Pilot's log archiving

C

chippy

Filing Flight Plan
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Dec 6, 2024
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Nashville
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Cher
As I have mentioned in other threads, I am a rusty pilot looking to resume training to be a CFI after 20-something years of absence. I am grateful that only by some accident of circumstance, I managed to retain my logbook. It is in pristine condition through no particular intention on my part. I only have a PP, with several endorsements so my first act, after renewing my medical, will be to get my IR. I've been out of the left seat so long that I'm not sure how much, if any, my previous time will help from a practical matter of having lost some familiarity. However, it is nice to know that I meet almost all the requirements for an IR except for twenty hours of simulated hood time in a plane and instrument ground school (I have 20 hours in a simulator with an instructor, all my night and cross-country hours etc). While I have no intention of short-cutting myself on training, I do appreciate that I still have my logbook, its true value forgotten for so long. So, this has me wondering if I shouldn't back up or archive my logbook in some way? Do any of you have copies of your logbook? If so, is it digital or hard copy? I imagine there are cloud based electronic log books now. Are these allowed for a check-ride, let's say?

As a side, I owned my own Bonanza and essentially stopped logging flights after a couple hundred hours. I know, I know... Is there any way to claim those hours or rebuild that portion of the Pilot's Log based on the tach? Should I acknowledge the time with a single entry or just chalk it up as lesson learned?
 
I take a picture of my logbook when I finish a page. You can print all the pages for a hard copy if you want, or keep it digitally
 
At this point, unless you can show some contemporaneous evidence, I wouldn't worry about the missing flights. After 20 years away it really won't matter much. You'll still have to get up top snuff VFR and perhaps learn some new equipment. Not only GPS but glass is quickly replacing analog instruments even in older aircraft. But if you want to, there is FAA guidance on the subject of lost logbooks which may apply. I'll pull them up and post them.

On the instrument training side, your prior experience may help get your scan and aircraft control back up to standard quickly. but that only covers 10-20% of instrument training - the other 80-90% is rules, procedures, and new avionics some of which you either need to be relearned, but much of which you probably never knew.

Coincidentally, looks like I'm getting started with someone who has been out of the loop for a few years longer than you.
 
chippy said:
As I have mentioned in other threads, I am a rusty pilot looking to resume training to be a CFI after 20-something years of absence. I am grateful that only by some accident of circumstance, I managed to retain my logbook. It is in pristine condition through no particular intention on my part. I only have a PP, with several endorsements so my first act, after renewing my medical, will be to get my IR. I've been out of the left seat so long that I'm not sure how much, if any, my previous time will help from a practical matter of having lost some familiarity. However, it is nice to know that I meet almost all the requirements for an IR except for twenty hours of simulated hood time in a plane and instrument ground school (I have 20 hours in a simulator with an instructor, all my night and cross-country hours etc). While I have no intention of short-cutting myself on training, I do appreciate that I still have my logbook, its true value forgotten for so long. So, this has me wondering if I shouldn't back up or archive my logbook in some way? Do any of you have copies of your logbook? If so, is it digital or hard copy? I imagine there are cloud based electronic log books now. Are these allowed for a check-ride, let's say?

As a side, I owned my own Bonanza and essentially stopped logging flights after a couple hundred hours. I know, I know... Is there any way to claim those hours or rebuild that portion of the Pilot's Log based on the tach? Should I acknowledge the time with a single entry or just chalk it up as lesson learned?
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Yes, there are many online logbooks available now. It's quickly becoming the standard over paper. I use and recommend Myflightbook.com, which is a website and an IOS/Android app, and the developer, @EricBe is a participant on this board. It is free although a small annual donation does get you automated backups, which I find very worthwhile.

It (and really any of the others) will blow you away with the features they have compared to paper logbooks. Easy totals with whatever criteria you want, currency tracking, automatic logging, on and on. Check them out.

And yes, they can be used for checkrides. CFIs can enter legal, valid endorsements in them with digital signatures and the whole bit.

