Logbook entries
 

When logging time in your private logbook (i.e. not commercial) do you use aerodrome designators in the "From" "To" columns e.g. EG?? etc or do you write the name?

I would like to put in the designator in my logbook, followed by the actual aerodrome in the comments.

Any thoughts?

Regards
Bodie

You can do whatever you want. It's your logbook, after all. As long as it's clear where you've been, it doesn't matter - so if you want to put the ICAO designator in the From/To, and the name in the comments, that's fine. (But what would you do at a farm-strip that doesn't have an ICAO code?)

Personally, I try to squeeze them both into the From/To box, although that needs some fairly small hand-writing for some airfields.

FFF
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I agree with FFF's advice.

I don't use the ICAO airport designators, which usually have little or nothing to do with the actual names of places. I like to be able to review my logbook and identify where I've flown without having to refer to a table of codes. And 25 years from now, who knows whether all of the airfields you've been to will still be open. Will you still remember that KCGX was the designator for Meigs Field? :(

Of course, it can be difficult to squeeze a lengthy name into the tiny boxes provided in most logbooks. Your proposed method would avoid that problem, but then you're going to have to do some tiny writing in the comments section if you want to add anything else (unless you use two lines per entry, which is always an option).

Just remember to write neatly, and always use the same colour of ink. Nothing looks crummier than a logbook containing a messy bunch of scribbles in all the colours of the rainbow! :uhoh:

MLS

Like your post, especially the bit about using more than one line, log books are cheap, flying and the memories are not.

I have a log book which is completed in one pen and one hand. It is the copy log book I faithfully fill out when I need to send my real log book to the CAA.

However to me the real log book is the one which has a wide variety of signatures, different pens used and the odd smear of engine oil from your fingers when you preflighted.

When I comapre the two I know which one to me has the most life and is the one I would least like to lose.

Sometime ago one of the peeps from my club had his flightbag stolen from his car containing headset, GPS, etc - but most important his log book. The hardware can be repleced (insurance paying for it) but the log book? A unique and only record of your flying history - and required to be updated and to be shown to the CAA when required.

So what can be done? I guess duplicate books, one safe at home, the other in your flight bag? Periodically photocopy your log book for the record?

Thoughts?

That's reminded me to keep it up to date, but yes, whenever I finish a page I photocopy it. Then the worst is I lose a page's worth - and most of that can be reconstructed from the club booking sheets. In the event of a loss you only have to be reasonably certain of the hours and sign to that effect - your life & liberty don't depend on split-second accuracy!

Tim

Currently I only have one logbook (actually two: one for gliding, one for power), but I am seriously considering buying a spare, faithfully copying everything into it, and maintaining it as a backup. I don't see any real downside to that: like 18greens says, logbooks are cheap, even the relatively expensive ones.

Put it in a spreadsheet, and save multiple copies of the spreadsheet! It takes only a minute or two to add an entry to the spreadsheet when you get home... e.g. http://members.lycos.co.uk/andyhardyuk/logbook/

Andy

I keep all my invoices that list all the hours flown in which aircraft - all I have to do is remember where I went and what I did. It's a partial backup, anyway.

It also reminds me how much I've spent :(

SD

Use e-logbooks.

You can enter as much as you like into the remarks column, it's a fully backed up copy of your irreplaceable data, and the airfields are already stored as an internal code (so soon you'll be able to choose ICAO codes or full names and the whole book will change at the click of a button).

Steve R