Originally Posted by
FlyerJosh
Even if you aren't using a set curriculum, I'd suggest that you start taking more detailed personal records for your own protection.
I'm guessing that you probably take basic notes while you're flying regarding student performance, so that when you land you can conduct a proper debrief, right? Why not consolidate that info onto one plain piece of paper? There's no reason that you need to write down everything in your own logbook if you keep the notes from the lesson. (I put mine into a 3 ring binder).
The FAR's set out what you must keep as an absolute minimum. For your own protection, I suggest that you keep much more detail, and keep it away from your logbook. Remember- in the future, your student's logbooks won't necessarily be available for you to cross reference (they might be destroyed in a post impact fire or something?). And your student might not be willing to cooperate with you (particularly if they or their family are suing you for negligence after an accident and claiming that you didn't provide adequate training).
Yup. I always worked at 141 schools, so the 141 records served as my documentation. When I did a 161 student, I still used the 141 records for that reason. This way I could keep more details than I could fit in my log book.
For liaibility purposes, you want to look in the FAR's at the list of training and manuevers required for each rating or solo (it's a long list), and make sure you haver documented each and every one of those things before you sign a student off. And I mean VERBATIM, copy the verbage right out of the FAR. If you paraphrase, a lawyer will eat you alive. Of course, feel free to add any additional stuff, just don't skip anything the FARs require.