CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 14 Issue 4 - 27

NEW CFI
the trash if this is the last rating they want
to achieve.
Obviously, once a private pilot, a commercial
applicant would have to produce logs proving
they had the minimum time for that rating, so
most people tend to hang on to their logbooks for
sentimental reasons, if nothing else.
What should be in your student's logbook?
Even though there is no requirement other than
your signature in their logbook, I suggest you
take the time to list every maneuver you and
your student performed, along with whatever
additional training notes you deem necessary.
Don't be stingy with the logbook writing area.
Many CFIs have been known to use an entire
page of a student's logbook for a single lesson.
Part 141 schools are obliged to keep student
records listed on FAR 141.101. These
PUT EVERY STUDENT FLIGHT IN
YOUR LOGBOOK, ONLY LISTING
WHAT YOU WOULD LIST ON NONSTUDENT
FLIGHTS. ITEMS LIKE THE
NUMBER OF LANDINGS THAT APPLY
TO YOUR CURRENCY AND PILOT IN
COMMAND TIME.
requirements are for the school, not the
instructor. As an instructor employee of any
school of this nature, your personal recordkeeping
rules are still only the ones required
by FAR 61.189.
Your signature will appear in the student's
records maintained by the school, but there
is no requirement that you must keep a copy.
Let's get real.
Here are a few tips regarding your permanent
flight instructor records:
* Ensure that your students know that their
logbook is a legal document and that they
alone are responsible for keeping it and
presenting it to the FAA when required.
* Some instructors keep a photocopy of their
students' logs on file. I do not recommend
this. We instructors are responsible to the
FAA and other government agencies for
enough without voluntarily getting
enmeshed in legalities.
* Put every student flight in your logbook,
only listing what you would list on nonstudent
flights. Items like the number of
landings that apply to your currency and pilot
in command time.
* Limit the entries in your log having to do with
students to the required things listed in the
FAR. Many CFIs list what was done with the
The Logbook Cycle
As a brand-new flight instructor, I meticulously (more or
less) recorded everything we did in each lesson. Flight
reviews were noted as such, same with aircraft checkouts
for our rental fleet. Even when I got very busy instructing,
my logbook was solid with details of each flight. But
something changed about 15 months into instructing-I
got into a habit of only recording my learners' names
and the flight times. A few months later there seems to
have been a New Year's resolution to do better with my
logbook but that lasted about three weeks, go figure.
It turns out that each new year would bring a
resolution to log better (at least by the looks of my
logbook)-but each year it would peter out somewhere
in the middle, followed by a renewed interest in recording
each flight in detail.
I finally finished my monster logbook and started looking
for another one. Yes, I am a paper logbook guy, however
I do have a bunch of flights logged in an electronic
logbook, so I am making that transition-slowly, very,
very slowly. The new logbook is just as big, maybe
even slightly larger dimensionally with more columns
designated for various types of flight time and better
annual summary pages. C'mon, it is almost 34 years
later... Still, I hope to do better at logging each flight with
enough detail to recall it decades later and to smile at
the memories each student's name and aircraft N-number
conjure up. I hope you'll have as much enjoyment with
whatever logbook and logging style you use!
-John Collins, ASI Chief Flight Instructor
CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 14 Issue 4

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 14 Issue 4
