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RegulationsRegulations
Rules set the limits a pilot plans against. These guides explain flight time limitations, duty and rest, recency and the weather minima behind a legal flight, and where each limit comes from, in plain language rather than legalese.
8 guides
- Regulations
Flight time limitations explained
Flight time, duty, flight duty period and rest, explained plainly, with the EASA/UK CAA and FAA limits attributed to each authority. Numbers differ by authority and change, so always check the current rule.
4 min read Read - Regulations
VFR weather minima and cruising levels
The visibility and distance-from-cloud minima for visual flight, and the semicircular cruising-level rule, with the ICAO baseline and the EASA and FAA figures attributed because the units and numbers differ.
4 min read Read - Regulations
Fuel planning and reserves
Why a flight carries more fuel than the trip needs, the ICAO baseline, the FAA VFR and IFR reserve rules, and the EASA fuel-scheme components, each attributed because the numbers differ.
4 min read Read - Regulations
Standby and reserve duty
What standby and reserve mean, how airport standby differs from standby at home, how the FAA handles long-call and short-call reserve, and how standby converts into duty and the flight duty period.
8 min read Read - Regulations
Cumulative duty and flying-hour limits
How the rolling 28-day, annual and weekly limits on flight time and duty actually work, why a rolling window is not a calendar month, with the EASA and FAA figures attributed.
7 min read Read - Regulations
Acclimatisation and crossing time zones
Why your body clock changes the flight duty period you are allowed, how EASA defines an acclimatised state and the FAA defines being acclimated, and what the window of circadian low means.
8 min read Read - Regulations
Rest requirements and minimum rest
What counts as a rest period, how EASA and the FAA set the minimum rest before a duty, the idea of a sleep opportunity, and the weekly rest that protects against cumulative fatigue.
7 min read Read - Regulations
Duty time, flight time and the flight duty period
The four terms at the heart of every fatigue rule, how the maximum flight duty period is built from report time and sectors, and how EASA and the FAA each handle extensions.
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