Multi-Pilot Time

Multi-pilot time is the regulatory term for flight time accumulated on aircraft whose type certificate or flight manual requires a minimum crew of two pilots. The definition matters because it is not simply any flight time on a twin-engine aircraft — a Piper Seneca or Beechcraft Baron is a multi-engine aircraft, but it is certificated for single-pilot operation, and time on those types accrues as single-pilot time regardless of whether two pilots were on board. Multi-pilot time accumulates only on aircraft whose approved Flight Manual specifies a minimum flight crew of two, such as the ATR 42/72, Bombardier CRJ series, Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737, or Embraer E-jet family.

Under EASA Part-FCL, the definition of multi-pilot time — and the logging rules that govern it — flows from FCL.010 (definitions), AMC1 FCL.010 (acceptable means of compliance), and AMC1 FCL.050 (logbook format). FCL.010 defines four pilot roles relevant to multi-pilot logging: P1 (Pilot in Command, the captain who holds command authority and logs the flight as PIC); P2 (co-pilot/Second in Command, who logs the flight time in the co-pilot column and earns multi-pilot time credit even though they do not hold PIC authority for the flight); PICUS (Pilot in Command Under Supervision, a hybrid category where a licensed pilot acts as operating PIC under a supervising captain's oversight, crediting up to 500 hours toward the ATPL PIC requirement under FCL.510(a)(2)); and SPIC (Student Pilot in Command, applicable to pre-license students on single-pilot aircraft, not a multi-pilot time source).

The EASA ATPL(A) experience requirements under FCL.510(a) specify 1,500 hours of total flight time, of which a minimum of 500 hours must be on multi-pilot aeroplanes. This 500-hour minimum is frequently the binding constraint for candidates who began their career on single-pilot types: a pilot with 1,200 hours total but only 200 hours of multi-pilot time does not yet qualify for ATPL issue, regardless of the total hour count. The multi-pilot hour accumulation rate is therefore a key career planning variable for airline first officers in the initial years of line operations.

The PICUS mechanism under FCL.510(a)(2) permits a maximum of 500 hours of PICUS time to count toward the PIC hour requirement — but this does not affect the 500-hour multi-pilot minimum, which is a separate accumulation tracked in the P2 and PICUS columns of the logbook. A pilot with 500 hours of PICUS and 300 hours of P2 has 800 hours of multi-pilot time, comfortably exceeding the 500-hour minimum; the PICUS-toward-PIC credit addresses the PIC hours separately.

In the United States, the FAA regulatory structure under 14 CFR Part 61 does not use the term "multi-pilot time" as a defined logging category. The analogous concept is Second in Command (SIC) time, loggable under §61.51(f) when a pilot is a required crewmember serving as SIC on an aircraft that requires more than one pilot by type certificate or flight manual, or when serving as SIC on a flight under rules that require two crew. FAA SIC time is credited toward the 1,500-hour ATP total under §61.159(a) and toward the 250-hour PIC requirement under §61.159(a)(1) only where the pilot was the sole manipulator and held the appropriate rating — FAA PIC logging is based on aircraft control, not command authority, which differs structurally from EASA's P1/P2/PICUS taxonomy.

The ATP Certification Training Program (ATP-CTP) requirement under §61.156, introduced by the FAA in response to NTSB recommendations following the Colgan Air Flight 3407 accident (Buffalo, February 2009), requires completion of an approved ATP-CTP course before taking the ATP knowledge test — but this course does not itself generate multi-pilot time; it is a knowledge qualification prerequisite.

Logbook discipline in the multi-pilot time columns is a common source of errors discovered at airline-employer interview. EASA-trained candidates sometimes conflate their P1 and PICUS columns; FAA-trained candidates sometimes claim SIC time logged on aircraft for which a second pilot was not required. Airline HR departments and license-issuing authority examiners routinely audit these columns before issuing ATPL licenses or making hiring decisions, making accurate column discipline a practical career-level concern.

Flight schools running integrated ATPL programs — from ab-initio through MCC/APS-MCC — graduate students with only the hours accumulated in the program, typically 200–250 hours of which a modest proportion is on multi-crew aircraft (MCC course and any multi-pilot simulator time). The student then relies on early airline employment to accumulate the bulk of the 500-hour multi-pilot minimum as part of their First Officer service before ATPL issue. Managing this transition — tracking the remaining multi-pilot hours needed, the theoretical knowledge validity clock, and the PICUS allocation relative to the 1,500-hour total — is a multi-variable planning problem that occurs at the intersection of the ATO's student records and the airline's crew management system.

For ATO administrators, the multi-pilot time records generated during MCC training and any simulator-based multi-crew sessions must be accurate and structured to survive the ATPL application audit. Each multi-pilot session must be logged in the correct column, linked to the correct aircraft type certification basis, and signed off by a qualified FI(MPA) or TRI with multi-pilot authorization. Errors in this foundation phase — before the student has even started airline line training — compound over the candidate's career.

Aviatize's training management module enforces multi-pilot time column discipline at the point of flight log entry during MCC training and any multi-pilot aircraft operations. Each aircraft record in the platform is configured with its certification basis — single-pilot or multi-pilot — so that flight hours automatically populate the correct logbook columns without requiring the instructor or student to make a manual determination. This eliminates the common error of logging multi-engine twin time in the multi-pilot column when the aircraft type does not require a multi-pilot crew.

For frozen ATPL progress tracking through the compliance and auditing module, each student's logbook totals are monitored against ATPL experience requirements across all dimensions simultaneously: total time, multi-pilot time, PIC time, PICUS credit, instrument time, and night time. The platform flags any dimension where the accumulation rate implies a risk of not meeting the ATPL minimum before the theoretical knowledge validity expires — providing actionable information for training directors who need to counsel candidates on career-trajectory planning and for airline training departments managing their own cadet pipelines.