It is also romantic to have a paper logbook if You fly long haul 3 times a month but not so much when You fly 4 sectors 5 days in a row, IMHO.

An electronic logbook is essentially mandatory as far as I'm concerned. My last few job applications had gigantic time grids requiring oddball combinations of times that would have been impossible to fill from a paper logbook.

I used to keep a paper one in parallel for the sentimental value, but it was unfortunately lost.

Salute!
The electronic logs are great, and if you are worried, print out a summary every now and then.

OTOH, the biggest mistake I made was not keeping a personal log from day one. Not for legal purposes, but sentimental ones and such as some folks here will agree.

At my wartime squadron reunions, many of us can't even agree on where we got shot at or the date ( within a week or so unless it was a famous battle) and so forth. Over time, your memory blends things and events. You may have the mission date clear, but "who was that wingman"?

History is important, and a lot is being erased for political reasons. Of a dozen A-7D squadrons that I had linked on our website welcome page, the USAF History dweebs at Maxwell have erased the online histories except for one or two active units. Way I designed it was if you clicked on a patch you got the history. I got a stack of paper upon request, but even that was incomplete compared to what they had before 2010 or so. Didn't find out until we tried to rejoin in 2013 and none of the links worked. It was sad, because my squad was famous in WW2 - we had the only USAAF fighter pilot MoH recipient in the whole ETO ( Doolittle gothis for the Raid and that was in the Pacific). Our WW2 history was captured by a member in the book " Big Friend, Little Friend" by Turner.

Later, at the end of the VietNam debacle, my flight commander was the only member of the 354th FW to receive the Air Force Cross. His recommendation for the MoH was downgraded, as we were almost at the "first" end of the was in December 1972, and the USAF and reginme did not want another big hero.

One good example for you all is my own, and I did not log the misssion, but some newspaper did. It was 'cause I led the last flight of fighter bombers outta the whole damned war in December of 1975.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....093cf01edf.jpg

Gums sends....

I believe an experienced management pilot will quickly 'sus out' a bogus, hand written, log book and a couple of confirmatory phone calls will soon obviate the need to go as far as the simulator check. I'm not familiar with electronic log books but surely they are just as vulnerable to fudging as hand written? As with most computers, 'garbage in = garbage out'.

David1991

No, I mean I sign it by myself(as it is required, at least here in Europe). Employer Stamp comes in when I leave them. Good enough.

I used handwritten logbooks till I hit #12 and being sometimes one month begin with completing the "paper log". Now, with MCC I download my roster, at the end of the flight day I just need to add aircraft reg, FO, block and flight times. And pax numbers + approach flown, but last 2 things are just a personal "tick" I want to have.

I don't even log flight times in my electronic one. Just block off to block on and register an autoland when it's done. The least the better. The other figures wouldn't even come up on the EASA format.

I can count on one hand the number of guys I fly with who keep a paper log other than the one described above. I stopped updating my paper logbook after my commercial checkride. Never had an issue with domestic or ME carriers.