Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

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Aero-Tips 08.20.06

A student of mine is more than halfway through his 15-hour insurance requirement for checkout in a retractable-gear airplane. I've flown six hours with him myself. He came to our lesson last night with bad news—his car had been broken in to, and somebody took his flight bag. Among other things, his pilot's logbook was gone.

Some time back in Aero-Tips we asked the question "Why Log It?" According to the FAA we need only log flight time necessary to show currency or to meet the requirements of pilot certificates, ratings or flight reviews. That's all gone for him now. 

Further, the provisions of his insurance policy requires he log at least 15 hours of dual flight instruction in the airplane before he'll be covered to fly it as pilot-in-command. That's easier, because I can reconstruct what I've flown with him, and his other instructors (if he can track them down) can likely do the same.

It may be possible for my student to reconstruct much of his more recent experience (rental and fuel receipts, comparing airplane Hobbs time to what it was when he bought the airplane last month, etc.). But it'll still be a chore, and it won't be complete. His experience serves as a reminder that pilots should make a copy of their logbook, adding to the stack or scan each time a logbook page is filled, as a backup. There are also a number of computer- and/or internet-based pilot logbook programs available that can serve as a primary or backup log.

Aero-tip of the day: Keep a backup copy of your pilot logbook... just in case.

FMI: Aero-Tips