For backing up your existing logbook, that's easy - just take pictures with your phone of each page (including the endorsement pages). You'll be done in just a minute or two. Save them to Google Photos or whatever your favorite cloud-based service is.

I would recommend you take the time to enter your previous time into one of the online logbooks (though I may skip entering most of the remarks unless they're particularly meaningful). Depending on how many hours you had, it may take a while, but it results in a good, thorough, online logbook. And it may be fun remembering some old flights. Do a page or two a day and it won't take long.
 
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midlifeflyer said:
See paragraph 5-172 here.
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Most recently I had an applicant come with 8710s that got him up to a certain point, with logbooks showing more recent flights to meet requirements. Obviously 8710s show specific things, but don’t show every flight requirement.

A while back I had an applicant with a piece of paper that had times written on it, and a notarized letter essentially saying, “I lost my logbooks. This is how much time I have.” That didn’t fly, and neither did he.
 
midlifeflyer said:
At this point, unless you can show some contemporaneous evidence, I wouldn't worry about the missing flights. After 20 years away it really won't matter much. You'll still have to get up top snuff VFR and perhaps learn some new equipment. Not only GPS but glass is quickly replacing analog instruments even in older aircraft. But if you want to, there is FAA guidance on the subject of lost logbooks which may apply. I'll pull them up and post them.

On the instrument training side, your prior experience may help get your scan and aircraft control back up to standard quickly. but that only covers 10-20% of instrument training - the other 80-90% is rules, procedures, and new avionics some of which you either need to be relearned, but much of which you probably never knew.

Coincidentally, looks like I'm getting started with someone who has been out of the loop for a few years longer than you.
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Agree that OP's previously logged time is not super useful WRT training, but I would add that for insurance purposes going forward, it could be quite valuable. I would try to rebuild it to the extent that I could, knowing that if you want to use it towards flying professionally, they'll probably question it. Insurance though, generally just wants a number, and a couple hundred hours of high performance retract time could make a big difference if you think you'll own an airplane again.

As a couple have mentioned above, I take a photo of each completed page that is automatically backed up to "the cloud". It'd be a pain to rebuild , but it'd be there. I've also started keeping an electronic log (shout out www.myflightbook.com ) which is SUPER handy when filling out an insurance application or 8710. Often these days I'll log it in MFB on the way home from the airport and update the paper log after 3-4 flights.
 
I use the automatic logging in Garmin Pilot, as it includes GPS tracks and engine monitor data. I will periodically download a copy for my own archive. I also choose to continue logging in a traditional logbook (which I have in a fancy leather sleeve) because for me there's a special pleasure in hand-logging time and occasionally flipping through the pages. Digital is absolutely amazing for flight totals and currency tracking, but lacks a certain something.
 
If you know the hours you flew, go ahead and log them if you want. Logbook entries, other than CFI(I) signed training, is really all on the honor system. Be sure to add a note as to why you're adding a block of time and expect questions every time you hand it to a new CFI(I) or DPE.

If you're going to start working on your Inst Rating, then you might look into ForeFlight or one of the other EFBs out there now days. ForeFlight has an electronic Logbook you can slowly start adding your old flights into if you want. I'd suggest downloading their Excel Template and doing it on the computer). As for your paper Logbook, I still get all my signatures in my Paper Logbook. As others have said, take a picture or I scan my paper Logbook to keep a digital record. The advantage of my ForeFlight Logbook it that I can search for pretty much anything I want.

Good luck on getting back into flying. My guess is you'll want to do a fair amount of VFR flying so you're not wasting your time with your Inst Instructor getting your basic motor skills back. Also learning the basics of FF or whatever EFB you choose to go with.
 
You could try to rebuild some of it by linking your and your friends & family’s memories to events, holidays, vacations, etc (“remember we flew to XYZ on my birthday”).

Your prior A&P might have tach-time records in archive.

Owner you sold it to might have tach time when he/she bought it.

Current owner will have airframe logs with tach time, at the very least.

