Remarks in Logbook Entry

gkaiser

gkaiser

Pre-takeoff checklist
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gkaiser
Now that I'm no-longer training I'm at a lost at what to put in the remarks common in my logbook...What's everybody? I was debating putting the WX Info for that flight (What the crosswind/etc was) to keep track of my minimums/abilities...
 
I put notable weather information, who was with me, what the trip was like. Just enough so that I can read back through it and remember the flight. I'm sure I'll appreciate it when I read back through it later.
 
I put in what I practiced. You always practice something, even if just navigation by pilotage and a normal landing.
 
Mostly nothing.

I view the logbook as a legal document. I'll put in entries as legally required to show currency and/or training and/or other "compliance" stuff, but little else. If you ever have to show the logbook to the FAA or other official, they can certainly question you on the optional info contained therein.

I know some folks like to memorialize info about their flights, but I think it's better to retain those in separate journals.
 
Two schools of thought - on is write nothing that could be used against you.

The other is write things you want to remember - I log number of landings, who is with me, anything that stands out about the flight (crosswind, low ceilings, whatever).
 
I'm leaning towards writing down the wx conditions of the flight to help me keep track of my abilities/etc...but I don't want that to bite me in the ass down the road..but it's factual information so I don't see how it could...maybe that's what I'll start doing then....for the past few flights I've put nothing in the remarks....
 
A few of my real log entries:

Route: KAEG-KABQ
Comments: Flight to buy a Phoenix sectional

Route: KAEG-1N1
Comments: 3rd of 57 airports in 365 days

Route: KAEG-E98
Comments: 2nd of 57 airports in 365 days

Route: KAEG-E98
Comments: Flying to Los Lunas
 
If you keep both a paper log and an electronic log (as, in my opinion, you should), you can go ahead and get really verbose on the electronic log and put everything you ever might want to remember - make it a journal. But on the paper log keep it short and sweet, you don't have much room anyway. If someone ever asks to see your logbook, you show them the paper one, the one that doesn't say "Flew under the Golden Gate bridge - Woo hoo!"
 
It is your logbook and you can put anything you like in it in addition to the hours/approaches/etc. that you may want to record. Wouldn't it be nice to look at your logbooks when your flying career is done and see a paragraph or a page of narrative? Or share it with your grandchildren?
 
personally i note route, departure time, landing time. In the event that someone claims I was somewhere I wasn't, I'd like to have some sort of record.
 
I disagree with Bill S and agree with alfadog.

Bob Gardner
 
Because I am all I am ever going to be, then the entries can be whatever I want to remember about the flights. I generally record anything interesting and memorial.

If I were young, just starting out, and had aspirations that included making money as a pilot, I'd make it as professional as possible. It is easy enough to keep a journal of all the other info.
 
"On the ground. Did not die." works for all of my entries.

(Joke: See the other thread by the same title.)
 
Anything memorable about the flight. Where I went (beyond the three letter identifier, which I might forget later), who I saw, what I did. It's my farging logbook, after all.
 
Some of my remarks from past flights:
Missed approach at RIC, diverted to FCI
Held for 45 minutes, diverted to XXX.
Held for Air Force One.
Aircraft didn't pressurize, returned to field
Beeping cargo had to be rescreened, bomb dog
Hard 8 BBQ!
2 hour deice lines, blizzard warning

I also note line checks and ramp checks
 
bobmrg said:
I disagree with Bill S and agree with alfadog.

Bob Gardner
Click to expand...
Funny, I agree with both of them. I've changed my mind about the amount of detail I've entered through the years. My most prevlent version is a very brief mention if the flight was significant in some way as a reminder of the date to help look at other mementos - photos, emails, FaceBook posts.
 
I heard of a 30,000 hr airline pilot who logged what went wrong on a flight.

He NEVER had a perfect flight.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Funny, I agree with both of them. I've changed my mind about the amount of detail I've entered through the years. My most prevlent version is a very brief mention if the flight was significant in some way as a reminder of the date to help look at other mementos - photos, emails, FaceBook posts.
Click to expand...

While Bill S is certainly free to do whatever he wants to do, his post smacks of paranoia. I took four logbooks to the FSDO when I went for my ATP and the inspector had nothing whatsoever to say about my entries, just checked that the numbers added up and met the requirements.

Bob
 
Like to log anyone new who flies with me.Also put approaches for my IFR flights. Any significant weather during the route.
 
gkaiser said:
Now that I'm no-longer training I'm at a lost at what to put in the remarks common in my logbook...What's everybody? I was debating putting the WX Info for that flight (What the crosswind/etc was) to keep track of my minimums/abilities...
Click to expand...

I've always included a short description of the purpose of the flight and who was on-board. Over 35 years its become a nice little aviation diary of sorts. I've had friends bring up flights from 30+ years ago that they remember like yesterday and I didn't recall taking them for a ride. Sure enough, a quick search of the logbook (now also electronic) shows I did!
 
alfadog said:
Wouldn't it be nice to look at your logbooks when your flying career is done and see a paragraph or a page of narrative? Or share it with your grandchildren?
Click to expand...

I enjoy looking back through it now!
 
I had to go look at my log book. Not a lot written in there .. just a few notes about things out of the ordinary ... passengers .. trips .. etc. I guess after all these years I just tend to write in times, landings, etc. At least if I remember to write in in there.

RT
 
Just looked at mine.

