TheFly

'Puter. It's clean and accurate.

SMACFUM

Don't listen to this guy. A nice binder will be just fine for any interview. I spiral bound mine and designed a custom logo cover page w/ a clear plastic cover. It looks awesome, and I've received many compliments on it.

Don't be a sucker and pay $100 for special paper or binders. Don't even get me started on the ludicrous pricing scam of LogTen Pro, what a racket. I use LogBook Pro, works great, and you only have to pay once and you keep it for life.

Silver02ex

Get a professional binder ( a place like logbook solutions) and just use heavy white paper. Like 24-28 pound. Don't be cute with colorful paper or fancy logo thinking your are going impress the group who's interviewing you. Just make it look professional. That's just my opinion, and my logbook helped me get hired

say again

I've seen both at interviews. Some of the printed ones looked in really bad shape with mismatched binders. Did not look professional at all. Both are acceptable as long as you keep them neat and professional.

gringo

Any interview? I'm curious how many people were successful with this approach at Delta, United or American. My guess? None to negative zero. (But seriously, if you used this approach at the Big3 successfully, let me know!)

There's a time and a place to go cheap. And I submit to you that the interview isn't one of those times.

You drop $500-1000 for a suit and tie, but go cheap on the logbooks. Makes perfect sense to me.

Wanna roll the dice and go in with a cheap-o spiral bound? Be my guest. You only have one chance to make a first impression.

Silver02ex

I know of 1 guy hired at Delta. I personally wouldn't do it, since I think a spiral bound looks cheap. A guy who I interviewed with at Spirit, didn't get hired, and had his logbook was bound by Kinko's. Those are the only 2 people I talked to that had that type of logbook.

JohnBurke

Paper logbooks. I tried putting it all on computer, but lost it twice, and finally gave up. Too tedious. Paper works just fine.

gringo

Fine advice if you're at your career destination, or you've already got thousands of hours and either can't import yourself or won't pay someone to do it, but for anyone just starting off in their career, this is really bad advice.

Why?

Simple.

Job applications.

Eventually you'll be filling out many many apps, and no two apps are alike. Every company has their own way of torturing potential applicants when it comes down to breakdown of times; how much time do you have as SIC on Tuesday Nights while flying eastbound on aircraft weighing more than 41,000 but less than 65,000? How much PIC time do you have NOT acting as an Instructor? Etc etc.

Also, I don't know if certain companies still take this approach, but there are plenty of horror stories of otherwise successful candidates getting rejected because the math on the bottom line didn't add up. Sometimes by only a few hours.

In this day and age of smartphone app logbooks, why anyone just starting out wouldn't be using one is beyond me.

showmepilot

I had an excel spreadsheet that summarized all of my flying onto one page. I also had a printout of all my military flying, my old logbook with very lttle GA flying dating back to 1987, and a printout on regular computer/copy paper from Staples with my regional flying (7 pages). Those 7 pages were stapled. I put all of that in a $.99 folder from Wal-Mart and presented it to the fine folks at United Airlines. I did well in the interview and the simulator. I got the job.

Bottom line, have something that is neat and easy to read and don't sweat it. They won't see your logbook until you get to the interview and by that point they already want to hire you. As long as you aren't presenting a bunch of cocktail napkins with chicken scratch, you should be fine. Make it legible and logical and be ready to address anything "odd".

F15Cricket

Of course every airline has a different culture, but when I was called last year for my interview at Alaska, I asked if my hand-written logbooks were ok. The lady from HR sounded impressed and said they are actually preferred. Now, my impression from being here for almost a year is that Alaska definitely likes to hire "pilots," meaning folks who like to fly and are interested in airplanes. Most of the folks I fly with have an airplane on the side ...

Having said all that, I also have an electronic logbook to quickly tally up my flying times, but my hand-written logbook is the heirloom that will pass down someday. I have my dad's logbooks (F-89 and F-101 backseat, then F-100 pilot)--priceless!