Use all of that to figure out some rough number, including some factor for warmup, taxi, etc
 
M20K said:
Be sure to add a note as to why you're adding a block of time and expect questions every time you hand it to a new CFI(I) or DPE.
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“A block of time” is not a logbook entry that complies with 61.51. If you’re going to add a block back in, you’ll need supporting documentation per the link @midlifeflyer posted.
 
MauleSkinner said:
“A block of time” is not a logbook entry that complies with 61.51. If you’re going to add a block back in, you’ll need supporting documentation per the link @midlifeflyer posted.
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Yea... No. In the 5.127 note that it says "...Aeronautical training and experience that is used by airmen to meet the requirements for a certificate or rating, or for recent flight experience, must be documented in a reliable record..."

From what I read, @chippy has the endorsements for what he would be using towards his Inst Rating. It is just the other PIC time he want's to recover. There is no reason he cannot put in one line for his HONEST best guess of the time he legitimately logged in the plane he owned. (Maybe even drop the number by 10%) If he happens to use QuickBooks or Quicken, he could probably even pull up credit card fuel payments and get a legitimate estimate from that.
 
M20K said:
Yea... No. In the 5.127 note that it says "...Aeronautical training and experience that is used by airmen to meet the requirements for a certificate or rating, or for recent flight experience, must be documented in a reliable record..."

From what I read, @chippy has the endorsements for what he would be using towards his Inst Rating. It is just the other PIC time he want's to recover. There is no reason he cannot put in one line for his HONEST best guess of the time he legitimately logged in the plane he owned. (Maybe even drop the number by 10%) If he happens to use QuickBooks or Quicken, he could probably even pull up credit card fuel payments and get a legitimate estimate from that.
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He can log individual flights, but not a block as “this is what I’ve got.”. See 61.51. If he has fuel receipts, etc., that would fall under supporting documentation that might allow a block entry.
 
Jim K said:
As a couple have mentioned above, I take a photo of each completed page that is automatically backed up to "the cloud". It'd be a pain to rebuild , but it'd be there. I've also started keeping an electronic log (shout out www.myflightbook.com ) which is SUPER handy when filling out an insurance application or 8710. Often these days I'll log it in MFB on the way home from the airport and update the paper log after 3-4 flights.
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I stopped using my paper logbook for flights which did not require a third-party signature in 2013. I kept it for signatures until 2016 when I began to only use it only for CFIs who still felt uncomfortable with the digital logbook concept. Last paper entry of any kind was in July 2019.

You mention MyFlightBook. Funny story about that - my user number is lower than Eric's. I've been using it since 2006 when I ported the home-grown eLog I'd been using since the mid-1990s (originally in DOS).
 
A fellow very rusty pilot here....
I went up a few times with an instructor after about 18 years, and I was shocked at how well I handled the basics of "stick and rudder"...but also how rusty I felt doing other things such as preflight. I also felt like my reflexes were slow in the landing phase.
I'm instrument rated and I feel that I'd most likely stay VFR when I ever do get back into it.... at least for a long time. Seems to me that if I were going to set out with the goal today to get instrument proficient again, it would probably take me a ton of dual instruction...maybe nearly as much as when I originally worked on the rating! About the only advantage I have is that I would not have to pay current prices for the check-ride, or otherwise deal with the scheduling headaches and stress of a checkride either...


re. the logbook
I always burned a photocopy of my logbook when I filled a page... even back in the 1990's when I was most active. Later, I started keeping scanned copies digitally in addition to the paper photocopy.... But I'm just an uptight kind of guy when it comes to back-ups and documentation.... although I have relaxed a lot in my old age about all that.

