Paper to electronic logbooks
 

I'm a pilot with 7800 hrs. Does anyone know if any of the electronic logbook company's offer the paper to electronic conversion service? Meaning can you send your paperlog books to them and have them convert them to the electronic book. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks

I looked into it a few years ago when I converted mine. 25 cents per entry comes to mind. I did the math and did it myself. The big problem I would have would be sending your only logbook in the mail. I can't imagine the disaster if it got lost or destroyed.

You might be able to find someone local who wants to make a few bucks doing data entry.

Do like I did...start typing now.
The cost/benefit ratio was too high to pay someone to do it for me.

I converted to electronic when I had only 5000 hours. It took about two weeks, and my wrist felt like I had carpal tunnel syndrome (I log every flight as an individual entry).

I'm very happy I switched to electronic. AirlineApps and PilotCredentials want the hours broken down differently. The software makes it a simple "click and done".

FYI, I started with LogBook Pro (PC). When I went Mac, I switched to Log10Pro, and it transferred all my data effortlessly.

I just entered a 'Carried Over" line for each type and took scans of the last several pages of paper; LogTen allows you to attach images to an entry..

My question is, how important is it to have electronic if we are applying to a major? I have always done just paper and the thought of transferring all of it makes me sick..

I keep hearing having an electronic print off for interviews is almost a must anymore...can anyone chime in?

I recommend doing it yourself and take your time. Do it exactly like you have it in your paper books. Line by line. Best way I think. Count up the total pages you have, and divide that number by the days you have before you need/want to complete it. Just do that many pages per day.

Also, I had a friend who paid a college student off of Craigslist to do data entry. Think he charged him like 300 for 7000 hours.

It's pretty nastalgic when you go back through and enter the hours in. It's amazing what you'll remember when you do it. it's really tedious though, and really gets old quick. That many hours would suck to enter.

Why not just scan the logbook in and keep it as a pdf file. It's not an "electronic" logbook at that point, but is a good backup in case of disaster.

Then, just start new with an electronic logbook making line 1 all your carry over numbers.

I did all mine on overnights. About 2 hours at the hotel before bed really knocks you out too, so you don't need to spend money on beer. It took me around a month and a half for about 3000 hours. But I broke multi-leg training flight down into separate segments so they would show up on the Google map (total nerd, I know).

I have no idea what someone would have charged to do that..but i imagine it would have been wrong.

http://convertmylogbook.com/ConvertMyLogbook/ConvertMyLogbook.com.html

I used them to prepare for my interview. They send you a scanner, you scan digital pics of your logbook pages, return the scanner, they email you a file to import. Your logbooks stay with you the entire time.

I keep paper and electronic. I do one entry per day and in the remarks I put in all the legs I flew that day. I took my paper logbooks to my interview. The electronic logbook is a huge help when it comes to filling out the applications.

If you get the interview with a major and have a neat, hand written logbook(s), that will not be the reason you don't get the job.

I use LogBook Pro and entered all the data myself.
I checked the electronic data against the analog (written) data and made corrections on each page as needed.
Took me a year doing one or two pages a night but sure makes it nice if you need to break down the data.

I suggest double checking each page for errors.
Remember, garbage in=garbage out.

I was in the same boat as you are, I had roughly 8100 hours to log. I bought Logbook Pro and got to work, starting with my first discovery flight 18 years ago. It took me a couple of months of plucking away at it, but I did leg by leg and it was a pain in the ass. When I was all done I brought the electronic file to the FedEx store and had it printed. It was worth the time and money and most importantly, Delta seemed to like it...:-)

What do you do about endorsements and sign-offs etc

LogbookPro offers that service

What kind of endorsements and sign offs do you need at this point? Keep them in your paper logbook. Logten pro I think lets someone sign it with their finger for that purpose. Could always annotate it in remarks and put their cfi# in or something. But I don't think Delta is going to ask to see your complex endorsement. Anyone in the 121 world should be beyond needing endorsements. Not like an airline signs your logbook endorsing you to take a checkride or signs it after your checkride. Could also print out a page to get signed and scan it and attach it to the digital logbook. If you are flying GA and get ramp checked the Feds don't ask to see your endorsements to see if you are legal to fly a plane.

Frontier wants to see all your endorsements in the interview. From the interview email-

We will also need to review all of your original logbooks and endorsements. If not, you will need to produce copies of your company/ flight school signoffs, endorsements, and FAA documents detailed in Advisory Circular 120-68F (including 8060-5, 8060-72 and 8710-1) at the interview.

I scanned them from my original paper logbooks and made a digital copy and put them in the back, along with all the other pretty graphs and breakdowns that Logbook Pro offers. Also, I did the electronic signature and imported that onto every page.

I recently joined the electronic logbook world too and yes, went line-by-line, not nearly as much flight time as those guys but man alive, once you get caught up, it's so worth it moving forward.

Is it possible to make one signature for LogbookPro and be done with it?

Yes, it is.

Two years after last comment...:eek:

When all is converted to electronic, do you stop entering data into the old paper logbook?

If so, is it okay to bring a paper logbook to an interview that has not been updated like the electronic one?

So which is the best electronic logbooks?

Can Logbook Pro read/convert PDF back to an excel file?? :eek:

I stopped entering in paper logbook...but I heard that the airlines want your endorsements at the interview as well. Some folks are simply making copies of them (from their old paper logs) and including them in their final presentation binder at interview...

Bring a printed copy of the electronic log book. Also bring the original logbooks with the actual signoff signatures in them. No need to continue to fill out paper once you have the electronic log book.

MCC pilot log. One time fee and does not charge a yearly fee like the other log books.

20 years and 11000 hours of flying took me about 9 months to complete in Logbook Pro. As for endorsements, I scanned and pasted each endorsement into a separate section of my binder. My paper books haven't seen any action in about two years. It's a huge job, but a little bit of dedication and a few beers make it doable.

Flica- electronic
 

I could've sworn someone once said there was an electronic logbook that could basically download directly from Flica.. meaning if you're months/years behind, or of course doing it daily, you can just download from Flica to your logbook.. obviously you'd have to edit for stuff like if it was your landing, etc….
does that exist or was someone just saying something I misinterpreted?

..
Also, apparently the answer is "yes" because everyone's stressing about these logbooks… but do these companies really want to see a log printout of every single flight you've ever done?? Can't they just say, "oh you've worked at XYZ regional for 5 years.. ok we'll just verify with your employer."
Maybe I've asked before.. I'm a little behind on mine and catching up, but these captains who say they haven't logged in 10 years or more but now want to move on… are they really trying to log every flight from that decade?? That won't be accurate - I can barely remember which legs I flew yesterday let alone from 8 years ago (?)

I'm assuming the little logbooks from the crew store that you jot down the block time, etc… is totally unprofessional to show up with. lol.

There's that urban legend that some pilot showed up to an interview with a shoe box full of those little logbooks... I've always wondered if there was any truth to that.

Not sure how your airline does it, but with my company, the CA flies the first leg, then we switch off after each two legs. When I was behind on mine, I contacted aircrew records at my company for a print out. They sent back a mish-mash of random records with totals that eventually turned out to be off by a few thousand hours. Be leery of company records, especially if they're coming from a certain regional based in ATL. ;) :D

LOL.. well I'm sure it's been done - showing up with the tiny logbooks.
At my regional, sometimes we switch at the outstation, sometimes alternate legs, sometimes do roundtrips - I've got most of that info written down.
Just wanted to have the quickest way to get it more organized and if possible, avoid hours of writing or entering flights.. especially if I get an interview and they don't even look at it (I've heard some have no interest in logbooks, some want to thumb through all 10000 hours)