Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

4 Answers

Instructor Didn’t Sign Log Book

Asked by: 9272 views FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor, General Aviation, Student Pilot

 

To make a long story short, my currency/biannual and medical are all way past due, but decided to go for an hour long discovery flight while I was visiting someone out of town. Everything went great and I freshened up on a lot of my skills. I gave the instructor my log book to fill out after the flight, trusting that everything would be filled out correct. When I reviewed it upon getting back home, I realized he didn't put any information about his instructor certificate/signature/etc. I'm curious to see if this fight "counts" or if I need to figure out a way to get back to him somehow?

By "counts" I mean, if it counts toward total time for future ratings (i.e. commercial). The entry was made as 1 hour dual received. I just want to make sure it's not invalid for any reason without a particular instructor signature and credentials.

Thanks

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

4 Answers



  1. Sam Dawson on Nov 01, 2012

    The instructor is required to sign your logbook and can get into trouble for not doing so.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Wes Beard on Nov 02, 2012

    If the instructor wasn’t teaching… there is no need to have him sign the logbook. It sounds like you were the one flying and he was giving dual instruction which requires him yo sign the logbook. If you are the manipulator of controls fill out the entry and you can use that time for future certificates and ratings. I think it is poor of the instructor to not sign the book though

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. JERRY EICHELBERGER on Nov 02, 2012

    Without a medical, the CFI was PIC and you would have been receiving instruction. He is required to legally sign your log book. Call him and have him send you a sticker with his information that you can put in logbook.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  4. Matthew Waugh on Nov 02, 2012

    So right now you can log the time as PIC (sole manipulator clause).

    Most logbooks have a column headed “dual” – and we generally mean that to be “training time” which is the phrase used the regs. You cannot log training time for the flight because the entry does not meet the requirements of 61.51.(f). So the entry is incorrect as it stands, and you could cross-out the entry in the dual column and remove it from your total dual.

    It is perfectly possible that the instructor was acting as PIC but not giving instruction (but then they would have been unable to LOG it as PIC). However – it’s doubtful that’s what was happening, and almost certain the instructor has it logged as dual given, PIC (but maybe not). At this point however, without seeing the instructors logbook we don’t know if they have done anything wrong.

    So if you remove the dual entry – your logbook is perfectly legal and correct as it stands. The flight instructor is not responsible for your logbook – they should be responsible for adding the information they should add to comply with 61.51(f) – but if you have dual time logged that does not meet the requirements of 61.51(f) and you use it as training time, it’ll be you getting the grilling, not the instructor (although for grins and giggles the FAA inspector may want to track the instructor down and see if they have an inconsistent logbook entry and nail them as well).

    There’s no real requirement that you log WHO was PIC on the flight, but you might want to make a note in case it ever comes up.

    You can recover the dual time by, as others have suggested, contacting the CFI and asking them for some kind of written acknowledgement of the flight that meets 61.51(f) and you can stick that in your logbook.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.