Some years ago, I think it might have been during covid, I went through my logbook and built a spreadsheet. Not so much as a back-up, but to be able to see the data. It was a fun project reminiscing. It proved to be constructive too. I found some errors along the way. Then I used the data to build some other spreadsheets listing all the aircraft I've flown for example.... which prompted research to get things like serial numbers, year models, horsepower, etc... It gives me a more complete picture... I broke out all sorts of different data points, such as time in types.... how much time in C-172N and how much in C-172P, not just how much time in C-172's
Then I broke out a spreadsheet of all the airports I've operated out of...which took me on a rat trail finding closed airports, the current identifiers for airports that have been renamed, etc. (for example W45 is now KLUA)

At some point I learned about myflightboook here on this forum. I was able to use the spreadsheet data to fill that in...which is basically what I created in spreadsheet form, but better in many ways! It offers some very interesting tools

Still I'm glad that I did the spreadsheet. Just now typing this post, I thought I wondered how many hours it took me to get my instrument rating. Well that's a little complicated so instead, how many hours did I have at my private checkride and how many more did I have at my instrument checkride?....so I added a column and a minute later I knew that I had 64.8 total hours going into my PPL ride and 160.5 going into my instrument ride. I know it wasn't close to 95.7 hours of instruction or practice actually for instrument ride, but I know it was 95.7 hours of experience that brought me to that level of competence.
 
If you just stopped logging time, even though you were still flying, how could you have proved your 3 takeoffs and landings inn the previous 90 days to carry passengers? Good thing there was not an incident that required that proof. Normally renewal of insurance policies would ask for time in the previous year, or current time to date... did that ever get updated?

If you just flew and never logged the time... time not logged is time lost.
 
Agree 100% to scan as a PDF or take a picture. I have Adobe Acrobat, so I can add additional PDF pages to my log book back up providing me with one file with all of my flights.

In addition to that, if you want to keep it very simple you can also type your hours into an Excel spreadsheet. You can easily add hours, sort by aircraft type, hood time, approaches flown, etc.
 
M20K said:
Yea... No. In the 5.127 note that it says "...Aeronautical training and experience that is used by airmen to meet the requirements for a certificate or rating, or for recent flight experience, must be documented in a reliable record..."
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Yes, but the guidance in 5-127 is subject to the logbook regulation in terms of how documented in the ordinary course of events. But a logbook is also a ledger. So I can see making block entries for recaptured time when that’s all you have. Easy example is a single entry for the totals you got from your last 8710. @455 Bravo Uniform gave some other examples that might work for that, like the recorded times between annuals if one was sole user of the aircraft,
 
I built a NAS (Ausutor AS6704T) and keep my important digital documentation there.Totally encrypted.
My son (in Boston) built a NAS. My important documents back up there, his backup on mine.
A third family NAS will be on line by the end of the month in Connecticut. They will all talk.
We also have about 450 movies and shows that we can all access.
 
midlifeflyer said:
You mention MyFlightBook. Funny story about that - my user number is lower than Eric's. I've been using it since 2006 when I ported the home-grown eLog I'd been using since the mid-1990s (originally in DOS).
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I'm still not entirely sure how that happened - I think at some point I deleted and re-created my own account, but you were on when I was still hosting MyFlightbook out of my basement! You may have been the first or second person who wasn't in my flying club to join (not sure how you discovered it...)
 
EricBe said:
I'm still not entirely sure how that happened - I think at some point I deleted and re-created my own account, but you were on when I was still hosting MyFlightbook out of my basement! You may have been the first or second person who wasn't in my flying club to join (not sure how you discovered it...)
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I was looking around for a host for my MS-Access database because every update to Access broke something. Yours was the second I tried and you helped with some of the conversion (mine was relational but in a different way). I can’t even remember the name of the first.
 
chippy said:
So, this has me wondering if I shouldn't back up or archive my logbook in some way? Do any of you have copies of your logbook? If so, is it digital or hard copy?
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I put everything into an electronic logbook when I did my commercial (at 600+ hours total time) and had to fill out an 8710 by going through all the entries manually. Most stuff has totals, but there were a few items that aren't logged in their own column that were a real pain.

I did go back and put every single flight from my paper logbook into the electronic one, and I do recommend spending the time to do that.

