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FAQ > Safelog Pilot Logbook
Duty Time, Block Time, and Flight Time logging.

Safelog fully supports Duty Time, Block Time, and Flight Time Logging and is flexible enough to support nearly all of the myriad interpretations that pilots and regulatory agencies have for the latter two of these. The information below may get a bit technical in its description of this, but the bottom line is that yes, we fully support this in a flexible and powerful way that is fast and efficient for the professional pilots who designed it and for whom it is designed.

You can configure Safelog to match the format for these fields that you like. For example, some pilots use the "Out - Off - On - In" format popular in the USA, and others, including many EASA pilots, use other formats. Safelog allows you to configure it as you like.

  • To turn on Duty, Block, and/or Flight Time logging as appropriate and to set up how it's displayed for you please go to SETUP ... Airline Pilot Options. Generally speaking, you have the option to specify either simply a total duration for these or a start/finish (begin/end, etc) GMT and/or Local time for each which will imply an auto-calculated duration.
  • Automatic Duty/Flight/Block currency checking. You can check your currency with regards to these under "Currency." For example, Safelog will check your compliance with these against a number of FAA, EASA, Transport Canada, CASA, and other regulations. It will also present you with a calendar and/or graphical view to enable you to see the whole picture as to when and how your currency is still good for. Additionally, you can under Currency go to "Custom Currency/Limits/ Rules" to create your own rules.
  • Flexible support for all regulatory interpretations. Many pilots think that their definition of "Flight Time" or "Block Time" is universal, or universal within their regulatory environment. Our long experience with these suggests that this is not really the case ("enter the flight deck", "master power on", "operating on own power", "chocks removed", "begin to taxi", "enter the runway active zone", "begin takeoff roll", "wheels up", etc etc... we've heard it all). It's not really the case even if you can find some document from your regulatory agency that says "block time means THIS" or "flight time means THIS." Historically, we can find documents from the same agency which takes a different view. Moreover, probably when you started logging early in your career, the nuances were not so relevant to you. We handle this by giving you the power to decide. We provide the mechanism for you to log duty, flight, or block time. What you actually enter there is up to you. We don't force this - we give you the ultimate flexibility. Then, when you go to generate certain output, including currency calculations and/or logbook printouts, if you happen to have both flight and block time enabled, you decide which to use and, when appropriate, how it will be labelled. If this sounds complicated, don't worry - it really isn't, in practice. All you have to do is log as flight time or block time as seems naturally to you, and Safelog will handle the nuances and inform you if and when you have a preference to make. For example, where Safelog produces a report that emulates a paper logbook with an ambiguous "Total Duration of Flight" column, you will have the option to select exactly what goes there (block or flight time) and what the exact title of that column should be in your printout. The power is there for all professional pilots and in practice our approach has turned this nuanced reality into a non-issue.
  • Import Flight / Duty / Block time directly from your airline or company - Safelog supports dozens of import formats and thousands of operators. Your flight / block / duty time will can be imported if we or one of out roster intermediaries supports your airline/company and if you have enabled the corresponding fields in your Safelog eLogbook.
  • Auto-Fill based on Flight/Duty/Block times. To save time during manual data entry, Safelog can auto-fill in values based on flight, block and duty times. This includes auto-calculating day and night times. You can even do this with specified percentage or fixed offsets (for example: "My IFR flight time is equal to my Flight Time minus 10 minutes"). To learn more about this, click on SETUP ... FIELD SUGGESTION AND AUTO-LINKING
  • Smart Duty time calculation. When logging duty time, the normal way to do this is to log one flight with a specified duty period and then to use the provided tab-like interface to add additional flights or sectors within that duty period. This is designed to be visually consistent with the mental picture that you have of how multiple-sector duty periods work. However, if for whatever reason you log the flights independently, Safelog will intelligently combine them. For example, let's say for a given day you log a Duty Period of 0900-1700 and then log a flight from 1000 to 1100 in it. Then, later from a different device you log a flight for the same day for 1300-1500. Safelog will smartly recognize that this flight belongs to this duty period and will display things accordingly. When presenting a logbook view, Safelog spans duty period across multiple rows as this is the most natural way to visualize this.
  • Later adjustment of Flight / Block time records and interpretation is possible thanks to our mass actions tool. This allows you to move and adjust values in bulk as needed. Look under Other Tools ... Mass Actions for these.
Related Issues
Time Zone Handling?
EASA Block and Duty Time Currency Tracking (PART-FCL)
Logging Multi-Sector Days (Multiple Flights per Duty Period)