How to audit your pilot logbook before an airline interview

Start from page one and re-add the entries

A total that was wrong on page 12 is still wrong on page 140, because every page after it carried it forward. So the audit starts at the first page, or at the last total you have proved correct, and re-adds each column from the entries. A spreadsheet makes this fast: type or export every line, sum each column, and compare your sums with the printed totals page by page.

Then check the joins. Each page's "totals forwarded" must equal the previous page's "totals to date", and a new book must open with the old book's closing totals. EASA's AMC1 FCL.050(j) asks you to certify accumulated totals on each completed page, which gives you a checkpoint per page. If you moved from paper to software, compare your balance forward with the last paper page, column by column.

Which columns must add up, and which can overlap

Know your layout before you call a mismatch an error. Night and instrument time are parts of total time, so neither can exceed it on any line. Single-engine plus multi-engine should equal your aeroplane time, and simulator sessions belong in their own column. EASA's AMC1 FCL.050(i)(9) gives the FSTD session its own total and does not add it to flight time.

Role columns can overlap. Under the FAA rules a rated pilot who is sole manipulator logs PIC under 61.51(e)(1)(i) and can log the same time as training received under 61.51(h), and a flight instructor logs PIC for instruction given (61.51(e)(3)). Under EASA, SPIC and PICUS time is entered as PIC and instructor time "also entered as PIC" (AMC1 FCL.050(i)(8)). CASA's 61.345(3)(f) lists four capacities, pilot in command, co-pilot, pilot in command under supervision and pilot receiving flight training, with instructor time recorded separately under 61.345(3)(g). Write down which of your columns should sum to total time, and check the book against that list.

Check PIC, SIC, multi-engine, turbine, night and instrument time against their definitions

PIC and SIC: FAA SIC needs an aircraft that "requires more than one pilot" by its type certificate, or a flight where more than one pilot is required by the type certificate or the operating regulations (61.51(f)). CASA co-pilot time likewise needs an aircraft that "must be flown with a flight crew of at least 2 pilots" (61.085), and CASA's logbook page adds that a second pilot in a single-pilot aircraft who is not PIC, PICUS or under training "cannot log flight time". SIC logged in a single-pilot aircraft with no requirement for two pilots is also the easiest error to spot, because the aircraft type on the same line gives it away.

Night: all three authorities define night by civil twilight (14 CFR 1.1, FCL.010, the CASR Dictionary), and EASA lets the authority prescribe another period between sunset and sunrise. Night logged from sunset overstates it. Instrument time: FAA instrument time is time "solely by reference to instruments under actual or simulated instrument flight conditions" (61.51(g)(1)). In the EASA layout, column 9 records flight time under IFR, which FCL.010 defines as "all flight time during which the aircraft is being operated under the Instrument Flight Rules". IFR time and instrument time are different figures; an application that asks for one should not get the other.

Multi-engine and turbine: multi-engine comes from the aircraft class. None of the logging rules read for this guide defines "turbine time"; employers set that category. Check that every aircraft in your records has its engine type recorded, so a turboprop or jet is not sitting in an unclassified pile.

Approaches and night landings carry their own detail. For FAA instrument recency, 61.51(g)(3) asks for "the location and type of each instrument approach accomplished" and the safety pilot's name where one was required, and CASR 61.345(3)(k) asks for the type of instrument approach procedure. FAA night currency has its own window: 61.57(b) counts takeoffs and full-stop landings from an hour after sunset to an hour before sunrise, while logged night follows civil twilight, so a landing can be night time and still not count toward currency.

Relief, ICUS and PICUS time

Relief time goes in the co-pilot or SIC column, never as PIC or PICUS. EASA's AMC1 FCL.050(b)(3) says "a cruise relief co-pilot may log all flight time as co-pilot when occupying a pilot's seat" and asks for "CRCP" in the remarks column. CASR 61.085 counts co-pilot time for "any period" in which you are "performing co-pilot duties". The FAA rules have no relief category: you log SIC under 61.51(f) or nothing, and pilots read that paragraph two ways for time spent in the bunk. Whichever reading you use, note your seat time and sectors in remarks so you can show the basis.

