What do you write in "Notes"?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 524
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From: uk
What do you write in "Notes"?
I have just been filling out the ol' logbook after a nice flying session today, but I got to the "Notes" section again...what do you put?
The engine ran fine, the aircraft flew perfectly, I did 3 takeoffs and 3 landings...what more can I say?
What do you use this space for?
Thanks for comments,
obk
The engine ran fine, the aircraft flew perfectly, I did 3 takeoffs and 3 landings...what more can I say?
What do you use this space for?
Thanks for comments,
obk
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 4,729
Likes: 0
From: 75N 16E
Stuff like:
"Club checkout, Stalls, Steep turns, PFL, 1hr JAR qualifier"
"ILS 27 KXXX, VOR-A 30 KYYY missed approach"
"CPL qualifying cross country"
"Holds, Tear drop / parallel entry"
"BFR flight"
Etc...to name but a few. Anything that I think is notable.
Cyer
EA
"Club checkout, Stalls, Steep turns, PFL, 1hr JAR qualifier"
"ILS 27 KXXX, VOR-A 30 KYYY missed approach"
"CPL qualifying cross country"
"Holds, Tear drop / parallel entry"
"BFR flight"
Etc...to name but a few. Anything that I think is notable.
Cyer
EA
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 306
Likes: 0
From: UK Work: London. Home: East Anglia
As above, plus names of passengers, stall / spin practice, aerobatics, any interesting weather e.g. poor vis, strong crosswind, rain etc.For A to A flights perhaps the area or route overflown.
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 409
Likes: 0
From: SE England
Routes, turning points, passenger names, weather, VORs used, runways or details of the odd approaches we rotary types often get given (may help for next time) and all the stuff in the above posts. If it was an unevenful one then I write a bit bigger to fill the box 
DBChopper
DBChopper
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 376
Likes: 0
From: surrey
To be honest, I usually leave the box blank.
Any flight with an instructor / examiner gets a mention.
This thread has prompted me to resolve to note the number of takeoffs (and landings) for each flight, if greater than 1. That could be useful to demonstrate currency to carry passengers.
TG.
Any flight with an instructor / examiner gets a mention.
This thread has prompted me to resolve to note the number of takeoffs (and landings) for each flight, if greater than 1. That could be useful to demonstrate currency to carry passengers.
TG.
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 231
Likes: 0
From: London UK
As described above I annotate the nature of a flight (if it is perhaps a little unusual) - quite apart from being the legal record of your flying I think that some suitable text will preserve a little something of your flying 'experience' for the future.
Otherwise it's just a big list of numbers - it's nice to remember the highlights (!) of ones career or hobby (or passion)
Otherwise it's just a big list of numbers - it's nice to remember the highlights (!) of ones career or hobby (or passion)
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 3,325
Likes: 2
From: UK
Like M14P, any highlights; super high-pressure day, cr*p drizzly and windy, cloudchasing, taking J Bloggs on his/her first flight/first aeros etc. Aeros manouveres e.g B/R, A/R, ST, L (Barre l& aileron rolls, stall turn, loop). Otherwise, runway in use, landing a greaser or teeth-rattler - anything that gives the entry something to remember it by.
Good to look back on years later.
SSD
Good to look back on years later.
SSD
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: uk
For goodness sake, use your bod! You're hardly going to write, 'I woke up at ten past seven and had a pee, then made a cup of coffee...'
Use your commen sense and initiative - you must have some if you're actually completing a log book.
Use your commen sense and initiative - you must have some if you're actually completing a log book.
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 1,014
Likes: 1
From: England
I think you should always write something.
Every flight is memorable for some reason and when I look back at all of the empty notes I wonder what I did with my time in the air.I always make a point of flying with someone so their name always goes in (they may be famous some day). I now resolve to fill in the notes on each flight.
Remember also you are not limited to the one inch of notes , you can write on the next line, and the next one and heck log books are cheap.
Imagine picking up the logbook of a pilot and reading 'Took the kite over the Solent, watched the sun setting over Poole and tailchased a tiger back to base. Cricket team were playing as I landed' versus 'Local flight'. When someone says to you , how did you spend your £10,000 which logbook would you rather have?
Every flight is memorable for some reason and when I look back at all of the empty notes I wonder what I did with my time in the air.I always make a point of flying with someone so their name always goes in (they may be famous some day). I now resolve to fill in the notes on each flight.
Remember also you are not limited to the one inch of notes , you can write on the next line, and the next one and heck log books are cheap.
Imagine picking up the logbook of a pilot and reading 'Took the kite over the Solent, watched the sun setting over Poole and tailchased a tiger back to base. Cricket team were playing as I landed' versus 'Local flight'. When someone says to you , how did you spend your £10,000 which logbook would you rather have?
Joined: Dec 2001
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 3,765
Likes: 424
From: GA, USA
The Book Of Lies
Only write the good stuff,never enter something like "crappy landing ran off the runway" sort of thing.
Write whatever is apllicable to that flight.
REMEMBER it's a legal document.
If anything ever goes down the tubes that's how you can prove that you're current doing whatever you were doing when you bent it.
Cheers
Write whatever is apllicable to that flight.
REMEMBER it's a legal document.
If anything ever goes down the tubes that's how you can prove that you're current doing whatever you were doing when you bent it.
