Messy Logbook

Don't use whiteout, feds aren't a fan of that. Single line or a neat X through your mistake.
:eek: I have lots of whiteout in mine. A while back I turned in my logbook to my instructor (UND is weird) and he gave it back with the last page of totals whited out because he had logged one of the flights .2 off from me.
 
I keep my paper logbooks updated, but I also use Logbook Pro. I figure they compliment each other quite nicely, as well as providing me with a bit of redundancy. I find electronic logbooks to be a bit sterile, however. I enjoy opening up my first logbook and looking at the ink entries of some of the more memorable moments in my flying career.

You can't really do that with an electronic logbook.
 
I've got whiteout all over in mine. When I started with an electronic logbook and had to go back and enter all my flights I found a few basic math errors waaaayyy back when I was 17 years old and their totals had to be carried through all following pages. The FSDO didn't care when they looked at mine. I think accuracy is far more important than neatness.
 
Everyone's first logbook will have errors. Mine has lots of lines and Xs.
Like others said before, look into an electronic log book. Have two is safer and it will allow you to change your errors without creating a mess.
 
You mean like this? Logten has it, not sure of the others...

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I thought he was dead?! :sarcasm:


Sent from my TRS-80
 
I recently started to do interviews with my company.
Lots of people have many logbooks. Pilots are one step removed from Doctors when it comes to writing down things.We are messy writers. This I know.



Here's what I look at when reviewing an applicant's logbook:

1: Do the times add up, or are at least in the same ball park as your app/resume? ((if it's off by a few hours, that's ok. I (we) understand there might be an additional flight between your application and your updated resume))

2: I generally flip to the beginning and look for logbook endorsements for checkrides, Are there entries from busted ones? (I also look in the back where some CFI's write out the endorsements.

3: What are some of the most recent flights in there? I don't really care about your 172 time as a CFI from 7 years ago, when you have been flying 135/121 for the last few years.

4: Are there any types in there that I've also flown, also airports? I like to find common ground. I have noticed it helps people to relax significantly when they are reminiscing about the good times in a fun airplane; rather than stressing to find a good story to talk about to the HR person.



So in short; In the beginning I understand you make mistakes I expect to see a few lines here and there. Simply put one line through it and make the correction. Even 4000 hours later mistakes are made. But if your logbook looks like an EMO's love poem with a million lines through every single mistake, my spidy senses start to tingle about what a 4 day might be like with you.

Electronic logbooks are quick and easy. I use an excel spreadsheet I've tweaked over the years. However I still have the paper logbooks I bring to the interviews.
 
Other than "Good, you have a logbook" -- no one has really cared much about mine. Show up on time, try not to smell too bad, don't break anything -- seems to matter way more than my chicken scratch logbook. Granted, I'm usually asking to instruct in some FBOs airplane (to make them money), or fly someone's deathtrap good aircraft in need of a pilot for minimal compensation, but as long as your logbook isn't a falsification - I don't think it really matters.
 
As far as error correction goes.... I usually put a single diagonal line through the error in red ink. Why? So I can see it later when I'm adding up totals. The majority of my math errors have been due to adding up entries that had errors in them, even errors I had already caught and corrected.

One thing I've also done is put the totals in pencil. I know some people flip out about that, but I've not yet had a potential employer bat an eye. All of the entries are permanently there in ink... It only takes one time of finding that you made an error 10+ pages ago to make you really hate carrying over incorrect totals.
 
:eek: I have lots of whiteout in mine. A while back I turned in my logbook to my instructor (UND is weird) and he gave it back with the last page of totals whited out because he had logged one of the flights .2 off from me.

I've got whiteout all over in mine. When I started with an electronic logbook and had to go back and enter all my flights I found a few basic math errors waaaayyy back when I was 17 years old and their totals had to be carried through all following pages. The FSDO didn't care when they looked at mine. I think accuracy is far more important than neatness.


You probably won't ever have any issue with it, but white out is usually a no-no. The idea behind it is, what are you "possibly" hiding? What's under the white out that needed to be covered? A simple X or a single line through it is sufficient. My first logbook is a MESS. In fact my times were so screwed up, that after going through the whole thing, I wrote down all my totals for that book and signed it on the back hardcover.
 
Why whiteout... Because it is a clean and neat looking correction. I would think that the occasional whiteout entry would not bring into question a person's integrety. If I was ever called on that then I would simply allow the person to scratch off the white out to see the number I corrected.
 
I keep my paper logbooks updated, but I also use Logbook Pro. I figure they compliment each other quite nicely, as well as providing me with a bit of redundancy. I find electronic logbooks to be a bit sterile, however. I enjoy opening up my first logbook and looking at the ink entries of some of the more memorable moments in my flying career.

You can't really do that with an electronic logbook.
I have paper, for sentimentality. :)
 
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