Yeah about lost logbooks—had a logbook in my flight case when I was working on my commercial or something, had about 300 hours in it but to me it was my life! Car was broken into and my bag was ripped off.

Long story short, I sent off a records request to the FAA (nothing online then) particularly for the 8710’s. I reconstructed what I could and put in the dates of checkrides and such. The one thing I didn’t have was my tail wheel endorsement which is a sore point but anyway got it back later.

I filed a police report, and started the new logbook off with a notarized page and a police report number along with the reconstructed times.

Was the notary necessary? Maybe not, but it was a cheap way to make it as official as possible. I had some questions about it at interviews but it was never a deal breaker and the interviewer usually took interest in my process.

So note to self—fill in the 8710 flight times! It’s automated now so it’s worth the extra two minutes.

Also, it was interesting to see the FAA records.

For those leaving a regional or any carrier for that matter, you can also request your training records. Good way to keep track of sim time if that’s your thing.