How often do you update your logbook?

[Northern Lights]

I've decided to take the next few days to get my logbook in order. It has been 7 months since my last entry.

I used to update daily, then weekly, then monthly. At this rate it will only be twice a year or less.

For those of you that still keep track of flight time, how often do you make updates?

I'm also hoping to make an electronic backup copy. As of now, I just go to Kinkos once in a while and copy the pages.

Every time I get behind I swear that I'll never let that happen again...

 

[learflyer]

Funny you should ask...... I haven't updated mine since Feb 03'. I have a stack of post flight logs the size of a phone book. I'm starting to catch that SWA bug so I just started updating it.

 

[mar]

Give or take

Every three months, give or take...

I figure about one hour per month.

 

[BradG]

Up till yesterday, i hadnt put anything in mine since June. I didnt really have it written down either, i had to go back thru the computer at our flight school and find all of it. no fun at all. I'll never go that long again. Grrr...im still upset about having to put all that sh*t in there......

B

 

[Michael Knight]

about every flight... helps to have a computer logbook program already going. Lot's of work to start a logbook program unless you are low time or simply put a one line entry to account for previous time.

 

[avbug]

After every flight. I try to make each entry as detailed as possible, right down to flight conditions, crosswinds, etc. Anything noteworthy about the flight.

On at least a couple of occasions, the detailed notes have saved my legal bacon when dealing with certain parties. I was able to recall details about the operations that no one else knew or could remember. My detailed information saved me.

Another side note is that going back through my logbooks, the entries are detailed enough that I can recall almost every individual flight. The logbooks have pictures glued in them, captions, momentos, every medical certificate I've ever been issued, old FAA certificates, etc. They're more than just logs; they are archives; they're memories of everything I've done with my life. Pretty sad, really.

 

[shroomwell]

I try to enter every few flights onto my spreadsheet, but I usually don't enter them into my logbook until a couple days before I have a checkride or something where they will look at it. I hate writers cramp.

 

[JayDub]

I keep mine updated in the name of "good" karma. The people I know that quit keeping a logbook up to date all needed to back-track later because they lost their job. I figure if I keep mine updated, I'll never need it. Ask me in 27 years and three days if it worked.

Respectfully,

JayDub

 

[Northern Lights]

I've got the May and June entries done. Hopefully will get through August by days end.

I agree that where I have put comments, I can remember the flight.

 

[low-n-slow]

I let mine go and just updated it a couple of days ago from May '03, typically I update it once every two weeks whenever my pay and performance reports come out but sometimes laziness takes complete control of me for months on end.

 

[jetexas]

I update about once a year whether it needs it or not.

 

[CUEBOAT]

At least once a week. Too many guys i know fall behind and just hate life when they have to update 8 months of flight time in 4 days for an interview.

 

[Tripower455]

How often do you update your logbook?

What's a logbook? Isn't that the metal thing that you write in when something breaks on the airplane?

 

[bobbysamd]

Logbooks

[G]oing back through my logbooks, the entries are detailed enough that I can recall almost every individual flight . . . . They're more than just logs; they are archives; they're memories of everything I've done with my life . . .

Shades of Fate is the Hunter.

I entered my time every day after work while the day's flying was fresh in my mind. I did not carry my logbook in my flight bag or leave it at my school(s) because strange and upsetting things happen to logbooks that sit around at flight schools. I kept them at home. My flying was primarily instructing, so I would enter the name of the student, all maneuvers covered, unusual wx conditions, and, if it was an instrument flight, the approaches he/she executed. My rationale for keeping meticulous logs was threefold: (1) my logbooks and recording my students' signoffs in the back per the FARs were my training records, just in case my school(s) lost theirs or they otherwise vanished;(2) I could reconstruct for a student the instruction I gave in case he/she lost his/her logbook; and, (3) by doing (1) and (2) I could CYA in case something funky happened to a student who was on my watch.

That's what I did. Hope that helps some more.

 

[avbug]

What's a logbook? Isn't that the metal thing that you write in when something breaks on the airplane?

Close. A logbook is the inventory control sheet in a lumberyard or papermill. It's also a novel written on really heavy paper. It's also the thing Captain Kirk uses to keep track of his many adventures.

 

[Timebuilder]

I used Logbook Pro, which made it easy to do after each flight. Sometimes, I'd be away from home and going to the airport from there, for a couple of weeks at a time. Then I'd have to sit down and make twenty entries.

Most of the time, I tried to make the entries every week, at a minimum.

Of course, now, I haven't made an entry in a while.

 

[njcapt]

I keep mine updated in the name of "good" karma. The people I know that quit keeping a logbook up to date all needed to back-track later because they lost their job. I figure if I keep mine updated, I'll never need it. Ask me in 27 years and three days if it worked.

Same here. I just brought the last nine months up to date in my master logbooks, so I can take 2003's little red book to the safe deposit box. Now I've just gotta record my per diem for the year and I'll be ready for tax time.

I consider keeping a logbook up to date good kharma protection against furloughs. 20 years and four months to go (if I don't bail out earlier).