Logbook Discrepancy
 

I've been toying with the idea of digitizing my logbooks lately. Partly because I'm tired of digging through them to add up flight times for applications, but also because I've noticed a discrepancy I'd like to resolve. My SE and ME time don't add up to my TT. I don't have any glider time logged in these books and I can't think of another reason this could happen. But so far I've logged just 1650 hours with 500 of that ME, so going back to digitize them is actually doable.

My question is this: when I find my mistake, how do I show it in my actual logbook? Just a line with a subtraction and a description of what I did? And how would this look in an interview?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

-VAviator

Funny you mention this...I had the exact same problem, that I fixed today. SE+ME did not = TT. SE was off by 1.7 and multi off by .2

I really didn't go too crazy with it. I wrote a note in the back of my logbook stating the error, and that as of 2/18/2009, the records have been amended (added 1.7 in addition to total single engine time for the page and .2 in addition to total multi on the page.)

Remember this is YOUR logbook. As long as the error has been found and changed, and you have an easy way of identifying the change (ie- note in the back of the logbook), I don't see anyone giving you (or me) trouble about it...And if they do...Too be honest, not a place i'm interested in working for.

hope that helps.

Talk about work ... I converted mine about 1998 and it was about 5500 lines at that time. Despite my best efforts, there were several additive errors. Every logbook has them. Note the errors on each page and move on. When you're completely done converting you'll presumably have run down all the mistakes and can note the revised total in your paper logbook. It shouldn't be that big a deal. Anybody who complains probably has more errors than you do, anyway. :)

What software will you be using?

You were concerned your multi time was off by .2? I appreciate your attention to detail, but does 12 minutes of misappropriated multi time affect anything?

At an interview, yes.

As someone mentioned, you can easily correct this by making a new line entry adding (or subtracting) the error amount to your current totals. But you also want to make a note as to what the correction was for and the date of the error, so you will need to go through your book and find the original error.

You can't do your logbook the way I do my checkbook...if I can't find the error I just write off a few bucks.

I was off by 4 hours so, I went back to about 12 pages and used white out all the totals. It doesn't look too bad since the paper on my logbook is white. And now that my SE and ME = TT, my day + night, don't equal TT. :eek:

I do not even go that far. Every six months or so I add the SE and ME to see where I am, if it is off i just simply put the correct totals in the next time I write them down. Probably not the best answer but in the past year ive only had to correct it once and it was small like .2 or so. By the time of my next interview that .1 add in will be burried behind pages upon pages of entries and they would have to add most of my entries to find out where it came from.

What I have also done in the past when I find math errors is just use one line and write in a .1 for ME and write a note in the remarks that it is correcting an error.

Great! Thanks for all the responses! All the suggestions are great, but it's also nice to know I'm not the only one with discrepancies. I really like the idea of checking SE vs. ME time every six months or so to keep tabs. I'll definitely be doing that from now on. I figure if for some reason I can't find the mistake, I'll just subtract to make up the difference. Seems like it would be better to take time out than log time you aren't sure you've flown.

I'm thinking I'll be using Logbook Pro. I downloaded the evaluation version and it looks quite comprehensive. For those that have digitized logbooks, do you bother writing in comments for any of your previously logged time? I guess since it's logged already, it's not legally necessary. And any other suggestions other than Logbook Pro?

Thanks again!

-VAviator

Best rule of thumb is NOT to use white out. Correcting entries are best. Even if you are correcting something that has been carried over for many pages, one entry on your current page will suffice. Reference the entry where the mistake occurred.

The point is that someone reading your logbook should be able to systematically follow your progression. White out makes that difficult - it leaves doubt in the interviewer's mind. Are you hiding something?

Don't let interviewers use their imaginations...

Good to know. Thank you!