Cross Country Flight?
Nasa Space Shuttle on a Cross Country Flight
Today, as I write this article for Flying Families, I consider that I’ve finally seen a shuttle launch, from my back garden! Now that I’m more based in Florida than Berkshire I can consider what the space shuttle pilots put in their log books. The shuttle recently landed on that long, long runway at Cape Canaveral. When I last saw that runway I was amazed at its length, so long in fact that from one end of the runway you can’t even see the other end (due to the Earth’s curvature). The question that would be uppermost in my mind after the excitement of a spaceflight would be “what should I put down in my log book?”.
Well if I was pilot in command, I can put that down as PIC or P1. The Co-Pilot can put down P2 time. Unless I was the Co-pilot acting as pilot in command, under the supervision of the pilot in command. In which case I can put it down PIC U/S or P1 U/S. That being true only if the acting pilot in command carried out all the duties of the pilot in command including the take off and landing and the log book is endorsed by the pilot in command to state that the pilot acting as pilot in command correctly carried out the duties of a pilot in command. Then I’d have to wonder whether a rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral counts as a take off and if it did who was flying it?
To those of us who fly in the thin layer of atmosphere nearer to the ground the questions are not so tricky. Put P1 U/S if the instructor didn’t touch the controls at any point and has signed your log book at the end to confirm this. If you are undergoing a test of any kind then a successful test will be P1 U/S (signed log book and the time goes under the P1 column) and a failed test will be P1 U/T (the time goes under Dual column).
As an astronaut, the press conference would come next. Answering questions about space food, what was it like to be weightless etc etc. Then I’d get to wondering…Was it an International flight? After all my logbook will say I left Cape Canaveral and came back to Cape Canaveral; that’s a lot of circuit practice!