Logging Takeoffs and Landings as a CFI

beechpilot

Well-Known Member
I know that you are supposed to be the sole manipulator of the controls when logging takeoffs and landings but what about when you are serving as a flight instructor? I couldn't find anywhere in the FARs stating that you can't log them when instructing a student. The other instructors I've talked to have differing explanations.
 
I couldn't find anywhere in the FARs stating that you can't log them when instructing a student. The other instructors I've talked to have differing explanations.

The regulations never say when you can't log something, only when you can. There is no provision for flight instructors logging the landings performed by the student.
 
When my hands are on the yoke, even assisting, I log the landing. Since I primarily do IR/Com/ATP instruction now my landings column has a lot of 0's in it.
 
Thanks, I appreciate it. Your explanations confirm what I thought but I figured it was worth asking since there were differences in opinion from some other instructors I know.
 
You can log what you want but I only log the landings that my students don't. It would look pretty funny if the FAA came to audit you and saw that you were logging almost as many landings per lesson as your students.
 
I've gotten too many different explanations from too many different instructors. Thankfully JC is here! I used to log every landing with all my students and just make a notation when I made the landing myself and not my student. (Been doing that for a year now.. I just want to "show" them a good takeoff/landing every once in a while)... But now after reading on here, I don't log anymore landings unless I do it myself. I will now leave that column blank until that 90 day comes up. I've just gotten nervous about future employers going through my logbook and asking about my 6 landings I do in an hour... so I hope they realize I wasn't trying to "fake" my currency! :(
 
Ask just about any fed and they will tell you that logging landings with students help for 61.57 or 59 I can't remember. They will tell you that that is strictly prohibited. My basic advice. Don't log them unless you do the entire landing as a demo. I agree with JulietBravo.
 
To be honest, who cares. An employer is really not going to care how many times you landed a Cessna 172. Just make sure you keep currency.

At my Eagle interview the total landings box was blank because the # was getting too big, I was hired. At my Colgan interview they didn't even open up my logbook, I was hired.
 
I've heard far too many different opinions on this from CFIs to DPEs to FSDOs to imagine there's any concrete standard.

But a rhetorical question: if you're flying with a student and they bend metal on the landing, who's going to be taking the PIC heat for it?
 
I just talked to a fellow instructor here who just applied at AirNet. He pretty much said what v1valarob said, they didn't even care about his landings. He currently logs every single one regardless. Just like ILS37R said, if the student breaks something, who are they coming after!?!?
 
I've heard far too many different opinions on this from CFIs to DPEs to FSDOs to imagine there's any concrete standard.

But a rhetorical question: if you're flying with a student and they bend metal on the landing, who's going to be taking the PIC heat for it?

Show me the reg that allows PIC to log landings.

sole manipulator logs landings
 
He currently logs every single one regardless. Just like ILS37R said, if the student breaks something, who are they coming after!?!?
And if the FAA has a reason to to challenge your passenger-carrying landing currency and you improperly logged your student's landing for the purpose, who are they coming after to revoke certificates for falsifying the logbook?

Bottom line - the reg says very clearly (and concretely) that the person logging landings to be counted for currency must be the "sole manipulator of the flight controls".
 
So if a student needs help with the landing from the CFI no one can log it because there is no sole manipulator ??
If it's a student pilot, it's not an issue since passenger-carrying currency isn't an issue for a student pilot.

But, yep, if it's, say, a private pilot you are helping out with a crosswind landing, no one gets to log it for currency.

If the concept of no one logging a landing bothers you, set up a column for "landings that count for nothing" where you can put in the "assists" along with the landings where you were sitting in seat 17C on an Airbus. ;)
 
But a rhetorical question: if you're flying with a student and they bend metal on the landing, who's going to be taking the PIC heat for it?

I think you just just described why both CFI's and appropriately rated students can log PIC. Not landings.
 
So if a student needs help with the landing from the CFI no one can log it because there is no sole manipulator ??

For currency purposes, that's what the reg says.

Now, at what point in the approach/landing sequence do you have to take over the controls?
 

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