Supervised command time has conditions. CASR 61.095 makes a flight ICUS time only when you hold a pilot licence, perform "all the duties of the pilot in command for the flight", and either fly for an operator whose PIC is authorised to supervise you or fly under a supervising instructor or examiner while "not receiving flight training". Under EASA you enter SPIC and PICUS time as PIC, and the PIC or instructor countersigns it in Remarks. An ICUS line on a training flight is dual time, and ICUS hours count toward the ATPL command requirement in 61.705(1)(c), so expect questions on them.

Carried-forward, transcription and simulator errors

The common faults: a page total that drops a column, a carry-forward copied with two digits swapped, a decimal paper total keyed into software as hours and minutes (1,234.5 entered as 1234:50 instead of 1234:30), a roster import that duplicated flights you had already logged by hand, and simulator time added into total flight time.

Simulator time has its own limits toward airline licences. For an FAA ATP, "Not more than 100 hours" of the 1,500 may come from a full flight simulator or flight training device in an approved course (61.159(a)(6)). For an EASA ATPL(A), up to 100 hours may be in an FFS and FNPT, with at most 25 in an FNPT (FCL.510.A(b)). For a CASA ATPL, aeronautical experience includes simulated flight time, but no more than 25 hours may be in a device that is not a flight simulator (61.705(3)). Keep the sim column separate and the limits are easy to show.

Signatures and endorsements

Training time needs the instructor's endorsement on the entry. 14 CFR 61.51(h)(2) requires it to be "endorsed in a legible manner by the authorized instructor" and to "Include a description of the training given, the length of the training lesson, and the authorized instructor's signature, certificate number, and certificate expiration date or recent experience end date". Device time toward an instrument certificate or rating counts only when an authorized instructor watched it and "signs the person's logbook or training record" (61.51(g)(4)), and a flight review needs "A logbook endorsed from an authorized instructor who gave the review" (61.56(c)(2)).

Under EASA the PIC or instructor countersigns SPIC and PICUS entries in Remarks, the instructor signs an SEP or TMG revalidation flight, and you certify the accumulated totals on each completed page (AMC1 FCL.050(j)).

Part 61 sets no countersignature for ICUS, and 61.345 does not ask for the PIC's name. If CASA directs you to produce an electronic logbook, 61.365(3) needs a printed copy in which "each page is certified by the holder as a true copy of the logbook records set out on the page". Name the supervising pilot on ICUS entries anyway: it is your evidence for your command hours.

Signatures live on paper. A typed copy in an app carries none of them, so take the signed books, or your school's training records, to the interview with the printout.

Gaps between paper and digital records

The move from paper to an app leaves three joins to check. The first is the balance forward: date it the day before the first flight you enter on its own, and keep every flight on one side of that date. A flight that sits inside the balance forward and also on its own line counts twice.

The second is the months in between. A reviewer will ask about a gap between the last paper page and the first app entry, so fill it or be ready to say why it is empty. The third is the time format: 1:30 in a paper book is 1.5 in decimal hours, never 1.3, and a total of 1,234.5 hours is 1,234:30.

Keep the paper books. CASR 61.355 requires you to keep a logbook "for 7 years after the day the last entry is made in it", and under every authority the paper holds the only signed entries.

Fixing errors and what the reviewer will check

Fix errors in the open. A struck-through line with the correct figure, your initials and the date, or in software a dated amendment note, shows what changed and why. CASA requires each entry kept unaltered for 7 years (61.355(2)), so make each correction as a new, dated addition. In the US, 14 CFR 3.403 covers a fraudulent or intentionally false statement and also a knowing omission of "a material fact", and 3.405 makes "An incorrect statement or omission of fact" that was material a basis for action even without intent.

Assume the person who reviews your book will re-add a sample of pages, compare the hours on your application with the totals in the book, and ask about any gap, jump or category that looks out of place. If two columns do not reconcile for a legitimate reason, such as PIC and dual overlapping during training, write a one-line explanation before the interview so you can give it in a sentence.