I have since imported all of it into ForeFlight so I no longer have to pay for a separate logbook subscription. In addition, I use the new ForeFlight option that automatically emails me a complete export of my logbook every month as a CSV file, so I figure I'm quite safe!
chippy said:
As a side, I owned my own Bonanza and essentially stopped logging flights after a couple hundred hours. I know, I know... Is there any way to claim those hours or rebuild that portion of the Pilot's Log based on the tach? Should I acknowledge the time with a single entry or just chalk it up as lesson learned?
Click to expand...
I did the same, and recently I was planning to go back and reclaim that time by going through maintenance records and the occasional pic of the Hobbs. However, I do have a habit of taking a picture with my phone of the flight time (from the transponder) and fuel remaining at the end of each flight, and with that plus pictures I took in flight I was able to recreate it leg by leg. I may have missed one here or there, but not a significant enough difference.

If you can't do that, and you were the only person to fly the plane, you may be able to use maintenance records as supporting documentation for adding a block of time.
Jim K said:
Agree that OP's previously logged time is not super useful WRT training, but I would add that for insurance purposes going forward, it could be quite valuable. I would try to rebuild it to the extent that I could, knowing that if you want to use it towards flying professionally, they'll probably question it. Insurance though, generally just wants a number, and a couple hundred hours of high performance retract time could make a big difference if you think you'll own an airplane again.
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Definitely useful, but I would at a minimum put in the remarks what supporting documentation was used to determine the number of hours entered this way.
M20K said:
From what I read, @chippy has the endorsements for what he would be using towards his Inst Rating. It is just the other PIC time he want's to recover. There is no reason he cannot put in one line for his HONEST best guess of the time he legitimately logged in the plane he owned. (Maybe even drop the number by 10%)
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I would not ever put anything that's a guess in a logbook, no matter how good or honest that guess was. Only put in things that you have supporting documentation for. Otherwise, whether it's an insurance adjuster or an interviewer for a job, they're likely to throw those hours out and question the rest.
M20K said:
If he happens to use QuickBooks or Quicken, he could probably even pull up credit card fuel payments and get a legitimate estimate from that.
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That's another good form of supporting documentation.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I would not ever put anything that's a guess in a logbook, no matter how good or honest that guess was. Only put in things that you have supporting documentation for.
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I, and I'm sure most pilots, have "supporting documentation" for an extremely low percentage of our time.

I'd estimate, currently, I have such documentation for about 20% of my time, and that's only because my employer keeps a separate log. Before that? I have supporting documentation for pretty much 0%.
 
I have posted something similar elsewhere, but . . .
scroll.png
Carbon, suspended in a liquid, deposited on parchment and papyrus 2,500 years ago. Can you even read a data base stored on a magnetic tape or floppy disc? Will you be able to read an archive of this post in 40 years?
 
Rene said:
I have posted something similar elsewhere, but . . .
View attachment 137473
Carbon, suspended in a liquid, deposited on parchment and papyrus 2,500 years ago. Can you even read a data base stored on a magnetic tape or floppy disc? Will you be able to read an archive of this post in 40 years?
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My first electronic logbook was an Excel spreadsheet that I made myself in about 1995. I don't use it any more, but it's still on my computer and perfectly accessible 30 years later.
 
RussR said:
but it's still on my computer and perfectly accessible 30 years later.
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Same computer and same Hard Drive?????

It would be interesting if you put that HD on a shelf and then if someone found it 2,500 years from now if they could still access the spreadsheet.
 
RussR said:
I, and I'm sure most pilots, have "supporting documentation" for an extremely low percentage of our time.

I'd estimate, currently, I have such documentation for about 20% of my time, and that's only because my employer keeps a separate log. Before that? I have supporting documentation for pretty much 0%.
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But you weren't logging hundreds of hours on one line as a guess either.

And at least at some point there existed supporting documentation... I don't know how long they keep the records in TotalFBO but I wouldn't be surprised if I could go get a listing of my bills from flight training 20+ years ago as that company still has bills that look (and are numbered) the same. My flying club's Google sheet still exists with a good chunk of my time in it.

But yeah, my comment was mainly around the going back and entering a line with potentially hundreds of hours based on a guess. That's not gonna fly with anyone who matters.
RussR said:
My first electronic logbook was an Excel spreadsheet that I made myself in about 1995. I don't use it any more, but it's still on my computer and perfectly accessible 30 years later.
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If you just open up all your files every time you get a new computer, you should be able to keep them accessible essentially forever.

