Simple(and probably stupid) question.

[LuckyBlundy]

What is the customary take-off time for the large propliners? Engine start? Throttle up for TO? Lift off? or something I havn't thought of?

[Adam24]

It depends on the aircraft type, its weight, engine type, atmospheric conditions, pilot operations... Its imposible to tell an average value.
And, one thing more: There are no stupid questions in this forum, if they are related to aviation and flightsimming, its okay

[ianhr]

Brakes off to brakes on.

[JSkorna]

Adam24,

He means between what 2 events is flight time recorded? So what starts the flight time clock ticking and what shuts the time clock off?

[ReggieF5421]

My memory is old - but back in 1972-74 I was in a US Navy squadron which flew Lockheed Super Constellations - C-121J, EC-121 - aircraft.

Aircraft engine time was the actual time the engines were running. Each engine could have a different number of hours.

Time for a flight (say Guam to Atsugi Japan) was figured from closing the doors to start engines to opening the doors after engine shutdown - rounded up to a 15 minute mark. That was the block of time recorded in the log books for the aircraft "Flight Time" and for crew members "Flight Time".

Most airlines use the published departure time as the time of closing the doors and pushback/ engine startup. They do not use the departure time as the actual takeoff run time. This goes back to the earliest days of airlines.

If an airline says the flight leaves at 1:00 pm and the airplane leaves the gate area at 12:40 pm to be able to takeoff at 1 - passengers will arrive late and complain about the schedule being wrong. The flight leaving 'early'.

My memory is that it usually took about 15-20 minutes for engine start, taxi, pre-flight engine runups, checks, etc before the Super Connies were ready to line-up and takeoff. This was on airports with almost no other traffic.

By comparison - our P-3 turboprops and A-3 jets were usually off the ground in less than 10 minutes.

[Adam24]

Adam24,

He means between what 2 events is flight time recorded? So what starts the flight time clock ticking and what shuts the time clock off?

Sorry about that, I didnt understood.

[tommchowat]

It's normally block time. The time that the aircraft pushes back from the stand at the departure airport to the time that the parking brake is set on stand at the arrival airport.

[skylab]

JSkorna -
He means between what 2 events is flight time recorded?

I kinda wish LuckyBlundy would respond so we know just what he was asking for. Can't figure out how you understood that is what he wanted. If so...ianhr had it right, right away.

[LuckyBlundy]

Actually, the figure I was looking for is that which could be used for navigation purposes (i.e. Time and distance calculatons). I didn't state my original post very well.

[angels355]

In the old days at United, DC6's, before each takeoff they would actually take out the spark plugs to examine and clean them because of the carbon buildup, if I remember how it was described correctly. So that would add time to the aircraft's turn around time before it's ready to take off. One thing I heard about piston Constellations was that on trans Atlantic flights, they would usually lose an engine, that is one engine would fail and shut down in flight. As I understand it that was normal and routine.