What happens to my logbook once I start professional pilot training?

[captainHicks]

Hey there guys I am a student about to go into my As/A levels and hopefully after I have achieved my A levels I will start my professional pilot training with an organisation such as CTC wings or Oxford aviation training.

By the time I go to one of these training organisations I will have about 9 hours and I have a Transair pilots logbook (PPL) and will have logged this small number of hours within it.

My question is I'm guessing I will be given a different logbook (professional logbook) to log hours in simulators e.g 737-400 but I will still have my PPL logbook which will have my approx 9 hours in before I start the professional training so will I put all of the hours in single and multi piston in my PPL logbook and the others into the profession pilot logbook. So I will have 2 logbooks??
Sorry if any confusion occurs
:ok:

[Matt101]

Probably easier to pick yourself up a JAA compliant log book now from Pooley's or someone and you can continue using that logbook throughout your training.

[captainHicks]

I have already got the PPL logbook from transair ??? :) already logged a couple of hours in this one don't really wanna get another one :/

[Bealzebub]

Nothing.

It is a logbook. As long as it has all the relevant lines and columns, just keep filling it in. I have 7 of them sitting in the bookcase at home, and one in the flightbag. The early ones were simple and small, and eventually started to fill up rapidly. The later ones had a hundred pages of 19 lines and took about 9 years to fill. They get a bit tatty in that time and all have been protected and salvaged with sticky back transparent plastic. Blue peter would have been proud!

[captainHicks]

You need a blue peter badge hahaha
It probably does not have all of the columns for flying more advanced aircraft in the professional training because it is for the ppl
So does this mean I can just have 2 logbooks with one partially filled with the aircraft used for ppl and then when I get to the simulators where this logbook doesn’t have the relevant columns needed I can just fill those hours in the pro logbook?? So sort of work from both
Thank you in advance
Hicks

[potkettleblack]

You will save yourself a whole lot of heartache if you get yourself a JAA FCL compliant logbook or at the bare minimum one with lots of extra columns. Once you have completed the professional training the joy will quickly wear off as you are sat down with a calculator or better still a copy of MS excel trying to complete the various CAA application forms. They will want your hours split in numerous ways previously not known to mankind. If you want to see what you are in for then download a copy of the applications forms right up to the ATPL and see what I mean. eg: instrument time, IFR, VFR, single engine, complex single, multi engine, night, day (for each aircraft type), PIC, P/UT (dual), P1/s, sim time split into FNPT1/FNPT2. Ah the joy....NOT.

[Halfwayback]

Potkettleblack speaks a lot of good sense.

The cost of a logbook is pennies compared with what you are about to spend so get a multi-column JAR compliant logbook now.

Transfer your flight records to the logbook now and get your CFI to initial it as a true record and thereafter keep that one up to date.

There are electronic log book programmes that will allow you to keep your hours on a PDI or similar and it can make it easier to analyse your hours later when you want to apply for licences or check currency of flying.

Good luck

HWB

[captainHicks]

Actually now you say that I think I have most of those Columns anyway check it out Transair JAR Private Pilots Logbook (http://www.transair.co.uk/product4.asp?SID=2&Product_ID=3707)

I think it has something about simulator logs aswell
??

[Genghis the Engineer]

You really don't want a PPL logbook if you are going to do a lot of hours in multiple aircraft classes. Having multiple logbooks is also a pain and you don't need the hassle.

Whilst you're on single figure hours, just spend the £20 or so on the best multi-column logbook you can find and copy over what's in your current. If you've not changed school, you can always ask your instructor or CFI to re-sign it, but that doesn't really matter because you can just hang onto the old PPL logbook for reference if they don't.

I had the sense to do this at about your age and with about 20 hours to copy up; I've been glad many times that I did - my only regret is not starting off a bit neater!

It doesn't really matter whether the one you buy is called "JAR-FCL compliant" or not, just make sure it's a big one that has columns to cover everything that you might be flying in the future and the recording requirements for any licences you might be applying for.

I doubt that any professional training organisation will give you a logbook - it's up to you to decide what you want, buy it, and look after it. Some may have a preferred logbook, but I'd not worry about that too much, they'll accept any professional logbook.

For what it's worth, I think that many people think that this (http://www.leatherlogbook.com/layout/) is the nicest professional logbook on the market at the moment (and will probably replace my current one when it finally fills up in another 500 hours or so) - although personally I'd be happy using the FAA professional, AFE professional, or the Pooleys non-JAR logbook (which is closest to what I'm currently using and very happy with.) That doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other perfectly good logbooks - I'm just expressing an aesthetic preference.

Oh yes, and buy something that you can get a leather cover for - it looks better after about 10 years of knocking about your flight bag when it finally gets left on the shelf at home.

G

[redout]

Dont bother with a logbook. Just get yourself a copy of Skylog Pro Skylog - The Pilot's Logbook for Windows (http://www.skylogservices.co.uk/)

[captainHicks]

haha :) well I got the one I placed a link for ubove and I think that has all of the relavent columns if not I will just have to copy them over when I start the pro training in about two years.
Cheers guys

[Genghis the Engineer]

I just hope that you listen to the advice of your flying instructors more than that of the very consistent opinions on here.

G

[captainHicks]

I will thank you guys

[G SXTY]

It's all good advice Mr. Hicks. I swapped my PPL logbook for a commercial one at the end of my IR, and with hindsight I should have done it much earlier. I also use an electronic version (Safelog) as a back-up and to check my adding up. It's also very useful for printing reports and totalling different types of hours (which you'll need to do for job applications).

As potkettleblack says the CAA form for issuing a CPL / IR is as complicated as the test itself. If you're anything like me, your brain will have melted by then, so a combination of electronic and commercial logbooks will make life much, much easier.