I do wonder often about exactly the sort of thing @Rene mentions, though - What will future historians find of our time? While we create new data at a breakneck pace, the vast majority of it will be lost in the long term.
 
M20K said:
Same computer and same Hard Drive?????

It would be interesting if you put that HD on a shelf and then if someone found it 2,500 years from now if they could still access the spreadsheet.
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1737815606052.png
The 200-year old Beetle ('Sleeper', 1973)
 
M20K said:
Same computer and same Hard Drive?????

It would be interesting if you put that HD on a shelf and then if someone found it 2,500 years from now if they could still access the spreadsheet.
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Of course not. But I didn't think that was the question. Keeping that Excel logbook of mine accessible by current computers has taken virtually no effort over the years, I just copy it to each new folder, with the rest of the "My Documents" folder like I'm pretty sure most people do. So I have spent pretty much zero effort over the last 30 years on it. The point I was trying to make is that while paper is probably more easily maintainable in a readable condition, it's not by very much for the original owner.

I certainly am not placing any effort into making sure my logbooks, paper or otherwise, will be accessible 2500 years from now.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
And at least at some point there existed supporting documentation... I don't know how long they keep the records in TotalFBO but I wouldn't be surprised if I could go get a listing of my bills from flight training 20+ years ago as that company still has bills that look (and are numbered) the same. My flying club's Google sheet still exists with a good chunk of my time in it.
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I cannot imagine there are still flight school and aircraft rental records from 1993 when I started training. Billing and receipts were hand-written. And even if the school/FBO still existed, and they are in a filing cabinet somewhere, certainly nobody is going to put in criminal forensics-level effort into piecing them together and matching with my logbook.

Then there was the 11 years I owned an airplane. I have literally no supporting documentation for any of my hours during that time. Sure, I could look at the aircraft logbooks, but I'd have to talk to the current owner (the 4th since I sold it) about that, and who knows, maybe she lost them. But even then, I wouldn't have any proof that I was the one who flew those hours - and I didn't actually fly all of those hours anyway.

Sure, I have flights in my logbook that are pure guesses. Not a lot, but some - "what did we fly today, about an hour? Forgot to look at the time. Yeah, sounds about right." Nothing wrong with that, especially since pilot logbooks, unless actually tracked by a company like at the airlines, are completely on the honor system anyway. Always have been. You can make up whatever you want and put it in there, and *probably* won't be caught - although that does happen too.
 
RussR said:
Sure, I have flights in my logbook that are pure guesses. Not a lot, but some - "what did we fly today, about an hour? Forgot to look at the time. Yeah, sounds about right." Nothing wrong with that, especially since pilot logbooks, unless actually tracked by a company like at the airlines, are completely on the honor system anyway. Always have been. You can make up whatever you want and put it in there, and *probably* won't be caught - although that does happen too.
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Right... But now put a single line in the logbook: "350 hours, all PIC, in my Bonanza. Best guess of the amount of time I didn't log in my plane." See whether anyone counts it.
 
You enter blocks of time in a single line every time you move to a new log book. :)

I started flying before electronic log books and cell phones. So I kept paper log books. Until recently, I had misplaced my first log book. But had the totals from the start of the second log book.

I started using an electronic log book sometime in the late 80s/early 90s. AeroLog

I kept both paper and electronic. But paper was primary. I lost my 3rd log book in a post crash fire. Note, don't carry your logbook with you.

When I got back to flying after about 20 years, I found I had never logged the last two years of flying into the electronic log book. I was able to recreate some of the time from other records, but lost a good bit.

I wanted to convert to a modern log book program. I ended up with SafeLog Pro. They were able to convert my AeroLog files to their format.

One thing I do it to export from SafeLog in comma delimited file format once a year. That is an old, but still supported data format that can be imported into many databases and database programs.
 
M20K said:
Same computer and same Hard Drive?????

