This Summer’s Flight Time Limits May be Higher that You Thought

You may recall from a previous HAC Newsletter, that Transport Canada recently imposed a new definition for “Flight Time” and “Air Time” for helicopters. Apparently, Flight Time and Air Time are now the same. This has caused some grief for the helicopter flight training community, and we know that Transport Canada is in the process of revisiting this new interpretation, so we suggest that you connect with your POI before making any precipitous changes one way or the other. Some charter operator-members have suggested that they must now use “Air Time” for the purpose of calculating Flight Time Limits, which would result in a 10-20% increase over more traditional calculations that use start-up to shut-down for the purpose of these Flight Time calculations. There has been some considerable confusion stemming from the new interpretation, so we suggest that you receive instructions from your Transport Canada Regional office in writing, before proceeding.