Do pilots use paper or digital logbook?

carlapilot

carlapilot

Filing Flight Plan
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carlapilot
Hi Guys! So I 've just started flying and filling out my logbook after instruction flights... I keep my logbook in the flightschool and my instructor uses only paper one for himself. He is a retired fighter pilot and in the old age digital stuff.
...but I want to have a digital copy in my phone / in the cloud. For safety (if it get lost) and to make statistics and calculating hours easier.
I always have a photo of the logged flight.
I've checked some apps but Im a beginner so please let me know what you use?? Or you use simply an excel?
What i ve seen at pilots was very difficult program ..like for airliner pilots with a lot of details... :-/ its not for my traffic patterns and routes...

Thx
Carla
 
carlapilot said:
Hi Guys! So I 've just started flying and filling out my logbook after instruction flights... I keep my logbook in the flightschool and my instructor uses only paper one for himself. He is a retired fighter pilot and in the old age digital stuff.
...but I want to have a digital copy in my phone / in the cloud. For safety (if it get lost) and to make statistics and calculating hours easier.
I always have a photo of the logged flight.
I've checked some apps but Im a beginner so please let me know what you use?? Or you use simply an excel?
What i ve seen at pilots was very difficult program ..like for airliner pilots with a lot of details... :-/ its not for my traffic patterns and routes...

Thx
Carla
Click to expand...


Great Question, as a beginner I am interested to see some responses!
 
Paper myself, but many logbook programs out there. You're wise to make a copy of your flights. Just a matter of preference which you choose to use.

My advice is to keep possession of YOUR logbook. Too valuable to keep it at a flight school. I've taught at many flight schools over the years and none kept student logbooks.
 
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Some use both.

Since you're just starting, now is a perfect time to get a digital logbook. Several options out there that are free and kept online. There are a few options for keeping data on your computer as well, but those are typically paid, unless it's a spreadsheet someone made up.

LogTen Pro makes an app that's really pretty good. Unfortunately, it's a subscription app. You'll have to decide if it's worth an annual fee to keep a log book.
 
Digital at work and then print paper copies. All paper logbook for recreation.
 
Both. Still have my original logbook, has become more of a diary, where I note who I was with, what we did etc. the ForeFlight version is great for tracking currency, time in type, etc, worth the effort to convert, not to mention the redundancy aspect. They have a spreadsheet template so you can enter all your past times and suck it into it quickly. From then on its easy to keep up, use your phone, your iPad, all synced up. Does lots of auto fill for you that’s (usually) helpful.
 
Made my own Access database that tracks all my stuff both as a pilot and a CFI. I keep a paper logbook that is only for signatures like flight reviews/instruction I receive, and check rides.
 
I use paper. I really should go digital but I’m too lazy. After each page is complete, I scan it to my computer then back it up with an external hard drive.
 
Both ,always like to have a backup hard copy.
 
the logbook stays in my flight bag. as a page is completed i make a photo copy which i keep in our safety deposit box. i also have photo copies of all if my endorsements. i also use an excel worksheet as a backup to my logbook and to easily search entries and to calculate hours.
 
Both. I started using Foreflight toward the end of my initial training and the reports made filling out IACRA paperwork much easier. I take occasional photos of my paper logbook and attach them to the Foreflight logbook.
 
Both...kinda.

I only now use my paper logbook for any CFI endorsements and sign off entries then scan that into a backup. I use Foreflight Logbook where I enter all my day to day flight data and tallies and again, export that as a backup every so often.

So my paper logbook is just a record of entries by others, digital is a tally of everything and entries by me...both backed up.
 
Yes. Pilots use paper and digital logbooks.
 
carlapilot said:
Hi Guys! So I 've just started flying and filling out my logbook after instruction flights... I keep my logbook in the flightschool and my instructor uses only paper one for himself. He is a retired fighter pilot and in the old age digital stuff.
...but I want to have a digital copy in my phone / in the cloud. For safety (if it get lost) and to make statistics and calculating hours easier.
I always have a photo of the logged flight.
I've checked some apps but Im a beginner so please let me know what you use?? Or you use simply an excel?
What i ve seen at pilots was very difficult program ..like for airliner pilots with a lot of details... :-/ its not for my traffic patterns and routes...

Thx
Carla
Click to expand...
Welcome to flying and PoA.