It would be interesting if you put that HD on a shelf and then if someone found it 2,500 years from now if they could still access the spreadsheet.
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Why would they? I’m not that interesting and neither is my logbook except to me, an Examiner, and the FAA if they have a reason to investigate me.

But if someone did, I think the answer is yes. Some John or Jane Doe off the street? Nah. A research anthropologist with the desire and the tools? Most likely if the medium is intact.

My experience is similar to @RussR albeit geekier. I also started logging my flights electronically in the mid-1990s, but used a pre-Windows DOS database program instead of a spreadsheet. Migration from DOS to Windows, Paradox to Access, and ultimately to MyFlightBook was a small workload pain but not a big deal. Yeah, I think in current tech, I would lose digital signatures if I migrate again, but I’m not really worried about that.

Same computer and same hard drive? I don’t even understand the question. I don’t know anyone who is still actively using the same drive (maybe 5” or 3.5” floppies?), let alone computer, they were using in 1990. Definitely not me. But last week, I was looking for a checklist for a certain airplane and found one from the 1990s written in WordPerfect.
 
Rene said:
As someone whose great grandfather served in WW2, and whose grandfather served in SEA, I find old documents quite interesting.
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I find old documents very interesting too. In fact many are available widely ... because they were preserved digitally! :D

WWII-logbook-pg-16.jpg


I couldn't resist that. Personally, I tend to be media neutral. I don't care what you use and really don't think one is inherently superior to the other. Using one or the other or both is a personal preference. Being against one or the other because of some subjectively-perceived superiority is just silly.
 
Rene said:
As someone whose great grandfather served in WW2, and whose grandfather served in SEA, I find old documents quite interesting.
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Without a doubt, those logbooks could be interesting. But (back when I still kept a paper logbook) many of my logbook pages were just nonstop pages of columns of 1.x hour flights with the name of whoever I was giving dual instruction to.

So,
1/1/2013, C172, N12345, Joe Smith, 1.2
1/1/2013, C172, N23456, Jane Doe, 1.1
1/2/2013, C172, N12345, Joe Smith, 1.3

Etc ad nauseum for pages and pages. Not very interesting to anybody.

Now, granted, some of the flights in my paper logbooks were fun trips, and I have interesting comments, etc. But 1) I've transferred all those over electronically anyway, 2) while they may be of personal interest, they certainly aren't interesting enough to want to preserve for generations.
 
RussR said:
Sure, I have flights in my logbook that are pure guesses. Not a lot, but some - "what did we fly today, about an hour? Forgot to look at the time. Yeah, sounds about right."
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That sort of seems reasonable to me, as long as it's once in a while and HONEST. (not exaggerated)

Another delta is what time are you logging? start to shutdown hobbs? tach time? wheels up to wheels down time? comparing different folks who log in a different way could be a huge difference for equal experience!
 
midlifeflyer said:
I find old documents very interesting too. In fact many are available widely ... because they were preserved digitally! :D

WWII-logbook-pg-16.jpg


I couldn't resist that. Personally, I tend to be media neutral. I don't care what you use and really don't think one is inherently superior to the other. Using one or the other or both is a personal preference. Being against one or the other because of some subjectively-perceived superiority is just silly.
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Nothing wrong with electronic copies of paper documents. But IMHO the originals should be preserved. One reason being they are accessible without possessing the same quickly outdated "tech".
 
Rene said:
As someone whose great grandfather served in WW2, and whose grandfather served in SEA, I find old documents quite interesting.
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I could see an old logbook on a decorative shelf with pic frames, souvenirs, other momentos. Easy to grab and pass around when the feeling comes. Electronic crap is buried. Gen X
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I could see an old logbook on a decorative shelf with pic frames, souvenirs, other momentos. Easy to grab and pass around when the feeling comes. Electronic crap is buried. Gen X
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I wonder how many in the past would have talked exactly that way about your crap. I'd say just the usual resistance to new ideas or practices simply because they are different and assuming the old ways were inherently superior. I guess I'm just too young to understand ;)
 
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