Block time runs from first movement under power until parking (chock to chock); flight time in the FAA sense is broadly similar, while airborne time counts only takeoff to landing. Which definition a school bills and logs by affects pricing, payroll and logbook totals — so it must be explicit.
Block time runs from the moment the aircraft first moves under its own power for the purpose of flight until it comes to rest after landing — 'chock to chock', including all taxiing. Airborne time runs from takeoff to touchdown. 'Flight time' as a logging term follows the block definition in both EASA and FAA rules for aeroplanes, which surprises many students who assume it means airborne time.
The distinctions carry money and law: what a school bills (block, airborne, or Hobbs — which approximates block), what a pilot logs toward licence requirements (flight time = block), and what maintenance consumes (typically tach or airborne-based) are three different quantities from the same lesson. An operation that hasn't defined which is which invites billing disputes and logbook errors simultaneously.
Why it matters for flight schools
Ambiguity here creates friction at every interface: students dispute invoices ('we only flew 0.8'), logbooks diverge from school records, and maintenance intervals drift if the wrong counter feeds them. The fix is definitional hygiene: publish what the school bills and why, log flight time per the regulatory definition, and track maintenance on the appropriate counter. At a busy field, ten minutes of taxi per lesson is real — across 300 monthly lessons, the billing definition moves serious revenue.
How FlightLogger handles it
FlightLogger captures block, airborne and meter times per flight and applies each where it belongs — billing on the school's defined basis, logbooks per the regulatory definition, maintenance on the maintenance counter.
Frequently asked questions
Which time goes in a pilot's logbook?
Flight time per the regulatory definition — block time (first movement under power to rest after landing) for aeroplanes under both EASA and FAA rules. Logging only airborne time under-records legitimate experience.
Why do schools bill Hobbs rather than block time?
The Hobbs meter runs whenever the engine does, closely approximating block time while being tamper-evident and automatic. It's a practical proxy — but the school should still state explicitly that Hobbs is the billing basis.