AOPA: DON’T RECORD MORE THAN WHAT’S REQUIRED

i normally record pax initials too and flight conditions, guess i will start omitting pax details or just put initials that only i can decipher
 
WannFly said:
i normally record pax initials too and flight conditions, guess i will start omitting pax details or just put initials that only i can decipher
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well....your PAX become witnesses and then can be interviewed should there be an investigation.
 
As the article points out, a "logbook" is simply a record maintained "to provide a reliable record of aeronautical training and experience". As it also states, there is no law that says you have to log every flight. There are logbooks and then there are logbooks.

There is no law preventing keeping multiple logbooks. I keep my times in various forms. After each flight I send a text to my wife telling her Hobbs time, conditions, landings, tail number, Student name (if applicable), and any maneuvers we may have accomplished. That, legally, is a logbook.

I also keep a log in Garmin Pilot. The data it gathered only goes back a few years but it does have enough current information to show recency and currency. I did upload my Excel logbook into it when I started using it so it does contain every flight I have ever made.

Then there is my actual book. The paper log into which all of my endorsements, Flight Reviews, etc are placed. I rarely update it on a daily basis and the last time I had to have a CFI sign a line, I had to count off several pages of blank lines in order to leave room for the flights I actually plan to write in there some day...

If the FAA asks for my logbook, they had better be pretty specific which one they want... o_O
 
When I was on a career path, it was important that I log every last minute of every last hour. Then I got that first job and logging every minute of every hour was even more important because it would be the key to being able to get that second job. By the third year of the first job, I no longer cared about logging anything. I don't know if I logged any of the flying for the second job. Then I got out of the biz. Since then, the only entries in my logbook have been currency related. No idea what my total hours are. Couldn't care less.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
When I was on a career path, it was important that I log every last minute of every last hour. Then I got that first job and logging every minute of every hour was even more important because it would be the key to being able to get that second job. By the third year of the first job, I no longer cared about logging anything. I don't know if I logged any of the flying for the second job. Then I got out of the biz. Since then, the only entries in my logbook have been currency related. No idea what my total hours are. Couldn't care less.
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back when i was at a large regional there were a lot of career regional pilots there. even with a flow thru agreement with the parent major they had no intention of ever going anywhere. most of them would laugh when they saw me filling in my logbook (flight for flight no less). then the rumors of a divestiture started. It was funny watching them scramble it put together something of a log book in case they had to go interview with a new airline.
 
My insurance broker on renewal each year requests totals of hours flown and hours in owned aircraft...reason enough for me to keep a log.
 
Whatever. It’s my logbook, if I want to write notes in I’ll write notes in. I like looking back at what I’ve written sometimes.
 
OTOH, the insurance folks want to see time and proficiency, so that advice can backfire on you.
 
wrbix said:
My insurance broker on renewal each year requests totals of hours flown and hours in owned aircraft...reason enough for me to keep a log.
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That's why I have a recording tach! Actually, I think it probably undercounts loggable hours by 20%. If I was looking for a pro job, I'd probably do things differently.
 
Whatever you do, don't write down that you've flown under a bridge like Roy Halladay did...
 
I don’t have a place to sign the pages of my logbook, so it’s possible that somebody forged the entries.
 
I have logged every flight I have ever flown for the past 30 plus years. I have made comments from every flight. This is a part of my history and my passion for flying.

Going thru life in fear of some future event is just stupid.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a lawyer. Always afraid that some small action may cost then their future. What a way to go thru life.

While the FAA can demand your log book, they can't prosecute you if you lost it.

Stupid article.
 
wrbix said:
My insurance broker on renewal each year requests totals of hours flown and hours in owned aircraft...reason enough for me to keep a log.
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Providing this information does not require a logbook.
 
I sometimes look in my old logbooks to remember certain people and events that made a significant impact in how I fly, think and deal with emergencies.

There were also some fun and marginally stupid things I did that remind me of how lucky I am to still be alive...

...That one time I spun a C-150 33 turns from 13,000 feet. Yeah..............
 
