The examiner/FAA looks at your logbook to verify you have the required experience for a certificate/rating. Unless you give some reason to doubt the times in your logbook, it's going to be taken at face value. If the examiner just checked another guy that flew the same aircraft on the same day halfway across the country, that might get further investigation, ultimately if someone is falsifying their records, they may get revoked. Again though, it's taken at face value, unless something there triggers an examiner to question it. Just like if you were applying for an airline and they look at your thousands of whatever time, if you padded it and did it in a way that the reviewer "caught", maybe because he worked "there" or knew the chief pilot, you'd get thrown out of that interview and likely blacklisted for at least a while.

A lot of it rests on common sense. Most of this has already been covered well in this thread. If you ever suspect you are doing something that may not be "legit", ask the FSDO or for a legal interp. Document and record their answer. Document your own activities in that case to show your intent wasn't to deceive. This would be pretty rare, but there are some grey areas and if you end up there, it's best to be able to show you were trying to act within the intent of the rules.

 

Logbook reviews didn't make the FAA any more or less culpable. I suspect that the impetus for removing that requirement was more of a streamlining to cut back on the requirements on the FSDO level, probably driven by budget constraints and increasing duties in other areas.

Now of course, concerning the ATP, the pendulum has swung to a polar opposite, and the process has become more convoluted than ever.

 

Most of my hours are from instructing (who the FAA can verify with my school if they wanted) and flying friends plane which I can't prove but I'm not going to sweat about it anymore. It's legit.

When I get to a regional and when applying for ATP with a type rating, I'm sure the FAA will do what they need to verify my logbook anyway.

 

ah i see.

I'm sure whichever the regional i join will go thru my logbook for ATP! Won't have any problem. I have my traditional logbook as well as a copy on a spreadsheet so make sure the math is good.

 

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