Crikey, don’t you guys ever sleep
Dave,
Thanks again for posting the Information. I think you and some others should read it again. I will point out some words and sections that again make it clear to me that some people do not understand what exactly it means. I will try to make this as simple as possible because I suspect not many of our members are educated to degree level in law. To start though I should point out that laws are generally designed to be enabling or prohibitive.This clearly falls into the enabling category.
First of all it is a guide. Gunidence is not usually compulsory unless it is stated so to be. What this guidance does is tell us how to fill out log books to have hours credited by the CAA as part for acceptance by them in respect of licence. See the start of para 3.v
While it is correct to say that the CAA will not accept hours flown in a single pilot aircraft , S3 d clearly does allow such hours to be credited in a suitably equipped aircraft. As I ipunderstand it the aeroplane flown by TCT was so equipped but whether it was agreed by the CAA it could be used as such is unknown.
What is though important is that this guide is not prescritive, I think Dave made the point that you can record pretty much what you want in there. The CAA will only though credit hours which fall within their guidance.
Now I must point out that probably the vast majority of LAA pilots fly fir a hobby, While they like to build hours a suspect t very few do so to have those hours credited by the CAA for the issue if a licence (hours builders going on to commercial excepted. I also believe that most of our members would like to keep a record in their log book of different types they have been allowed to fly in and have some stick time in their log books. Such a record will carry no weight with the CAA, but it may well for insurance purposes.
I will give an example. We had a relatively low time pilot join our RV9 group. The only non dual controls were the throttle and prop pitch which was a single control accessible by both pilots. When negotiating with the insurance for cover for him the agreement was made that he did at least 11 hours dual with our members before flying on his own as PIC. Now, I guess we could have recorded these flights as P1 us, or maybe P2. I don’t remember what we did but the flights needed to be officially recorded for insurance purposes and nothing in CAP 804 prevents them from being so recorded.
This is quite similar to the situation that occurred about 20 years ago when Kitfoxes were effectively grounded by insurance companies and when the then PFA acted by recruiting experienced Kitfox pilots to check people out for insurance purposes. This was before the forerunner of the PCS... please don’t get me onto that subject as it’s something Chris and I see as an opportunity lost.
Those hours would not have been credited for gaining a licence by the CAA but they were relavent to the aircraft being properly insured.
Another point before I turn to why this is relevant to TCT. As should be apartment to you over the years I have grouped a number of aircraft, a Tailwind which had shared and dual control but no brakes on the right.An RV 9 as described above, the 4 which has a stick and rudder controls in the rear. Virtually all of the hours spent converting people onto the aircraft were not recordable if CAP 804 was followed to the letter. Common sense though dictates that they should be recorded as evidence of experience on type not only for the pilot converting, but to record pilot experience for insurance purposes. There is nothing in CAP 804 which prevents this as it is only rally dealing with how and in what circumstances the CAA will credit hours.
Sorry if this has been a bit verbose, but why is this relevant to TCT..
Well if we were to follow the the guide of CAP 804 and the interpretation put on it by a number of members here the other pilot in the aeroplane with her would not have been able to record any of the hours when flying with her, whether or not control of the aircraft was shared by them. Even the instructor would not be able to record unless the flight was an instructional one. I hope everyone can see the irony in this, she is being slated for flying with other pilots, but under the interpretation that a number of people want to adopt of CAP 804 she was unaccompanied, it could not be recorded as a dual flight?
On the one hand people are shouting not fair she had another pilot with her but are making the case that the other pilots hours don’t count.
Anyway, the good news is that my cold is getting better and I am going off to the airfield to finish the 50 hour check on my 4.
Thanks again to Dave and and everyone who has contributed to this debate, it has switched my mind back into the nebulous thinking that occurred while studying for my degree and the PPL! It’s nice to go there occasionally rather than concentrating mostly on building aeroplanes.