PIC Time, Dual Time, Block Time: What Pilots Actually Enter in the Logbook

The flight is over, the aircraft is back in the hangar, and the logbook is open on the table. That is the moment the hesitation starts for a lot of pilots. Do I write down 50 minutes or 68? Does a flight with an instructor on board count as PIC or as dual? And what exactly is SPIC supposed to mean?

None of this is paperwork pedantry. Flight hours are the currency you pay for licences, ratings and revalidations. Log them incorrectly for a few years and you usually find out at the worst possible moment: when applying for a licence, before a checkride, or during an authority audit. This article sorts out the key time definitions under EASA Part-FCL and shows which number actually belongs in your logbook.

Where the rules live: FCL.010 and AMC1 FCL.050

Almost every question about recording flight time is answered in two places in the EASA framework. FCL.010 contains the definitions: what flight time is, what a cross-country flight is, how SPIC and PICUS are defined. AMC1 FCL.050 describes how the logbook itself is kept, what it has to contain, and that times are recorded in UTC.

Both apply whether your logbook is paper or digital. Going electronic changes none of the definitions; it only makes applying them easier or harder. The current reference is the AMC and GM to Part-FCL as amended by Amendment 12.

Block time, air time, Hobbs time: three clocks, one logbook column

The single most common mix-up in this whole subject is not about pilot function at all. It is about which clock you read. A typical club aircraft runs three different time measurements side by side, and only one of them belongs in the flight time column.

Block time (flight time)

For aeroplanes, FCL.010 defines flight time as “the total time from the moment an aircraft first moves for the purpose of taking off until the moment it finally comes to rest at the end of the flight.”

In practice: chock to chock. Taxiing to the holding point, waiting for take-off clearance, taxiing back to the parking position after landing, all of it is block time. This is the mandatory entry in your logbook.

Helicopters have their own wording: the clock runs from the moment the rotor blades start turning until they stop at the end of the flight.

Air time

Air time covers only the time actually spent in the air, wheels off to wheels on. It matters for the technical documentation and the maintenance records of the aircraft, not for your personal experience record. Log air time instead of block time and you will be short-changing yourself on every single flight.

Hobbs time

The Hobbs meter runs whenever the engine runs, often triggered by oil pressure or bus voltage. It is a billing instrument: clubs and flight schools frequently invoice rental time from it. It is not a regulatory measure of flight time under FCL.010. Depending on the aircraft and how it is operated, Hobbs time may come close to block time or differ from it noticeably.

The three at a glance

Block time / flight time: first movement for take-off until final stop, measured chock to chock including taxi. Mandatory logbook entry.
Air time: wheels off to wheels on, pure time airborne. Belongs in the technical records, not the logbook.
Hobbs time: engine running time. The basis for club or school billing, not a regulatory reference.

A quick example makes the gap obvious. Fifty minutes airborne, 10 minutes taxiing out, 8 minutes taxiing in. The logbook entry is roughly 68 minutes, not 50. Fly two or three times a week and the difference adds up to a double-digit number of hours over a year, hours that are simply missing when you go for the next licence.

PIC time: when you are genuinely the pilot in command

PIC time is time as pilot in command, and it is the number that matters most for your licence path, for instance the 100 hours of PIC time required by FCL.310 for the CPL(A). Authorities look at it closely for exactly that reason.

Under Part-FCL, the following situations can be logged as PIC:

Solo flight: loggable as PIC with no further condition.
SPIC, student pilot in command: loggable if the instructor countersigns.
PICUS, pilot in command under supervision: loggable with the supervising commander countersigning, multi-pilot types only.
Instructor at work: an FI logs instructional flights as PIC.
Examiner at work: an FE logs test flights as PIC.

What cannot be logged as PIC: time as a co-pilot in line operations without PICUS credit, and time as a student on normal dual training. Sitting in the right seat of a single-pilot aircraft while somebody else is in command produces no PIC time, no matter how much of the flight you actually handled.

The underlying rule is simple: PIC time and dual time are mutually exclusive. For a given segment of flight you record one function or the other. EASA does not provide for logging both at once.

Dual time: training with an instructor on board

Dual time is training flight time with a flight instructor on board acting as pilot in command. It occurs in single-pilot operations, which is exactly the setting in which most private pilots train.

