A few months ago my entire flight bag was stolen, including my logbook (yes I know it's too sacred/valuable to carry around). The good thing is I have been able to recover all my flight times after a lot of work. I know the most important things are times and the to/from locations (I'm still working on getting the rest of these).

I have a few questions:

From my instrument training I have very little means of recovering my numbers of landings. Should I just put 1 for each flight?

As far as endorsements or remarks sections does it matter if those are all blank?

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

no experience but what i would do is

1. file a police report and retain records that it was stolen

2. Since there is no way of knowing every place you landed you will not be able to put down each entry.

3. Start a new logbook and on the first page at the bottom where the totals go in the brought forward put the last KNOWN hours you had. Probably from an 8710 or something along those lines. An educated guess will not be good enough for the FAA.

4. Keep a record that it was stolen to cover your 6

5. (probably should have been number 1) Notify the local FSDO and ask their opinion and document the time and date you called and who you spoke with for your records.

 

One LDG per instrument training flight would be a safe assumption.

Flight schools/FBO's keep records, and the CFI's also log each flight in their own books.

For the remarks, you do want to get the CFI's involved to sign for each flight they did if possible. If they're not readily available, at least get them to provide a letter (maybe notarized) stating that they conducted training flights with you on certain dates, or at least during a certain time period. Also get letters from flight schools indicated when you trainined and what ratings you got.

For endorsements you REALLY want to get those re-created...regionals are very concerned with hiring a person with a fake background (for obvious reasons). They normally want to see all of your original training endorsements. You might be able to get around that if you have previous 121 experience (they will assume your last airline checked your background and documents).

Unfortunately you are at an employment disadvantage here...I have heard that some employers will not even accept photocopies (AA and Eagle come to mind). Do as much as you can to document EVERYTHING now while you can still get hold of people.

I keep my logbook in a fire-proof safe. I also have photocopies of all of my GA logs, and electronic logbooks for my airline stuff. If it's out of the safe for an interview, it's in my possession the ENTIRE time...I don't leave it in the hotel, I take it to dinner with me, etc. You can also double-bag it and keep it in your freezer, it will safe from most fires there.

 

I believe you could get a copy of your latest 8710. That would prove you've had the required signatures up to your last checkride. Also, it would tell you how many landings and hours you've done. Talking to the FSDO is a good idea as well. Keep records of everything.

 

On a side note - I feel for you brotha. Loosing a log book is every pilots worst fear.

 

I think getting my 8710 is the best idea, i lost the logbook just a week or two after my instrument check ride.

What I've done right now is, with my school's records, logged every flight I've ever done with them according to their hobbs records which are very accurate.

So now I wonder if it would be better to just document the loss and start on page 1 with my training now and previous hours in the carry-over line... or keep what I have and leave remarks blank. It will not be hard to at least get a notarized letter from my instructors saying they did the training. But is that necessary with the 8710 matching my hours??

This idea of regionals rejecting my logbook is intimidating.

 

I would definately keep the recreated log book with as much detail as possible, that would be your primary record of flight time. The 8710 would just back up the authenticity of that, they don't have to match exactly if there were flights subsequent to the 8710 in the logbook (like your checkride).

Like I said try to get your instructors to redo your endorsements also...if they're not local they can print them out, sign & mail them, and you can glue them into to your book.

You could carry the LDGs, IMC, Hood, Night, etc from the 8710 onto the bottom of the next page of your loogbook...that way you could keep those totals.

Get letters from EVERYBODY, including school managers and DPE's. Also get phone #s and email addresses. An airline might want to call a few folks to verify your story.

 

Good luck on getting things back in order. This is a lesson for all of us to keep some sort of backup system for our main log. I do keep mine(intermitently) in a fire-proof safe, but right now it's been sitting next to my computer for the last few nights.

 

I woul highly recommand from now on keep copies of you logbook. Every time I finish a page I make two photo copies and keep on at work and I send other to my sister. That way if I lose mine I got two backups. Hopefully you will find a good situation for your problem. Good luck.

 

This is exactly why I have one on my computer up to date as well. A good friend had the same thing happen, twice. He was able to recrate his training with his 141 records. Then he was dumb enough to not log anything for over a year. The three weeks before his interview he was frantically calling past students to get ahold of their logbooks to bring his up to date.