot! ;)

Addendum:
In my operation, either FO can be designated as relief, but the company doesn't keep track of that. They'll log PIC to the PIC (Captain) and SIC to the FO's equally.

Four-man crews, I think NOW we have a "captain of record" for legal purposes I presume both captains log PIC ***I think***, but that's just on a company record level. I have no idea what the FAA thinks about this.

Legacy pilots log flight time?

:)
 
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