So I did a very dumb and avoidable thing. This post is a bit of a long one, please bear with me.



When I first started instructing, I still had a paper logbook. I foolishly logged all of the landings that were done during flight lessons, even ones where my student did them and therefore I was not the sole manipulator of the controls. I continued to do this even after I switched to an electronic logbook and converted all of my entries from my paper one to my electronic one. I’ve since moved on to another flying job that isn’t instructing, so I very seldom instruct anymore.



In hindsight, it was obvious that I shouldn’t have been logging those landings. If you weren’t flying the plane, you don’t log the landing, simple as that. I’m kicking myself over this un-forced blunder.



However, I pored over all of my log entries and was actually able to piece together that I never let my 90 day currency lapse. I had some other flying in there that wasn’t instructing, plus flight lessons where I know I took the landing because the student was brand new, or it was a discovery flight, or I was teaching them a new concept, etc. I was always detailed enough in my remarks section about what we did that day.



The hope was to go to the airlines, but I’m worried an interviewer is going to flag me after they notice I logged landings on every flight lesson for basically the entirety of my instructing career. And if I made it to class at an airline, then the more in-depth logbook review during class might get me. How would I go about fixing this? Do I just go line by line and cross out the landings and put the correct number with my initials? That’s gonna look horrendous and possibly draw even more attention. Is it even worth it to try and change it?

 

Do fix it.

Don't scratch out every entry. Instead make what accountants would call a "journal entry"...

Add up all the incorrectly logged landings, and make a list of dates

Make an logbook entry with today's date, and a negative entry for landings to subtract out the incorrect number from your total time. Also list all of the dates, which I understand could make it a long entry. I would do that in your paper logbook. With that done you could then fix each date in your electronic book so it will look clean.

The fact that you fixed the error, in meticulous detail, will weigh favorably ten times more than the fact that you made such an error as a new CFI. Not something to worry about, just make sure you do the math and dates correctly.

Also you can log landings with students if you demonstrate a landing with the student not on the controls. If you know a flight was a discovery flight or first flight with a new student, it might be OK to log one occasionally.

 

I understand, thank you! I do already have my ATP (I got it through a Part 142 Training Center) and they didn’t say anything about it, so there’s that (although I don’t exactly know how thoroughly they looked at my logbook anyway). I also texted a friend of mine who is a former CFI who was hired at a major airline a little over a year ago and he replied, "I logged every single one of those landings, I have thousands of landings lol. Don’t over think it."

I talked to another person who works for some aviation career consulting company and he said it was a "nothingburger," but that it also wouldn’t hurt to fix it. I’ll do as you suggested, even if it will take some time. Just to clarify, when you say to list all of the dates however, do you mean a date range or do you mean list out each date one by one? It’s about 9-ish months worth of entries.

 

As Rickair7777 noted, The most simple and elegant fix, if you do "fix" your logbook, is a single line-entry citing the change in a positive or negative number, and a brief explanation in the comments section. This could be done for a missed entry, incorrect entry, etc; and is an easy way that does not stand out, to make a correction from time to time if you find accumulated errors in the logbook (time totals, for example). It can be done to adjust the number of approaches or landings, time in an given category, and the comments can explain why. You could cite every page number, every date, or simply state it's a correction for student landings logged.

That said, I wouldn't do anything with it. I can't imagine an soul under the sun who might review your logbook with such a skeptical eye as to question every landing you did with a student, or who would ask you which landings you actually made, touched the controls, assisted on, followed through with sweated brow with your fingers loosely encircling the yoke, or from which you violently snatched the airplane from the student (and death's doorstep) in a heroic save rivaled only Ace Ventura himself (alrighty then). Nobody's gonna do it. Not the FAA, not an airline interviewer, not a Part 135 Chief Pilot. Not even the guy sitting across the desk from you at that first Ag job (trust me on that one). Nobody will look at the total number of landings to determine if you're a viable candidate, or be suitably impressed by more or less landings that you had with a student. The interviewer will simply yawn, turn the page, and look for something more interesting. Unless you have a wild story to tell (there I was flat on my back, open jaws of death and the gates of hell and I saw my ancestors and oh gawd did I hear the voice of tinkerbelle), anybody with a scintilla of experience in this industry will look at your flight instruction as an open and closed book. You logged the time, you got outta there, and now you're here.

Poke the bear: You wanna hear about my flight instructing experience? "Nope."

If you ever do sit across the interview desk and some yahoo in a green plaid flannel shirt, manure-stained boots propped on his desk (or black leather with the undersoles polished...you know the kind) who asks you "did you really make all those landings with those students?" then please post that person here, and I'll include them as a character in a future book. They're gonna be an elf or an evil clown, though, because nobody else would ask such a question.

 

I think you are waaaaay overthinking this.
There is no such thing as “incorrect” logging.
You can log anything you like, even passenger time.
What you are required to log is a different thing altogether.
What you log for application of a rating or certificate is also a different

For instance, I can log the flight over to the next airport (10NM) as XC as it meets the definition but I can’t use it towards a certificate or rating which requires 50NM, therefore most will not log it as such.
‘Sole manipulator’ is to meet the currency requirements.
I wouldn’t change a thing if I were you, I did the same thing as you did.
Primary instruction I logged every landing.

Log what you like, use what you need.

 

I think you are waaaaay overthinking this.
There is no such thing as “incorrect” logging.
You can log anything you like, even passenger time.
What you are required to log is a different thing altogether.
What you log for application of a rating or certificate is also a different

For instance, I can log the flight over to the next airport (10NM) as XC as it meets the definition but I can’t use it towards a certificate or rating which requires 50NM, therefore most will not log it as such.
‘Sole manipulator’ is to meet the currency requirements.
If you fly a XC with a student do you log it as XC or not because you’re not the one doing the navigating? Of course you log it.
I wouldn’t change a thing if I were you, I did the same thing as you did.
Primary instruction I logged every landing.

Log what you like, use what you need.

 

Yeah, that seems to be the consensus among people here in this thread and where I’ve asked it elsewhere. I mentioned that I have a friend who’s currently at a major airline who I asked for his advice. He texted me back, “I logged every single one of those landings, I have thousands of landings lol. Don’t over think it.”

I talked with a gentleman who works for an aviation career consulting company and he used the word “nothingburger.”

I do already have my ATP, completed through a Part 142 training center. They didn’t bring up my landings, so there’s that.

What I will do for now is on a separate piece of paper I will write out the dates and the number of landings subtracted, just like rickair7777 suggested. However I don’t think I will write in my paper logbook yet, and I won’t delete any landings from my electronic logbook for now either. I’ll just have the correction on a separate piece of paper ready to go in case I need to copy it to my logbook.

 

Don’t bring it up unless it is brought up.
Interviewers are not 8th Dan black belt in the dark arts of FAR-itsu.
They’ve been giving a set of parameters, so much TT, so much PIc, so much turbojet etc etc.
My own experience:

Interview 135 - Chief pilot glanced at my logbook, asked about a couple of flights that caught his attention.
First 121 - logbook not reviewed
Second 121 - logbook not reviewed

Logging flight time and all of its associated pitfalls was actually one of my favorites when teaching initial CFI’s.
But now I digress….seriously get out of the rabbit hole.

 

Oh for sure. I would only talk about this if I was specifically asked to do so. I know that, at some 121 operators anyway, they review your logbooks after you get in class as well. That’s got me wondering too. But I agree that they’re not acting like Feds, they’re airline employees.