What if your chosen digital logbook provider goes out of business in five years? Will you lose the official CFI signatures from those training flights? Those flights endorsed by a CFI aren’t going to be easy to replicate. In addition, your flight instructor will have to agree to endorse your logbook digitally. For one thing, you and your flight instructor will have to be on the same page about it. While commercially available paper pilot logbooks have been the standard for decades, nothing specifically says a digital one won’t do.īut things get pretty complicated if you want to use a digital logbook for training flights. The FAA doesn’t lay out exactly how you should log your hours, even those hours that the rules require. Young pilots, however, who have many pilot job interviews ahead of them are likely going to want to count every single flight hour. For example, retired pilots who fly for fun may be very happy only to keep track of those few things that the FAA requires. Many pilots’ differing attitudes come from their career goals. These are the bare minimums-most pilots record every single flight they make. The FARs (federal aviation regulations) stipulates that you must log all flights completed for training towards a certificate or rating, along with flights required to prove you are current. It’s an official record where you keep data that proves you meet legal requirements. What is a Pilot Logbook, and Why is it So Important?įirst, it’s important to realize that your pilot logbook is so much more important than a simple tally of your flight hours.

Here’s a look at the pros and cons to consider when making that decision, along with some of the best apps to look into. And true to form, one of the most tedious paperwork tasks that pilots have to complete has now been fully digitized.īut are digital logbooks a good idea? Has the time finally come to ditch that heavy, messy, flammable paper logbook and go entirely 21st century? If you’re a new private pilot trying to decide, this article is for you. There’s an app for that! It’s true most of the time, even in the cockpit of your aircraft.

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