Logging UAV flight time?

This is really an excellent question.

Currently, the FAA is slightly wishy-washy on the subject of UAV's. There is nothing in the FAR's about uav's. Nothing at all.

There is an interim operational approval guidance (the link below) that deals with UAV operations. 9.1.1.1 deals with who may fly a UAV. Sometimes you need a pilots license (doesn't specify sport, private, or commercial. I assume anything goes) and sometimes you don't. In the cases where a certified pilot is not needed it would be very hard to legally log that time. What is to separate a large UAV from a small radio control airplane you bought online for $40?

If a pilots license is required, and the pilot is qualified then there is nothing saying the time couldn't be logged (61.51 should address this issue, but does not. 61.109 deals with requirements for checkrides, not just logging hours) There is nothing defining an aircraft as "having a pilot on board" so legally, you could log the hours. What you do with those hours is beyond me. No employer or insurance company cares how many uav hours you have. You aren't required to log them differently than traditional hours as of now, but expect that to change. uavs will likely become a separate category, just like a helicopter or a hot air balloon.

There is a requirement for IFR flight that says the pilot must be instrument rated in an airplane. Under IFR I believe you could log the time as you would traditional IFR. Again, an employer or insurance company is going to look at those hours and discredit them, but they are still your hours and the experience is still valid. It seems as though any uav IFR time will count towards the currency requirement of 61.57.

Uav Flight Time

No you can not. Pilot certificates specify flight time to be IN an aircraft.

big EDIT.

Ok joel…I see where you are going but I think you are making an argument that NO FSDO is going to go along with. Following yon argument, assuming I have a pilot cert I can log PIC anytime I fly my RC airplane in my back yard…again assuming that it is the same category and class as what I have on my cert. Somehow I doubt the feds would go along with that one…don’t you?

My previous post was kind of misleading. I meant to imply that flight time used to meet the experience requirements for the issuence of a pilot certificate requires the time to be done IN an airplane.

61.109 mentions a couple of times that training must be IN a x aircraft. No it doesn’t say anywhere that you have to literaly BE in the airplane, but I think that is very much implied. There are certain exemptions for simulator time. But no exemptions for aircraft being flown remotely. Couldn’t find a letter of intent either.

So the question…can you log UAV time as FLIGHT time…Yes. You can log whatever you want. If you show up to an interview at mesa with 3000 hours pic in a uav I would bet the bank the interview is over.

Would I fly with you in IMC if you have a bunch of UAV time in the soup? Not a chance. You’ll hit the montain upside down and in a turn thinking you are straight and level.

UAV ops in the National Airspace is a HUGE issue right now.

Having sat through ENDLESS meetings with the FAA, I can tell you they are frankly anti-UAV.

There is NO way they would equivocate UAV operators as fully-qual'd IFR pilots. Certainly no airline would consider it as such.

Other than the USAF, other services do not have aviators as UAV operators.

Even the USAF considers UAV "pilots" to be unqualified on their primary weapon system when they are released back into the flying community; they have to go back to RTU and requal.

Most UAV pilots only receive the equivalent amount of time in a real airplane as a civilian might do in order to solo for the first time. UAVs are all autopilot anyway.

I don't know the answer on this... but I can tell you that the USAF has authorized UAV and UCAV pilots to be awarded Air Medals.

Go figure.

I see absolutely no reason he cannot log PIC time so long as he is the sole manipulator of the controls and is rated in the aircraft. You only need to be in the aircraft to log if you're not rated for the aircraft.

Arguably, he can log IFR time, since he is flying solely by reference to instruments. If you believe differently, cite the FAR that you think prohibits it.

Chris: You are not FAA rated to fly your RC plane. If you were, you could certainly log the time you were flying. (How could you even get the rating if you could never log any time? Think about it.) Again, if you disagree, cite the FAR.

You can log it, but only as UAV time. Not as flight time.