Cheers
The Original Whirly
Joined: Feb 1999
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 4,327
Likes: 2
From: Belper, Derbyshire, UK
A short nostalgia trip
I just looked back at some of mine...
FIXED WING:
"Short field takeoff on grass!"...a first trip to Derby as a very new PPL.
"TOTAL ECLIPSE TRIP with X"!...11/8/99 to Cornwall, of course.
"DAWN TO DUSK WITH Y"...covering several flights/lines
"Reached 100 hrs P1 at Slieve Bloom mountains"...in Ireland, and I remember the exact point.
HELICOPTER:
"First trip after passing - to see all my friends"...I called it my celebratory cross country; went to the airfields where I knew people.
"With Z - First passenger"
"Landed in A's field and took him for a birthday flight"
"To B and C's house; landed in the garden and took them flying"
"Mountain flying in Snowdonia"
"Helitech with D; he flew back"
"First solo auto!"
"First solo trip in US"
"Climbing over mountains, strong winds"...this was in California
"Along the coast, including LAX transition at 150ft"
"Robinson Factory Tour - flew in to factory"
"Flying down canyons; auto from 8000 ft"
All those in California of course.
"First twin engined turbine helicopter"...in Russia
I don't know if this is the way you're "supposed" to do it - but I enjoy reading them. And yes, I do have the number of takeoffs and landings, type of weather, and other stuff...but I didn't think you'd want all that.
Anyone else want to share theirs?
FIXED WING:
"Short field takeoff on grass!"...a first trip to Derby as a very new PPL.
"TOTAL ECLIPSE TRIP with X"!...11/8/99 to Cornwall, of course.
"DAWN TO DUSK WITH Y"...covering several flights/lines
"Reached 100 hrs P1 at Slieve Bloom mountains"...in Ireland, and I remember the exact point.
HELICOPTER:
"First trip after passing - to see all my friends"...I called it my celebratory cross country; went to the airfields where I knew people.
"With Z - First passenger"
"Landed in A's field and took him for a birthday flight"
"To B and C's house; landed in the garden and took them flying"
"Mountain flying in Snowdonia"
"Helitech with D; he flew back"
"First solo auto!"
"First solo trip in US"
"Climbing over mountains, strong winds"...this was in California
"Along the coast, including LAX transition at 150ft"
"Robinson Factory Tour - flew in to factory"
"Flying down canyons; auto from 8000 ft"
All those in California of course.
"First twin engined turbine helicopter"...in Russia
I don't know if this is the way you're "supposed" to do it - but I enjoy reading them. And yes, I do have the number of takeoffs and landings, type of weather, and other stuff...but I didn't think you'd want all that.
Anyone else want to share theirs?
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 603
Likes: 0
From: Kent
djk - could be, but is it relevant? You don't need an additional rating to fly Continental engines, but you do need one to fly anything (well, most) with two engines, so that's what's of interest.
That's how I see it
tKF
That's how I see it
tKF
Why do it if it's not fun?
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4,782
Likes: 12
From: Bournemouth
What a coincidence - yesterday, I went flying with AerBabe, and she asked me to e-mail the flight times to her. So I happen to have my logbook with me.
My last few flights, in reverse order, have the following notes:
- No notes. (The from/to airfields say all it.)
- NDB/ILS approach. Safety passenger: AerBabe.
- NDB hold. NDB/DME approach. Safety passenger: AerBabe.
- No notes.
- Short-field circuits
- Circuits
- No notes
- Pax: my sister
- Pax: my dad. Via OCK, BIG, LAM. (From White Waltham to Elstree - but without the waypoints the start/destination doesn't adequately describe the route, hence I've include the waypoints.)
- IMC skills test: pass
My favourite entry in the Notes column simply reads: "Toilet stop". 1 hour into a 3-hour flight I realised I needed the toilet. Another hour later, I realised I wouldn't survive until my destination, so I diverted. The story of the airfield I diverted to can wait for another day.
My second favourite entry is for the one flight I had in a Pitts Special. It reads: "Dutch rolls. Aileron rolls. Loops. Hammerheads. Cuban 8s. Reverse Cuban 8s. Spins - upright and inverted. Inverted flight. Lomcevac. Landings." And then my instructor's signature, because US instructors seem to like to sign logbooks.
FFF
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My last few flights, in reverse order, have the following notes:
- No notes. (The from/to airfields say all it.)
- NDB/ILS approach. Safety passenger: AerBabe.
- NDB hold. NDB/DME approach. Safety passenger: AerBabe.
- No notes.
- Short-field circuits
- Circuits
- No notes
- Pax: my sister
- Pax: my dad. Via OCK, BIG, LAM. (From White Waltham to Elstree - but without the waypoints the start/destination doesn't adequately describe the route, hence I've include the waypoints.)
- IMC skills test: pass
My favourite entry in the Notes column simply reads: "Toilet stop". 1 hour into a 3-hour flight I realised I needed the toilet. Another hour later, I realised I wouldn't survive until my destination, so I diverted. The story of the airfield I diverted to can wait for another day.
My second favourite entry is for the one flight I had in a Pitts Special. It reads: "Dutch rolls. Aileron rolls. Loops. Hammerheads. Cuban 8s. Reverse Cuban 8s. Spins - upright and inverted. Inverted flight. Lomcevac. Landings." And then my instructor's signature, because US instructors seem to like to sign logbooks.
FFF
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