A flight simulator can teach a great deal without ever leaving the ground, and the rules let some of that time count toward your licences and your recency. But simulator time is logged its own way, in its own column, and only within limits, so it pays to understand what the different devices are and where their time does and does not count.
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.
Synthetic time is not flight time
Start with the rule that prevents the biggest mistake: time in a simulator is synthetic training time, not flight time, and the two are never added together. Your logbook keeps them in separate columns precisely because they are different things. Flight time is time the aircraft is moving for flight; synthetic time is time spent training in an approved ground device. Both are valuable, and both can be banked toward your qualifications, but a total that lumped them together would misrepresent your actual flying experience.
Three conditions decide whether synthetic time can be logged at all: the device has to be qualified for the purpose, the training usually has to be given by an authorised instructor, and the credit toward a licence, rating or recency is capped by the rules. Meet all three and the time counts within its limit; miss any one and it does not.
The EASA device categories
EASA groups synthetic devices under the umbrella term flight simulation training device (FSTD), and the Part-FCL definitions list four, in roughly descending order of fidelity:
- a full flight simulator (FFS), the highest, a full-motion replica of a specific aircraft type, faithful enough that large parts of type training and checking can be done in it;
- a flight training device (FTD), a fixed (non-motion) replica of a specific cockpit;
- a flight and navigation procedures trainer (FNPT), representing a more generic cockpit and the flight and navigation environment, used heavily for instrument and procedure training;
- a basic instrument training device (BITD), a simpler ground-based device that represents a student's station and may use screen-based instrument panels and spring-loaded controls, providing a platform for the procedural side of instrument flight.
The international yardstick for how these are qualified is ICAO Doc 9625, the manual of criteria for FSTD qualification, which sets the standards an authority applies before a device may be used for training and checking.
The FAA device categories
The United States uses a parallel set, governed by 14 CFR Part 60 for the higher-fidelity devices and by advisory material for the lighter ones:
- a full flight simulator (FFS), qualified at Levels A to D, with D the highest;
- a flight training device (FTD), qualified at Levels 4 to 7;
- aviation training devices (ATDs), split into a basic aviation training device (BATD) and an advanced aviation training device (AATD), approved for training and certain credits under a letter of authorisation.
The names differ from EASA's, but the ladder is the same idea: a small number of high-fidelity, type-specific simulators at the top, and simpler, more generic procedure trainers below.
Where the time counts
The reason the categories matter is that the credit a device earns depends on its fidelity and on what you are training for. The rules set limits, and they are specific to each licence, rating and course.
For an instrument rating, a defined portion of the training may be completed in an FSTD or ATD rather than the aircraft, and instrument recency can be maintained in a qualified device. The FAA captures the logging side in 14 CFR 61.51, which lets you log training in an FFS, FTD or ATD when it is received from an authorised instructor, and it lets some instrument tasks be done in a device for currency under 61.57(c). EASA likewise credits a portion of training and certain checks in an FSTD up to the limits in Part-FCL. The exact hours and proportions vary by course and change over time, so the figure to log against is the one in the current rule for what you are doing, not a remembered number.
The thread through all of it: higher-fidelity devices earn more credit, lower-fidelity ones earn less, and none of it counts unless the device is qualified and the instructor authorised.
What synthetic time is good for, and what it is not
The reason the rules credit synthetic time at all is that a good simulator does some things better than the aircraft. Emergencies you would never deliberately fly, engine failures after take-off, system fires, instrument failures in cloud, can be practised to the point of fluency in a device, paused, reset and flown again, with no risk and no weather to wait for. Procedures, instrument approaches, flows and checklists drill efficiently on the ground, and the cost and the carbon are a fraction of the aircraft's. That is genuine training value, not a poor substitute.
What synthetic time cannot fully replace is the real environment: the actual feel and consequences of handling the aircraft, the real weather, the workload of a live radio and real traffic, and the honest pressure of decisions that count. That is exactly why the rules cap the credit, allowing only a portion of a course to be synthetic and requiring the rest in the aircraft. The simulator builds the procedural and emergency-handling foundation; the aircraft proves you can fly it for real.
Recording the session properly
Because synthetic time is conditional, the record has to capture the conditions, or the entry is hard to defend later. A sound synthetic entry notes the device and its qualification level (the FFS level, the FTD level, the FNPT or BITD designation, or the BATD or AATD approval), the authorised instructor who gave the training, the date and duration, and the exercises flown, such as the approaches and emergencies covered. Those details are what let an examiner confirm that the time was loggable: the right device, the right instructor, within the credit the rule allows. A bare line that said only "2 hours simulator" would leave all the questions that matter unanswered.
A worked example
You spend two hours in an FNPT II during your instrument-rating course, flying approaches and holds with an instructor. You log it as synthetic instrument training time, in its own column, recording the device and its qualification and the instructor. It counts toward the instrument-rating training up to the limit Part-FCL sets for synthetic training on that course; beyond the limit, the remaining training has to be in the aircraft. None of those two hours is added to your actual flight time.
Run the same session under the FAA in an AATD. You log it as training-device time, again separately, with the authorised instructor recorded, and it credits toward the instrument rating up to the cap in the rule, and can help maintain instrument currency under 61.57(c).
Now picture a third session: an hour on consumer flight-sim software on your home computer, flying the same approaches beautifully. It is genuinely useful practice, but it is not a qualified device, so none of it is loggable toward a licence, rating or recency. The difference between the second and third sessions is not how realistic they felt; it is whether the device was qualified and the instruction authorised.
Common pitfalls
- Adding synthetic time to flight time. They live in separate columns and are never combined.
- Logging an unqualified device. Home flight-sim software and uncertified rigs are not loggable, however good the practice.
- Forgetting the instructor and the device details. Loggable synthetic time records the device, its qualification and the authorised instructor.
- Assuming all the credit you want is available. The credit toward a licence or rating is capped; only part of a course may be synthetic.
- Carrying one system's device names across. EASA's FNPT and BITD do not map one-to-one onto the FAA's BATD and AATD; log to the system your qualification belongs to.
In Pilot EFB
Pilot EFB can keep synthetic training time in its own column in the electronic logbook, alongside your flight time and instrument time, so the two never get muddled. It is a convenient personal record: you enter the device, its qualification and the instructor yourself, and you confirm the credit against the current rule for your licence and reconcile it with any logbook your training organisation treats as official. Saved entries stay available offline. Pilot EFB is offline-first and is not a certified or authority-approved electronic logbook.