As a pilot, you’ve spent hundreds of hours becoming a pilot. Taking to the skies is an exhilarating experience and one you want to remember every detail of. That’s where your pilot logbook comes in. The physical or electronic pilot logbook of every flight you’ve taken is an essential part of your career.
Contents:
- What Is a Pilot Logbook?
- What Are the Benefits of an Electronic Logbook?
- An Electronic Logbook Saves Time
- An Electronic Logbook Keeps You Organized
- An Electronic Logbook Keeps You Safe
- An Electronic Logbook Helps You Print Professional Reports
- An Electronic Logbook Ensures You Always Have Backups
- The Benefits of Using Fluix
What Is a Pilot Logbook?
As the name implies, a pilot maintains a paper or digital pilot logbook that tracks every flight he or she takes. The documentation includes the type of aircraft flown, what the flying situations were like, and the flight times. In addition, many pilots use the book to record significant events or memories from their flights.
The logbook is an important part of a pilot’s job and must be well-maintained. It can be used when applying for a new job or if there is an audit by the FAA. While there are no legal requirements to have a book or for it to be formatted a specific way, most pilots just find it’s easier to keep one. This is because regulations require pilots to prove they’ve completed a certain number of take-offs and landings within a specified amount of time to carry passengers.
What Are the Benefits of an Electronic Logbook?
In the past, logbooks were written in literal books. These days, many pilots prefer to use digital logbook aviation methods. Going digital provides pilots with a wide range of benefits.
An Electronic Logbook Saves Time
Imagine how much time it takes to keep a paper logbook. Not only do you need to write down all the meticulous details of each flight, but you need to spend time doing plenty of mathematical calculations to determine how long you’ve been in the air and make sure that you’re resting in compliance with regulations. When it’s all said and done, you’ll be spending much of your downtime recording the flights you took instead of relaxing or handling other responsibilities.
There’s an easy remedy, though. Electronic pilot logbook software does all the heavy lifting for you, performing a wide range of duties automatically:
- Saves airport and aircraft IDs when necessary
- Calculates your regulated flight, duty, and rest limits
- Allows access to information based on total flight type, flight type, PIC time, night time, and more
The best part of all may be that you never have to do any of the math.
An Electronic Logbook Keeps You Organized
What if you need a specific kind of information from your logbook? Maybe you need to know how much total time you spent in the air in the last 30 days. If you keep a paper book, you’ll need to carefully add up the time yourself, and what if you make a mistake? It could cause serious issues.
A digital pilot logbook eliminates the problem by providing you with the information you need when you need it. Digital logbooks allow you to group information together and to search for exactly what you need. Search for how many night hours you’ve flown or how many cross-country flights you’ve had, and easily get the total times.
An Electronic Logbook Keeps You Safe
A digital logbook ensures that your information is always accurate, which in turn ensures that you are always flying legally and safely. Use your logbook to import your schedule ahead of time, and the planning options will let you know if you are working within your limits and certificates. It’ll even alert you if there are any possible issues. Are you applying for a job or undergoing an audit? Use your digital logbook to create a flight audit report and ensure its accuracy. Accurate reports ensure that you’re always within your legal limitations and that you and your passengers are safe.
An Electronic Logbook Helps You Print Professional Reports
If you keep a paper logbook, you’ll lose even more of your time if you ever need a professional report. Think about how much time you’ll have to spend typing in information, creating charts, and ensuring that all the data is accurate.
When you use an electronic logbook, all of the work is done for you. All you’ll need to do is choose the type of report that you need and let the software do the rest of the work. You’ll be able to provide a neat, well-organized, easy-to-read report that shows your professionalism as a pilot.
An Electronic Logbook Ensures You Always Have Backups
What can you do if you keep a paper logbook and you lose it somewhere? Maybe your luggage falls victim to theft or a natural disaster. A paper book puts you at risk of losing what is practically your life’s work.
You’ll never need to worry about losing your logbook if it is digital. Even if you lose the electronic device that you typically use, your information will still be there when you get a new device and open up your digital flight book. You can also add backups to the cloud to ensure you always have access to it wherever you go.
The Benefits of Using Fluix
Now you know all the benefits of using a digital pilot logbook. Here’s why Fluix is your best option for one:.
- Collects Data When Offline– That’s right, you can work in offline mode! Fluix allows you to fill in your checklists, update your destinations, and more when you’re not online. Send reports with the tap of a button once you’re connected to WiFi again.
- Ensures Safety and Compliance– You’ll always have the latest version of the aircraft ground paperwork, and it will even automatically sync with your cloud storage, ensuring you’re always in compliance.
- Reduces Turnaround Time– When you have voyage reports, checklists, and other e-documents to submit, you can do it all fight from the Fluix app.
- Streamlines Aviation Maintenance– Keep your aviation maintenance teams in the loop and track their real-time progress while you wait for your aircraft to be ready to take to the skies again.
That’s just some of what you can do with Fluix. Create flight manuals, FAA flight plans, and more, and do it all with ease on our intuitive, easy-to-use app.