Logbooks

[Vern]

Last week I checked out Tom in his RV-7A. When he handed me his logbook, there was another one there with it. When I asked what the second logbook was for, he said it had been his fathers and he keeps them together. He suggested I would enjoy looking at it.

So, in beautiful penmanship, there I saw a fascinating flying career beginning in Georgia in 1943, flying Stearmans, BT-13's, AT-9's, AT-10's, Martin B-26's, and C-47's.

It was exciting to read each precise entry but I almost flipped out when I got the the entries showing a C-47 departing the USA enroute to the European war front. Then I saw the entries that said "Invasion." Could it be?



There were entries showing missions all over the various European fronts, including missions deep into Germany. The amazing thing was that every flight was carefully recorded in that same steady beautiful script: the milk runs as well as the big ones.

Which brings me to a learning: record those flights and remember that it is your logbook: an aerial diary of special memories.

So, are you faithfully recording your precious aerial memories for yourself and future generations? Who will gaze at your entries someday with wonder and appreciation?

[Snowflake]

When I started my license 13 years ago, I kept both a paper copy and a digital copy, in a database that I created in Access. I stopped keeping up the digital copy after a while because the one I had created, while useful to *me*, was completely unusable by anyone else. And that meant that once I had forgotten how to use it, it was unusable by me too.

I did manage to get the data that I had entered exported and then re-imported to a simple spreadsheet. Just this last week it occurred to me that I hadn't entered any flights in a while, so I went back to bring it up to date... It turns out my last entry was in 2000! Oh well. Two hours later I had all the flights entered for the years in between, and along the way I was able to re-live a bunch of them in my mind, remembering flights that were fun, some that were not so fun, and friends and fellow pilots... Some of whom are no longer with us.

If it was this much fun to read through just the last 9 years, I can't imagine how much fun it'll be to read the whole thing in another 30.

Oh, and one of the side benefits of keeping a copy in an Excel spreadsheet, is that it's not that hard to write some equations that automatically keep track of any recency requirements you'd want to know... Last N days, time on type, number of landings, etc. Handy to know.

[pierre smith]

....at times, and stop logging....like, what for?

Flying for a living probably does that to you, but I log my Ag work once a year...325 hours misc. ag work, etc.

Vern you've given food for thought. I need to go and log the trip to Jekyll this weekend for the benefit of Jenny's son and Megan...his little princess who'd never been in an airplane before. They're still talking about it

Thanks,

[gbrasch]

Stories like this make me nervous. I have long argued with people to keep their log books in a safe place away from an airplane that can crash and/or catch on fire or get broken into, unless of course you are required to have it with you, in the case of a student pilot on a cross country. Why would you want to risk loosing something so valuable? I am finishing up filling log book 3. My first 2 stay locked in my safety deposit box, my current one tucked in a drawer at home with the last page always copied and placed in a seperate place. Call me paranoid, but if you loose it, the only official record you can use is the last hours you listed on your last medical. Hope this helps. Glenn

[rv7boy]

My log book begins in 1981. The remarks section includes the usual Instructor Shorthand for a student pilot's logbook, i.e., TO's & Ldgs, Coord. Trns, Trns abt Pt, etc. Then when I became a Private Pilot, there are the occasional remarks entered by me about a special destination or who was with me. My kids' first rides and my wife's first ride are somewhat obscure but they can be found with a little searching. The several trips to Oshkosh with the arrival adventure distinct to each one are so noted. It seems that with more hours accumulated, I made more detailed entries. Perhaps with time and age, I began to feel each flight was more special as I began to realize someday I wouldn't be able to fly again as PIC.

The entries I made recording the many places I went with my dad (also a pilot) in the right seat bring many cherished memories of days gone by. I'm so glad I took the time to add those entries.

Yes, in addition to the required information, be sure to add in the remarks area the little extras that remind you of what each flight was really about. They're your little bit of history.

