Instrument time is one of the most misunderstood columns in a logbook. The rule is precise and narrow: it is the time you spend flying the aircraft purely on the instruments, and nothing else qualifies. This builds on our guide to keeping a digital logbook.
This is general educational information, not operational, legal, or regulatory advice. Rules differ by authority and change over time. Always verify against current official sources and follow your operator's approved procedures.
What instrument time actually is
Instrument time is time spent controlling the aircraft solely by reference to the instruments, with no useful outside visual reference. That phrase is the whole test. It does not matter what flight plan you filed or what clearance you hold; it matters whether you are flying the aircraft on the instruments. The FAA captures this in 14 CFR 61.51(g), and EASA uses the same underlying idea of instrument flight time in Part-FCL.
There are two ways to be flying solely by reference to instruments:
- Actual instrument conditions, where the weather itself, cloud or low visibility, removes the outside reference.
- Simulated instrument conditions, where a view-limiting device, often called a hood or foggles, blocks your view of the world while the weather outside is fine.
Both count as instrument time. The difference is recorded, because one is the real environment and the other is training.
Why an IFR flight plan is not enough
This is the trap. Being on an IFR flight plan tells you which rules and clearances apply; it says nothing about whether you can see out. On a clear day you can fly an entire IFR route in bright visual conditions, looking out of the window the whole way, and log zero instrument time, because you were never flying solely by reference to the instruments. Conversely, a VFR pilot under a hood with a safety pilot, in perfect weather, is logging simulated instrument time.
So keep the two ideas apart: the flight plan is about the legal framework of the flight, and instrument time is about how you were actually flying the aircraft.
The safety pilot for simulated conditions
You cannot wear a hood and fly alone, because you cannot see other traffic. The FAA requires, in 14 CFR 91.109, that simulated instrument flight in an aircraft is conducted with a safety pilot who occupies the other control seat, where the aircraft has fully functioning dual controls. The safety pilot must hold at least a private pilot certificate with the appropriate category and class ratings, and must have adequate vision forward and to each side, or a competent observer in the aircraft to supplement that vision if not. When you log simulated instrument time, you record the safety pilot.
What to record
Under 61.51(g), an instrument time entry records the conditions (actual or simulated), the location and type of each instrument approach flown, and, for simulated conditions, the safety pilot. So a training flight might log: 1.1 hours simulated instrument with a named safety pilot; two approaches, an ILS and an RNAV, at a named airport. The detail matters because instrument time and instrument approaches are what you draw on to show training, to qualify for the instrument rating, and to keep instrument currency. (Recency is covered in our guide to recency and currency.)
A worked example
You fly a two-hour flight. The first 30 minutes are below cloud in good visibility on an IFR clearance; the middle hour is in solid cloud; the last 30 minutes are a visual approach in clear air.
- The first 30 minutes: on an IFR plan, but visual, so no instrument time.
- The middle hour: in cloud, flying on the instruments, so 1.0 hour actual instrument.
- The last 30 minutes: visual, so no instrument time.
You log 1.0 hour of actual instrument time for a two-hour flight, plus any instrument approach you flew, with its type and location. The IFR flight plan covered all two hours; the instrument time covered one.
Instrument approaches, holds, and the currency link
The reason instrument time and approaches are logged so carefully is that they feed instrument currency, the recent experience that lets you keep exercising instrument privileges. The logging and the currency are two sides of the same record.
Under the FAA, 14 CFR 61.57(c) sets out what you must have done in the preceding 6 calendar months to act as pilot in command under IFR or in instrument conditions: at least six instrument approaches, holding procedures and tasks, and intercepting and tracking courses through navigation systems, in the appropriate category of aircraft (or in a suitable flight simulator or training device). This is precisely why the logbook entry records the type and location of each approach: those entries are the evidence that you are current.
If that currency lapses, there is a grace structure. You have a further period in which you can regain currency by flying the required approaches and tasks with a safety pilot, but once more than 6 calendar months have passed beyond that 6-month currency window (so 12 calendar months in total since you were last current), 61.57(d) requires you to complete an instrument proficiency check (IPC) with an authorised instructor or examiner before you can use the rating again.
EASA handles the equivalent through revalidation of the instrument rating (IR). Under Part-FCL (FCL.625), the instrument rating is revalidated by a proficiency check within the three months before its expiry date, and if it has lapsed it is restored through assessment and, where needed, refresher training. The detail differs from the FAA approach, but the principle is shared: instrument privileges are kept alive by recent, logged instrument practice, and the logbook is the proof.
So the columns in your logbook are not bookkeeping for its own sake. The instrument time, and especially the approaches you record with their type and location, are what you point to when you need to show you are current, and what an examiner reviews at a proficiency check. (For the broader picture of recency, see our guide to recency and currency.)
Actual and simulated: a worked split
A training flight often mixes the two kinds of instrument time, and the logbook has to separate them. Take a two-hour instrument lesson in good weather with patches of cloud.
For the first hour you fly under a view-limiting device with an instructor acting as safety pilot in clear air. That is simulated instrument time, logged with the conditions noted as simulated and the safety pilot recorded, as 14 CFR 91.109 requires.
For the second hour you climb into a layer of cloud and fly the rest of the lesson on the instruments in real instrument conditions. That is actual instrument time, logged separately, with no view-limiting device needed because the cloud removes the outside reference.
During the flight you fly two instrument approaches, an ILS and an RNAV, at a named airport. You record each approach with its type and location under 14 CFR 61.51(g).
So the single lesson produces: 1.0 hour simulated instrument with a named safety pilot, 1.0 hour actual instrument, and two logged approaches. The split matters because actual and simulated are different conditions, recorded in different columns, and the approaches you logged are what feed your instrument currency. A sloppy entry that lumped it all together as two hours of instrument time would lose the distinction the rule asks for and weaken the record you rely on at a proficiency check. The habit to build is to ask, for each block of a flight, the single question the rule turns on: was I flying solely by reference to the instruments, and if so, was the outside reference removed by weather or by a view-limiting device? Answer that honestly, block by block, and the columns and their totals take care of themselves.
Common pitfalls
- Logging IFR flight plan time as instrument time. Only time flown solely on the instruments counts.
- Forgetting the safety pilot. Simulated instrument time needs one, recorded in the entry.
- Not recording approaches. The type and location of each instrument approach is part of the entry.
- Mixing actual and simulated. They are logged separately because they are different conditions.
- Assuming the systems match exactly. The FAA and EASA share the principle but differ in detail; log to the one your licence belongs to.
In Pilot EFB
Pilot EFB keeps instrument time in its own column in the electronic logbook, alongside your other totals, so your instrument experience adds up as you record it. It is a convenient personal record: you enter the conditions, approaches, and any safety pilot yourself, and you should confirm your entries against the rule that applies to your licence and reconcile them with any logbook your training organisation or operator treats as official. Entries you have saved stay available offline. Pilot EFB is offline-first and is not a certified or authority-approved electronic logbook.