I read that article and gave it a hard eye roll. I love filling out my logbook, making notes of where, who & why. My hope is that when I have to hang up my headset some day I'll be able to look back and remember those special moments like taking my kids to Florida, or that getaway with my wife. Even more so I hope they keep them and use them to remember me when I'm gone.
 
Lndwarrior said:
Going thru life in fear of some future event is just stupid.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a lawyer. Always afraid that some small action may cost then their future. What a way to go thru life.
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I don't know any lawyers who thought that way. I've met a few. More were risk takers than not, in both business and life. Wait until another "I'm scared of liability so I never take passengers" thread comes along and you'll see who is afraid and who is not.

What most do when advising clients is point out potential risk factors a client may not have thought of, but that's just knowledge — the choice of how much risk is acceptable is always the client's. In articles and seminars, which are not legal advice, many tend to be overly conservative.

BTW, not a legal issue but I do know someone who was denied access to a non-equity aircraft arrangement because his logbook looked like a scrapbook.

Funny, though... When I first began doing aviation law, I decided it would be a good idea to meet the FAA lawyer who handled cases in my area. So when he came to town we would sometimes go out to dinner. Over dinner and a beer we would trade stories about the stupid things we did as pilots.
 
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I've been flying for a living for a while now, and I keep my logbook mostly up to date. The biggest reason is because of the insurance paperwork that I have to fill out every year. That is easy enough to fudge, but I'd rather give them accurate numbers if possible. It is still kind of neat to see when I pass another benchmark, like 5000 hours. I'm at 5300 now, and it's probably gonna be 3 years till I hit the next 1000.
 
If you don’t keep a log how can you fill out the govt. survey ?
 
I log it all, time, place, PAX, aircraft. This for my memory bank. I find it fun to go back an discover what I was doing, where I have been, and who I was with over the past 45 years.
 
Lndwarrior said:
I can't imagine what it must be like to be a lawyer. Always afraid that some small action may cost then their future. What a way to go thru life.
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I know a lot of lawyers. While one or two tend to be worriers, they are in the vast minority. Most of them are the exact opposite.
 
unsafervguy said:
back when i was at a large regional there were a lot of career regional pilots there. even with a flow thru agreement with the parent major they had no intention of ever going anywhere. most of them would laugh when they saw me filling in my logbook (flight for flight no less). then the rumors of a divestiture started. It was funny watching them scramble it put together something of a log book in case they had to go interview with a new airline.
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For years I just photocopied the trip sheet and threw it into a box, always intending to put it in my logbook. The trip sheets all had the basic required information on them and notes I scribbled about the instrument approaches and actual IFR time. About the third or forth time I moved for the company, I realized I'd better get to it because by then I had four full file boxes of trip sheets and I was tired of hauling them around with me.
 
Most people with any sense tend to be more conservative when giving advice in a public forum. Talk to them in person, or after it doesn't matter any more.

I wrote extraneous information in my logbook, including the what company were were doing the flight for, and if anything unusual happened. In the early days when I was young, I used multicolored pens, so I have purple and green entries.
 
For international flights we had to keep a journey log that included pax names and the purpose of the trip. It had to be kept for one year. This was a tax document. The master document for pond crossings was held for six months and then tossed.
 
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I wonder if providing the Excel sheet of the log book - which contain PIC, X Country hours, and the like - would suffice? That way the "notes" section wouldn't be offered.

(Come to think of it, my handwriting is so bad - they probably couldn't read it anyway!)
 
WDD said:
I wonder if providing the Excel sheet of the log book - which contain PIC, X Country hours, and the like - would suffice? That way the "notes" section wouldn't be offered.
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The FAA doesn’t define what a logbook has to look like, so as long as your excel sheet shows what they need to see, it should be fine. I put mine on an excel spreadsheet, but anything that requires a signature is hard-copy in a separate book, so I’ve actually got two logbooks that I’d need to provide.
 
Groundpounder said:
I've been flying for a living for a while now, and I keep my logbook mostly up to date.
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I do the same. I even keep the little trip logs that are common on the airline side. I'm not a particularly superstitious guy, but I've always thought that keeping my logs up to date helps keep furloughs away. I'll let you know later in the Fall how effective it is! :p
 
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