Post-Furlough Logbook Roundup

[USAirways1149]

Ok,

First of all I admit it. I was irresponsible. When I was hired by US Airways I stopped logging time as accurately as I should have. Each month I got a nice printout of my total time from US Airways and I copied that number into my logbook.
January 64.8
February 71.5
March 79.4...

What I did NOT do, was keep track of night or IFR time at all.

I didnt think I had to...I foolishly and wrongly assumed that I was at the job I would retire from and would not require that information again.

So here I am on furlough attempting to get some job interviews. While the total times in my logbook are, of course, very accurate, I dont have the IFR or night data required to fill out some of the employment applications that are out there right now.

Anybody have any ideas?

-Mike

 

[1900cpt]

Is there anyway you could contact some of the guys/gals you flew with to get an idea from them?? How long were you at USAIR?? If it was a few months, i really dont think that it wil be a major deal....im sure you must have enough instrument and night to qualify for any of the jobs your applying to. It is better to have underestimated than "inflated" your times.

You obviously had the requirements/skill to get on with USAIR, that speaks for itself.

Hope that helps,

1900cpt

 

[FR8mastr]

Just guestimate, you'll end up very close to reality. And the difference is irrelivant. IE I have 5050 hours of night or I have 4095 of night.

 

[typhoonpilot]

Check Paysheets

USAirways1149


Do you have any of your old paysheets ? They break down each flight and whether it was day and night pay. While the day and night pay doesn't exactly correlate to the definition of night for logbook purposes it is pretty close.

Good luck finding a job.

 

[USAirways1149]

Logbook Debacle

I think I have some old paysheets for the last few months, but certainly not for the over 3 years that I was there. I was never very good at record keeping.

I believe I can estimate the night-time, but the IMC is the tricky one.

I have heard that you could use the 10% rule. i/e 10% of the monthly time would have been IMC. I think that would look a bit strange in the logbook.

January: IMC 6.5 Total 65
February: IMC 7.3 Total 73

I dont want to be too creative on the off chance that I might someday get an interview with American or Delta and have the logbooks thoroughly scrutinized.

Thanks for the advise sofar.

 

[EAP]

You may be able to get some back records from USAir and possibly a year's worth. You might have to extrapolate from there. ie - January you ususally get 15 percent night and then so on. It's better to estimate on the low side, you have any minimums out there already. You may do well to log 5 percent IMC since I noticed when I started flying for the majors I never flew in the WX like I did at the regionals on shorter trips.

 

[habubuaza]

FORGET ABOUT IT!!! Just guestimate it man. Take 10% of your total time for IFR. And just pick a rough estimate for night time. I can't imagine not having an exact breakdown of your night time to be that important. It hasn't hurt me at all. Believe me I ain't accurate at all. No one expect's you to have a stop watch when you enter and exit clouds. I wouldn't sweat it. The important thing is turbine, PIC and prior 121 experience. and you have all that. Good luck.

 

[F/O]

habubuaza is 100% correct.

You will sprout many, many gray hairs if you worry about keeping track of your airline time to the nth degree. For crying out loud, you were flying a large, turbine powered airplane at a major carrier. That should speak for itself in my book.

 

[Ty Webb]

I think you are getting good advice- see what info you can get from the company (can't the CP's office help locte your flight time records?) and guesstimate the rest based on what you can get together.

The most important thing is how you handle the question in an interview situation. I would develop a short, articulate and humble explanation, and drop the part about not being good about record keeping.

Something like, "When I started my last job, I thought I was done with job-hunting, so I looked up the regs regarding recordkeeping, and then kept rack of the times required, but I didn't log in more detail than what was required.

Some airlines don't even check your logbook, believe it or not- and some of the most anal logbook reviews are conducted by the regionals.

 

[USAirways1149]

scared...

A friend of mine (also furloughed) just had an interview with a regional. The director of ops, obviously an extremely thorough individual went through my friend's logbook.

Apparently he found an entry back in 1994 when she flew an airplane as PIC and had not flown it in the 90 days preceeding. (no 3 t/os and ldgs)

I'm petrified.

I know that my logbooks from my college days are a mess (at best!) It was not until late in my instructing career...pre 135 night freight...pre regionals...pre nationals...pre majors that I started keeping very neat, ultra-accurate records.

I have an interview next week and I'm sure this guy is going to look at my books and have a coronary!

I will, of course, try to keep my cool -- but how would you respond to an interviewer when he finds blatant errors a decade ago in your logbooks?

 

[Ty Webb]

You don't say what kind of job you are interviewing for, but if it is a 91 or 135 job, most of them will tell you to bring your logbook. Less than half of them will actually look through it.

Those that do look through it will be looking for several things-

1) Does the applicant's logbook appear to be legitimate (expect some questions about particular flights- just basically to see if you are comfortable being questioned about the book and its entries)

2) DOes the applicant's logbook clearly show that he meets the requirements of the position

3) Does the applicant's logbook reflect a person who will competently handle the recordkeeping/paperwork aspect of the job?

Basically, anyone who would go through your books with a fine-tooth comb is probably looking for something, either to see how you handle being questioned about it, or looking for some sign that something is fraudulent. Otherwise, in my opinion, if they start browbeating you about a logbook that already passed muster at each stop along the way throughout your career, I would take that as a sign that you may not want to work under this individual, anyway. There are a few petty dictators out there, and this may show you have found one. Run, don't walk to the exit . . . .

Seriously, if they ask about the neatness/quality of the entries, I would just say, "Sir, when I first began flying, I probably did not pay as close attention to my logbook as I should have. Sloppy as it might have been, the entries are genuine and accurate, just not neat. As I progressed through my career, and matured, I took better care of my logbook. I can assure you that any paperwok I do here will be completed neatly and professionally.

 

[Cap'nHal]

I disagree with habubuaza. In my personal experience flying worldwide jet pax and freight, I've averaged much, much less than 10 percent of my total time as actual instrument. I've averaged 3 percent, and that is skewed because I accumulated much of that during my regional airline years. I've spent way too much time above the clouds in long cruise flights. Also, I haven't logged night or cross country time for over 10 years as they are vurtually unimportant at my experience level. Being furloughed as you are, I have applied to many companies and so far haven't been asked for night or x-c nor have I been grilled about a low amount of act. inst. Good luck.