is it REQUIRED to keep an electronic logbook

W

wfcentral

New Member
I was reading in another thread that a lot of people were taking the time to put thousands of logbook hours into electronic format. Is there a requirement to do this or were they just doing it for their own benefit.

Student Pilot Rob
 
The regs state "in a manner acceptable to the administrator." If they accepted a bunch of jumbled up papers, you could use that. After you get you license, all you have to log is things for currency. But keeping track of everything makes it easier to find a yob.
 
I'm pretty sure all the cool kids are doing it now, but by no means is it a requirement! I wish I had started from day 1 with an electronic log...
 
It's not required at all, but it will make your life so much easier. Automatically adding up your times alone makes it worth it in my opinion.
 
The problem I see is that when you have thousands of hours over years, entering the infor at the beginning would be meticulous and tedious.

I for one can use my handy abacus to keep tabs on all my totals and have never had issue with it...

$.02
 
Jshutt64 said:
It's not required at all, but it will make your life so much easier. Automatically adding up your times alone makes it worth it in my opinion.
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:yup: Yeah that. I keep a paper logbook, and will likely keep one forever. That said, I use the electronic one as means of backup, as it stores it on the website and I get weekly emailed backups. I also keep another logbook on my computer desktop, in an excel file. Beyond using the electronic one as backup, it makes adding pages up much, much easier than using a calculator. I'm horrible with calculators and adding numbers up, so the computer does it for me.
 
wheelsup said:
I put 1500 hours in over 3 days...all CFI flights so they were typically 1 hour legs.
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Never understood this one. Why don't you (all of the electronic people, not you you) just start your e-loogbook with what you have at the time? Seems pointless to back-fill it, if it's just to keep track. Are you really going to toss the paper one anyways?
 
PFGiardino said:
Never understood this one. Why don't you (all of the electronic people, not you you) just start your e-loogbook with what you have at the time? Seems pointless to back-fill it, if it's just to keep track. Are you really going to toss the paper one anyways?
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Because I wanted to be able to quickly search and sort my time for application purposes. For example in my electronic logbook I can query "A36 TT at night in IMC" and it will spit out how much night IMC time I have in the Bonanza. Some applications I was filling out wanted some pretty crazy breakdowns.

Plus, with all the data I can easily import it into Logbook Pro or any sort of CSV program. And I wanted a complete backup of my paper book as well.
 
Fair enough. I guess these problems are beyond my flight time, as you can see from my electronic logbook. I actually designed the program myself.
 

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PFGiardino said:
Fair enough. I guess these problems are beyond my flight time, as you can see from my electronic logbook. I actually designed the program myself.
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Love it.

My sister asked for a schedule for our ski trip this year:

AM - Ski
PM - Get plastered

Wash, rinse, repeat for 7 days.

I actually made a spreadsheet, too lazy to post it.
 
A friend of a friend was an old timer who took 27 shoe boxes of 3x5 cards to the FSDO to "verify" his flight experience for a rating. It comes down to whatever works for you.
 
what the other dudes said about insurance. Wait till you're trying to figure out how much night single fixed gear IMC you have. I put in approx. 1300...nightmare...but never again.
 
It's one of those things that it's not required to do but is smart to if you have the resources available.
 
I don't even have 1000 hrs yet and it has taken me months to update my logs to e-format. Not that I have been spending a lot of time on it, but yeah, it could take a LONG time for guys with some real substantial time. It has always been my interpretation that you could log your hours on sticky notes if you wanted
 
6500 hours and I still keep it on paper.

I created an excel program to crosscheck my times as a sort of redneck electronic notebook prior to my interviews at both the regional level and major level.

There's definitely a feeling of peace knowing that you're walking in with perfectly added logbooks to an interview!

Other than a crosscheck, I'm not a huge fan of electronic logbooks as a replacement of the old school paper ones. I really believe that a super neat paper logbook makes a great impression on the interviewer. Attention to detail is everything in an interview!
 
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