Some entries:

Practice landings
Deer on runway
Breezy day
Grass field landings
Crosswind practice
First acro day

Cheers
 
I'm one of the paranoid ones. I make a little entry on each flight, but certainly don't put down if I even possibly violated an FAR. I'm not worried about the FSDO checker, I'm worried about litigation and if the FAA goes on a specific hunt for something.
I would have thought that if the FAA or opposing counsel even dreamed that you had an electronic record, it could be subpoened. No?
 
I write anything unusual about the flight, and what I encountered or did. I have videos of my last 100 or so flights and so I can always relive them when I am in the old age home.
 
When flying XC was new to me I wrote more... I flew the 152 from alpine to Atlanta GA and back... 2400 miles 24 hrs (tailwind both ways :D ) And on that trip I used a pg and 1/2 writing about it. I smile now when I read it.

I write when I give pony rides and birthday rides, I used to log crosswinds when I was pleased <I was on the ground did not die> type days. But now I mostly write just the high points of a trip, who I was with, the purpose of it eg. "Pick up parachute visited with jim" that sort of thing.

Really, it is nice to be able to thumb thru it and reminisce a bit. Might go look at it now....
 
Mines electronic. I'll write out anything from weather and percision landing points to phone numbers of 135s that I might want to work for, maybe even how the steak was, I'll also upload photos if I take any good ones.

It's my log, I don't worry about what I put in it. I'll release what I feel like
 
Mine either have

1. VERY short practice entries (i.e. P.O. 180's)
2. Memorable failures (blown tire on landing, smoke in cockpit)
3. XC memories, short i.e. Disney Trip, Catalina Trip etc.
 
If it all weren't fiction to make us all sappy when we look back later on...

"Great flight. Saw cows."

Most entries would read...

"Had to pee really bad after 3.5. Took a leak behind hangar."
 
Have fun and put whatever you want. One advantage of electronic log books is that you can add pictures to the entry.
 
NineThreeKilo said:
Mines electronic. I'll write out anything from weather and percision landing points to phone numbers of 135s that I might want to work for, maybe even how the steak was, I'll also upload photos if I take any good ones.

It's my log, I don't worry about what I put in it. I'll release what I feel like
Click to expand...
In an investigation the FAA might well ask for the entire logbook not just the parts you feel like giving them. If you're OK with that, no problem.
 
midlifeflyer said:
In an investigation the FAA might well ask for the entire logbook not just the parts you feel like giving them. If you're OK with that, no problem.
Click to expand...

Ask all they want, all I HAVE to log is whats needed for currency and that's all that is available for public consumption IMO.
 
Dude is obviously not familiar with "compelled to produce"?

midlifeflyer said:
In an investigation the FAA might well ask for the entire logbook not just the parts you feel like giving them. If you're OK with that, no problem.
Click to expand...
 
If someone in the FAA wants to Bob Hoover you, they will do it - no matter what is or is not written in your log book.

If they don't, they won't - no matter what is or is not written in your log book.
 
NineThreeKilo said:
Ask all they want, all I HAVE to log is whats needed for currency and that's all that is available for public consumption IMO.
Click to expand...
Your opinion, not necessarily the FAA's.

True, you only have to log for currency and qualification. But once you log something, the FAA can inspect it, so long as the request is reasonable. Before you hook on too much to "reasonable," NTSB cases define that word as simply meaning that "compliance presents no undue or inappropriate burden" on the pilot.

There was an interesting case a few years ago. A CFI was involved in a gear-up while giving a flight review. In the process of investigating the incident, the FAA asked for his logbook; he refused. The FAA suspended all of his certificates and ratings for the sole reason that he refused to present his logbook for inspection. The pilot went through the NTSB appeals process with the end result that the FAA's 30-day suspension was upheld - and would continue indefinitely until the logbooks were presented.

I have always wondered whether the guy ever got his certificates back.

FAA v. Logan

The case is one of the reasons for that line in my signature block.
 
I used to use the verbose method to fill in the remarks. One day, my wife and I returned from upstate NY and we landed shortly after dark. When filling the log later, I noticed that I was about three days outside of being night current. But I had already filled in the comments about what a great trip we had and how much my wife liked flying through dusk, seeing all the lights come on, etc.

I resolved to never do that again. Both sides of that: 1) fill in the remarks section without thinking, and 2) check for currency before the flight.

-Skip
 
It can be helpful if you log solo time, at least when lengthy. IIRC, the Commercial rating has a requirement for a long SOLO three-landing trip. Despite the fact that I have flown from NC to TX a number of times, landing for fuel in MS or AL, and once diverting to Peducah KY when returning from TX and Gaston's, I had a hard time remembering if any of those trips were SOLO (usually I would fly with my non-pilot wife or a child or two).

Alos, I always write out the name of airports of landing in the remarks section, as the identifiers don't mean much to me unless they are places I fly to with some regularity.

Wells
 
Skip Miller said:
I used to use the verbose method to fill in the remarks. One day, my wife and I returned from upstate NY and we landed shortly after dark. When filling the log later, I noticed that I was about three days outside of being night current. But I had already filled in the comments about what a great trip we had and how much my wife liked flying through dusk, seeing all the lights come on, etc.

I resolved to never do that again. Both sides of that: 1) fill in the remarks section without thinking, and 2) check for currency before the flight.

-Skip
Click to expand...

This might be one of those cases where the various definitions of night might be helpful.

You can carry passengers up to an hour after sunset with day currency rules. See 14 CFR 61.57(b)(1).
 
As long as it doesn't say something along the lines of..."First flight in 91 days, 3 passengers on-board"
 
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