FAA Form 8710-1 and IACRA: filling in the Record of Pilot Time

What each column of Section III means

The 03/26 form has rows for Airplanes, Rotorcraft, Powered Lift, Gliders, Lighter-Than-Air, FFS, FTD and ATD. Across each row run Total, Instruction Received, Solo, PIC and SIC (split into PIC and SIC boxes), Cross Country Instruction Received, Cross Country Solo, Cross Country PIC/SIC, Instrument, Night Instruction Received, Night Take-Off/Landing, Night PIC/SIC and Night Take-Off/Landing PIC/SIC. The two take-off and landing columns take counts, the rest take hours.

One flight can count in several columns. A 2.0-hour dual cross-country flown entirely at night adds 2.0 to Total, Instruction Received, Cross Country Instruction Received and Night Instruction Received, plus its night landings to Night Take-Off/Landing. To the right sit the Class Totals (PIC, SIC and instruction received for SEL, MEL, SES and MES, then helicopter, gyroplane, balloon, airship and the device classes) and a Number of block for glider and lighter-than-air flights, aero-tows, ground launches and powered launches.

Shaded boxes take nothing. On the FFS, FTD and ATD rows the Solo, PIC and SIC and cross-country boxes are shaded, the FTD row also shades both night take-off and landing boxes, and the ATD row shades every night box. AC 61-136B says of ATDs: "ATD time can only be logged as Instruction Received (Dual), Instrument Time, or Total Time as reflected on the pilot time section of FAA Form 8710-1", and "Any columns that reference flight time should remain blank when logging ATD time."

Totalling your logbook for the form

The instructions say: "At a minimum, the applicant should complete the blocks applicable to the certificate or rating sought; however, it is recommended that all pilot time be entered." IACRA's guide repeats this and adds "Night flying must be entered when required." Total each row from aircraft entries only. Simulator sessions go on their own device row, and the instructions say device time "may be credited towards the total time in the category, class, and instrument time as permitted by the regulations", which is a matter for the examiner, not for your Airplanes total.

The form does not say which 61.1 cross-country definition its columns use. Whatever you enter, the examiner checks each minimum against the definition for the certificate or rating sought, which for private, commercial and instrument airplane is a landing more than 50 nm straight-line from the departure point. Mark the flights that meet it so you can show them.

In IACRA, "The application automatically enters any hours from a previous application" and you can import hours from another application. Those figures are your old totals. Replace every one with today's figures before you sign. Section II A is separate: the make and model of the aircraft for the test, your total time and PIC time in it, and the level of any flight simulation training device used.

Decimals, hours and minutes, and rounding

The instructions allow decimal points as long as they are legible, and set no rounding rule. If your logbook is in hours and minutes, add the minutes first and convert once at the total. Thirty lessons of 1:20 add up to 40:00, which is 40.0 hours; rounding each lesson to 1.3 first gives 39.0, an hour short.

The figures on the form have to agree with your logbook, and the examiner checks each minimum against the logbook entries. 49.9 hours of cross-country PIC does not meet a 50-hour requirement, however it is rounded on the form.

Why applications come back

Pilot time problems surface earlier, at the examiner. AC 61-136B says examiners "are instructed to request a copy of the LOA from applicants logging ATD pilot time", and 61.51(g)(4) lets device instrument time count toward a rating only when an instructor was present and signed for it. Cross-country time that fails the 50 nm test and device time added into the Airplanes row are the other entries that do not survive a logbook check.