Is your Pilot Logbook airline interview ready?
While your Pilot Logbook is the official document of your flight hours and endorsements, its also an important part of your interview kit.
How you have completed and cared for your Pilot Logbook speaks volumes about your professionalism, character, and enthusiasm for flying.
Setting your Pilot Logbook entry and care standards high, and taking care of your logbook from the start of your aviation journey, ensures your logbook is your best advocate for your flying career.
Order your NZCAA Pilot Logbook Cover
Order your CASA (Australia) Pilot Logbook Cover ( ATC or Air Services)
A Complete Record
Your Pilot Logbook should be completely up to date.
While you might consider some fields in your logbook are unnecessary, you should complete every field as it reflects your belief that these fields are there for a reason, and therefore mandatory. Assure your potential employer that you will complete all operational documentation in its entirety.
A Meticulous Record
Develop a personal habit of how and when you enter your flight hours into your pilot logbook. This not only prevents you having a large backlog of entries to make, it helps avoids you missing entries or making mistakes.
An Accurate Record
All flight hours columns must be totalled, signed off and dated by you. Double check that your flight hours reconcile with your flight hours as recorded on your CV, as at the date of your employment application.
Ensure all all Flight Training records have been signed off by your instructors,
TIP: If you have several logbooks, consider labelled (endorsement type, date) sticky note tabs on the top of the pages where your endorsements were granted. Interviewers may appreciate you making this easier for them).
Correct Mistakes Correctly & Neatly
If you write an entry incorrectly, cross it out with one straight line in the middle of the entry. Using a ruler will make the correction as authentic and neat as possible.
Preserve and protect your Pilot Logbook
Your Pilot Logbook can be compromised by spills and stains. It should be completed in a clean environment, and kept safely in a bookshelf or drawer, preferably out of the sun.
Even with care, the hard back cover of your Pilot Logbook can fade and get scuffed around the corners. A personalised Sparrowhawk Leather Pilot logbook cover can protect your logbook from the elements while giving it a more professional and distinctive look.
With a wide range of personalised leather Pilot Logbook cover designs to fit NZCAA and CASA (ATC and AirServices), all made to order in New Zealand, your pilot logbook will certainly make the positive impression your flight career deserves.
Order your NZCAA Pilot Logbook Cover
Order your CASA (Australia) Pilot Logbook Cover ( ATC or Air Services)
Electronic Logbooks
Most Flying Schools and Aero Clubs recommend student pilots use a hardback, physical logbook during their training. There are advantages to continuing with a physical Pilot Logbook, as handwritten entries are a permanent record which can be highly regarded by airline recruiters.
Some pilots find it helpful to have a spreadsheet or electronic copy of their logbook as a backup in the short term. Once an Airline career is commenced, the Airline is likely to have flight records for each of its pilots, which could possibly be accessed in the unlikely event that the physical logbook was lost or destroyed. Generally NZCAA & CASA pilots do not carry their logbooks with them when they are the operating pilot.