[bsacks05]

Every flight since I started lessons in 2002 is logged with a descriptor. This past Sunday's logbook entry is "Peach State with Brucie - blimp". Interpretation: My son, Bruce, and I flew to Peach State Aerodrome for lunch and vintage aircraft gazing. On the way home we spotted a UFO (at the time) at out altitude and heading about 10 miles in front. Was it a chopper or balloon? Too slow to be another airplane. I firewalled the throttle and as we closed in we recognized it as a blimp. Met Life blimp to be exact, with Snoopy on the front of the bag. We circled the blimp then headed for home. Another father / son bonding moment - priceless.

[longranger]

I've been flying since 1977, and up until about 5 years ago, I logged every single flight, or in the case of long cross countries, every day of flying. For reasons of which I am not sure, I got lax, and my logbook entries have been spotty at best since. I do enjoy occasionally reviewing old logbooks. I can pick up any one of my 4 logbooks, open it to any page, read any entry, and have the memories come flooding back. There are very few entries where I can't recall the flight.

I find that I'm most likely to keep the logbook up to date if I keep it in the airplane, and I make the best entries if they're made while the flight is fresh in my mind. If the logbook is at home, I'm highly unlikely to make an effort to keep it up to date. Right now I have a stack of old sectionals and a pocketful of scrap paper with with flight notations going back several years that haven't made it into my log book. I need to fix that... one of these days.

I also have Dad's old logbooks, and although not as complete, legible, or historic as those that started this thread, I still enjoy reading through them, and wonder what it must have been like "in the good ole days". (One interesting entry is Dad's commercial checkride in the late 1950's, in a Tri-Pacer at Candler Field... now known as Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International Airport. I wonder how long it's been since a Tri-Pacer has been based at ATL?)

[pmccoy]

I started flying on June 12, 1976. That was my 16th birthday and my dad introduced me to my new flight instructor. It's was recorded in my log book as... 'Basic Intro, Turns, Climbing & Descending Turns, Slow Flight, Climbs, Descents, Stalls'. One hour and one landing.

By my senior year in high school, I had my PPL. Reading my log book, you see the names of my family and friends and the girls I was trying to impress by taking them up for airplane rides. Over time you also can see the different airplanes that I was checked out in.

Then as is the case with so many pilots I know, life got in the way of flying. I woke up one morning and realized I hadn't been flying in over 20 years! Yikes! So I did what made the most sense to me. I started building an RV9A. Yep, hadn't flown for over 20 years and started building an airplane. Three years later I thought maybe it was time to get current. So I got the medical and got checked out in a Gobosh LSA.

Now I have logged about 30 hours of flight in the last year. I keep my log book with me in the plane, and log every flight just after completion. I also have created a database for a digital record of my log book. In doing so, I went back through all of my flights from 26 years ago, and entered them into my new database. It was really interesting reading each entry, and looking at each flight. I found names of people I hadn't thought of in years. I found airplanes that I didn't remember being checked out in. I found out that my math skills back in high school were not very good. The log book hours didn't match what the computer was calculating for total time and landings. It was a very interesting project for me.

Now that my logbook is in the database, I can run reports on my flying history. I have a print out that shows each type of airplane that I have flown, along with how many landings and hours were recorded in each. I find it interesting to look back at the history. Anyway, keep your log books. It's fun to go back in time and see where you were and who you were flying with.

[TThurston]

I'm extreme, I guess. I not only have the logbook entries, but I usually print a page with the trip log on a map. Then I make a few notes on the back of the page about the flight. But I'm still a new pilot (about 225 hours), so my trip around the lake today with a passenger (about 95nm, 1st ride for her), is still a big deal for me. Plus, I give a copy of the map with the trip log to the passenger. It's fun for them, too.

[VETE76]

after my grandfather L Doolittle, passed (yes, related to Gen Jimmy Doolittle)
I ended up with his log book to his BT13. I found a signature in it for an inspector who did an inspection in 1947 on gramps' BT13. It was 1988.
I went to the hanger next to mine and asked the owner of the airplane repair there if the signature was his!? He turned white as a ghost! He simply said yes it was. WAY KOOL!