The split is unambiguous: the student flies and logs dual, the instructor logs the same flight as PIC. Ordinary dual training flights do not require an individual instructor signature for each flight. Logging dual time as PIC out of habit or pride ruins the entry in both directions: the hour counts cleanly neither as PIC nor as dual.

SPIC: student pilot in command

SPIC is flight time during which the instructor only observes the student and does not intervene in the conduct of the flight. The student makes every decision; the instructor is on board but passive.

For the logbook entry that means:

Record it in the SPIC column, or in the PIC column with an appropriate remark.
The instructor countersignature in the remarks column is mandatory.
SPIC time counts as PIC time towards licence requirements, for example towards the PIC hours needed on the way to a CPL.
SPIC applies before the relevant licence is held, which is what separates it clearly from PICUS.

Without the instructor signature, SPIC time is unlikely to be accepted as PIC time. That is the most common and most expensive mistake in this category, because it is close to impossible to repair after the fact.

PICUS: pilot in command under supervision

PICUS describes a co-pilot performing all of the duties and functions of the pilot in command, with the supervising commander not intervening. It exists only on multi-pilot types.

Its practical value lies on the road to the ATPL: under FCL.510, up to 500 hours of PICUS may be credited towards the 500 hours of PIC time required. PICUS is therefore the one case in the EASA system where both pilots log the same flight as PIC.

The condition is a countersignature by the commander in the training record, plus the supervising pilot named in the logbook. PICUS hours that were never countersigned cannot be used for licence issue. If you are building hours towards an ATPL in an airline environment, collect that countersignature promptly rather than years later, when the captain has long since moved to another operator.

Getting cross-country time right

Under FCL.010, cross-country time is flight time during which the aircraft navigates to a point of destination away from the departure aerodrome, following a pre-planned route and using standard navigation procedures.

Two things regularly cause confusion. First, the basic definition contains no minimum distance at all. Distances appear only in the individual licence requirements, such as the solo cross-country of at least 150 NM with two landings at other aerodromes for the PPL, or the 300 NM cross-country under FCL.310 for the CPL. Second, the EASA logbook format has no separate cross-country column. The time is recorded under PIC or dual and documented through the route entry.

Pilots coming from the FAA world should pay particular attention here. The FAA uses several different cross-country definitions depending on the licence and the purpose, whereas EASA works with a single one. Carrying hours across without checking them will produce discrepancies.

Common mistakes and what they cost

The following errors show up again and again. They look harmless, which is precisely what makes them dangerous.

PIC and dual recorded for the same segment: the entry is invalid and the time does not count.
PICUS without a countersignature: the hours cannot be used for licence issue.
SPIC without the instructor signature: the time is not creditable as PIC time.
Air time logged instead of block time: your experience record comes out too low and licence or rating requirements are put at risk.
Local time logged instead of UTC: a formal defect, since AMC1 FCL.050 requires UTC.
Co-pilot on a single-pilot type logged as PIC: incorrect under the rules, even with two pilots in the cockpit.
Entries made late, incompletely or illegibly: the reliability of the entire logbook comes into question.
Missing page totals and carry-forwards: the logbook becomes hard to follow in an inspection.

The risk is the same in every case: experience hours are not accepted at revalidation, at a checkride, or during an authority check. Unlike an arithmetic slip, this is rarely fixable later, because the people and the evidence are no longer available.

Conclusion: the five points worth remembering

Your logbook takes block time, from first movement to final stop, not time in the air and not the Hobbs reading.
PIC and dual are mutually exclusive. One segment, one function.
SPIC counts as PIC time, but only with the instructor countersignature.
PICUS exists only on multi-pilot types and only with documented supervision, and it is creditable up to 500 hours towards an ATPL.
Cross-country time has no column of its own in the EASA format; it follows from the route flown and the function logged.

Apply those five consistently and you end up with a logbook that survives an inspection, and you stop wondering after every flight which number goes in which column.

A digital logbook does not make these decisions for you, but it does make them visible: cloudlog.aero keeps the function columns separated along EASA logic so that PIC, dual and SPIC cannot be filled in twice by accident, and it derives block time from off-block and on-block times. Responsibility for the correct entry stays with the pilot.

Sources

This article is provided for general information and reflects the sources consulted at the time of publication. It does not constitute legal advice or an authoritative statement by an aviation authority. The applicable laws, regulations, and the current guidance and decisions of the competent aviation authorities always take precedence.