The pilot logbook: EASA format and the most common mistakes

The logbook is the only official personal record a student keeps throughout training. It is the first document examined in a licence application, a rating renewal and an audit. Even so, most schools leave logbook keeping to the student, and the first serious check happens when the application file is being assembled. A mistake found at that point means going back months.

What the columns say

The EASA-format logbook records every flight in the same order: date, departure place and time, arrival place and time, aircraft type and registration, single-pilot or multi-pilot time, total time, name of the pilot in command, number of landings (day and night separately), operational condition time (night, IFR), pilot function time (PIC, co-pilot, dual, instructor), any FSTD session, and remarks.

The important point is this: the same flight’s duration appears in more than one column. One hour of night dual flying is written as one hour in total time, one hour in the night column and one hour in the dual column. This multiple entry is where most mistakes are born.

The six most common mistakes

1. Confusing dual with PIC

A flight with an instructor is dual, even if the student handled the aircraft. A solo flight is PIC. Mixing the two misstates the PIC hours required for a licence application and gets the file sent back.

2. Logging airborne time instead of block time

Logbook time is block time: from the moment the aircraft first moves under its own power until it comes to rest at the end of the flight. Logging take-off to landing shortens the time and will not match the scheduling record.

3. Carrying page totals forward incorrectly

Each page ends with three lines: total this page, total brought forward from previous pages, and grand total. When the page total is written into the brought-forward line instead of the previous grand total, the error propagates to every following page.

4. Writing simulator time in the flight columns

FSTD sessions go in the logbook’s separate section and are not added to total flight time. Creditable simulator hours are calculated separately under the licensing rules.

5. Leaving night and IFR time blank

The operational condition columns are not optional extras; the hours required for a night rating and an instrument rating are counted from them. Night time forgotten during the flight and estimated later becomes a finding when it does not match the plan record.

6. Missing instructor name and signature

On a dual flight the pilot in command is the instructor; their name goes in the PIC column and the remarks field is signed. An unsigned dual row puts that flight’s status as a training flight at risk.

Preventing the mistakes at source

What these six have in common is that the logbook is filled in separately from the flight, and later. When the logbook row is generated from the completed flight record, the off-block and on-block times, registration, exercise type and instructor name arrive on their own; the student only checks. Page totals and carry-forwards are calculated by the system. The official logbook is still kept by hand, but because the printout it is copied from is correct, it is copied without errors.

On the school side, the instructor seeing the same flights in their own logbook under the instructor column means the two logbooks verify each other. Instead of going back months to make corrections while preparing a licence application, the file closes first time.