I thought I’d make a post on here asking to hear everyone’s process for logging part 121 flight time in a physical logbook. Unfortunately it wasn’t something that was covered in training, and I’ve also heard differing techniques from my classmates/captains. The way AA/Envoy displays our flight time is in an hh/mm format. And the way that I have logged time in the past is in a hour/decimal tenth of an hour format. So what’s my best option to keep my logbook clean and professional for a potential future interview? I’m leaning towards taking the flight time and rounding it down to nearest tenths of an hour (to keep it looking the same as my CFI logged time)
For example: a 1 hr 45 min flight would be a 1.7 in my logbook in the applicable categories (total/turbine/SIC/AMEL/XC).
Is this how you guys would log the time? Or is there a better, alternative way?
I’ve always stayed consistent logging my hours to the tenth and never had an issue. Even interviewing with legacies, the most common theme was the presentation of your hours being neat and professional. I used a service to export my digital logbook and get it printed and leather bound along with various hour breakdown reports. I got many complements.
However, if ever in doubt most airlines have a way of pulling your flight logs so you could always get the most accurate times if needed. There are plenty of charts online to help you convert hours and minutes or some logging apps that will do it for you!
Looks like my best approach is to continue to round to the nearest tenth of an hour. I have also decided to place the time in hh:mm in the remarks section of each flight, so that it is there if I need it. So far I’m just rounding based on how Logten Pro rounds it to decimals when I type the time as hours and minutes. I guess I’ll see how it balances out versus the actual company recorded hours. I still log time both digitally and in a physical logbook, so hopefully that will help me avoid any mathematical errors. While time consuming, having a physical logbook always felt more professional to me (but I do like the idea of printing and binding the digital version!)
Now [food for thought], I am new to this game like Roscoe, but through my conversations with many ‘seasoned’ pilots, I found a few carrying around these little “red” and “blue” crew logs (linked below from Amazon). I think these are tiny enough to carry in a pocket and can help log the OOOI times. I have the blue one, which I have been using, I find it easy to quickly take a photo of the OOOI on my phone and when I get a chance write it in the book. This way I can go back and actually log it into both my electronic and paperback logbooks when I’m done flying for the day. I rather carry this little log to double check when I get home and be safer than sorry when it comes to logging my hours… after all, they’re important for upgrading and moving on with the career.
Perhaps because Brady has some class about him and understands that paper is tangible, you can put your hands on it. I have actually been able to sit down and look through my grandfather’s logbooks. Nobody will ever do that to the electronic PDF I downloaded from United.
I use the little book as well, Brady. Once at cruise I’ll put the out/off times in the book. At the end of the flight, at the gate with the engines off and all my flows/checklists complete I’ll grab the on/in times and put them in the book. At the end of my sequence I’ll put all the info into my electronic logbook which then converts it to hour and tenths. I’ll then take that and put it all in my paper logbook and in the remarks section I’ll add the flight number, weather, delays, holds, emergencies, etc.
When I started flying for a living after ATP I took my logbook with all my check rides and endorsements in it and locked it in a bank safe deposit box for safety and bought one of the big brown Jeppeson professional pilot logbooks. I still keep the paper logbook because I’m a real pilot (meaning I’m cheap and that book was expensive so by gosh I’m going to use it) and I think the idea of a full paper logbook with all my remarks about ground stops in EWR will be very interesting to my great grandkids one day.