For my logbook, I still use paper. Nothing wrong with Excel for keeping stats. As for apps, make sure there is a way to extract your data in some way that you could reconstruct it. My opinion is that I don't trust data to a company. Some have gone under or implemented pricing more than I'm willing to pay. For example, Photobucket started charging $400/year to hot-link pictures from their site. Their definition of "hot-linking" meant that some people had to cough up the money to download their own pictures back to their own computers.
 
I use both. Myflightbook for the app (it's free and awesome), and paper so I have a backup.

My recommendation tho - don't leave your logbook at the flight school. Keep it with you. It's yours, not the schools and if they lost it you'd wish you had it instead.
 
I'd say it's 50/50 between paper and digitial, I used a custom excel sheet in Google sheets for years, recently switched to foreflight logs.

But for a student pilot, just go with paper as it's easier and everyone "gets it", once you get your license scan it and upload it and then make the switch if you want. Or if you want start duplicating all your flights in a digital one now

ALSO, you're letting the flight school hang on to your log book?? F' that!

I wouldn't trust my own mother with my logs, that stuff is sacred and lives in my safe or on my person when I was flying as a student pilot and legally needed it on my person.
 
Paper for logbooks (me and my airplane) but digital for everything else.
 
carlapilot said:
Hi Guys! So I 've just started flying and filling out my logbook after instruction flights... I keep my logbook in the flightschool and my instructor uses only paper one for himself. He is a retired fighter pilot and in the old age digital stuff.
...but I want to have a digital copy in my phone / in the cloud. For safety (if it get lost) and to make statistics and calculating hours easier.
I always have a photo of the logged flight.
I've checked some apps but Im a beginner so please let me know what you use?? Or you use simply an excel?
What i ve seen at pilots was very difficult program ..like for airliner pilots with a lot of details... :-/ its not for my traffic patterns and routes...

Thx
Carla
Click to expand...
I just use Excel (well, actually Google sheets) to back up my paper. But I don't fly that much so its not that hard to enter both places.

Its not a bad idea to snap a photo of each page as you fill it as well, to capture the signatures.
 
Quit using paper a year ago, right after my wife bought me a Nice leather logbook
 
asicer said:
Is it just me or is the flight school keeping the log book a big red flag?
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As a CFI I've never offered to do this, nor would I want to have someone's logbook.
 
I keep a paper log, although it has been about three years since I updated it. My airline has a record of all the flying I have done and I print it out periodically.

For my personal flying in my own airplane I'm afraid I'm a little sloppy. I keep an informal record of each flight which is kept with my company printouts. When I get around to filling out the actual logbook everything will be entered in proper order.
 
As an aside, for those that entertain the idea of a contract overseas airline position, most foreign airlines prefer a paper logbook with a signature on each page. They apparently don't trust electronic logs.
 
Stickman said:
As an aside, for those that entertain the idea of a contract overseas airline position, most foreign airlines prefer a paper logbook with a signature on each page. They apparently don't trust electronic logs.
Click to expand...

Do they have printers in these foreign lands?
 
Both is best, with a copy of the paper logs kept in a separate place, copied regularly, at least after each page is filled and all electronics backed up regardless of format preferred.
 
It doesn't matter, as long as you have a hard copy somewhere - as in, printed, physical. . .and keep your logbook in your possesion - unless your school is fire proof, never had a disgruntled employee, and no one has ever accidently thrown out the wrong files.
 
Sundancer said:
It doesn't matter, as long as you have a hard copy somewhere - as in, printed, physical. . .and keep your logbook in your possesion - unless your school is fire proof, never had a disgruntled employee, and no one has ever accidently thrown out the wrong files.
Click to expand...
Good ideas, although wouldn't the future tense of those concerns matter more than the past?;)
 
Predicated trust on past experince, writ large, with tongue in cheek a wee bit.
 
Paper.
Hand-writing an entry (and signing the bottom of each page) cements my connection to the experience. I guess I'm sentimental that way. :)

There are plenty of ways to back up the information afterward (xerox, photos, spreadsheets...)
 
I use both. Electronic is just my own Excel spreadsheet. If you are good with Excel, no need to pay for some service to do the same math for you.
 
Another vote for both. I use Zululog, but it's not free. It is much easier when someone (usually my insurance company) wants to know how many hours of this in the last year, how many hours of that, at night, in type, in the last 90 days, etc. I do also keep the paper log, though I tend to fill in the electronic one every time and then go back and catch up the paper log book periodically.
 
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