A logbook should be a professional document, but doens’t mean it can’t have some character in it also. It doesn’t have to be sterile. I encourage pilots to use the comments section of their logbook to document some of the unique aspects of your flying experience. It will help you remember those special flight events along the way and give you a way to remember when they took place and in which planes.

Good examples of what I mean by this can include a notation in the comments section that said, “First solo” that helps you find when you first soloed, or listing “Private Pilot Practical Test” to know when you completed that event.

You might choose to list in the comments something like, “first cross-country flight to [INSERT LOCATION HERE] where I stayed overnight with the plane and visited family.” It could be a way to remember and talk about how you handled learning to park a plane overnight and manage fueling, parking, and getting back home the next day. It shows you have skills that go beyond just getting from point A to B.

If something unique happens, like perhaps you get stuck somewhere for a maintenance issue, you might choose to put a note “had a maintenance issue and had to stay overnight at AIRPORT X”. You would better remember the event that way and point to a description of how you handled it properly. A future interviewer might note this and ask, “what aeronautical decision-making chain did you go through to decide to [perhaps] divert and land a different airport instead of trying to push on with the aircraft?” 

It isn’t even unprofessional to put something like, “took my grandma for a plane ride” in the comments. A future employer might even ask about something like this, querying, “how did that go?” It could give you an opportunity to share how cool it was to be able to share what you had learned to that point with a senior family member and how proud your grandma was about what you had accomplished so far.

It adds some context to you as a person, if done professionally.

Things you probably shouldn’t put in your logbook, and honestly, probably should have the ability to even say you did would be unprofessional things you did like, “joined the mile high club” and “did first loop in a Cessna 172.” Those are obvious things that someone reviewing your logbook would find concerning. If you do do something dumb in a plane, please don’t, but if you do, don’t call attention to it in your logbook.

You don’t have to treat this as a long personal daily journal or anything like that, but a few little notes here and there that go along with some of your flights can add a little, yet professional, color and context to your experience.

I have known some pilots that do keep a separate “aviation journal” that is literally that, a journal of their aviation experiences. tHat can  be a pretty col thing to do to look back at some of your flying experiences also. I have done this for a few unique trips aI have taken, keeping trip logs and writing some notes each day at what the experience included. I did this for a two-week stint I had bombing aroudn the Bahamas in a plane that was pretty unstructured and generated some just generally fun adventures and gorgeous places to which we flew. I also did it for a trip I had when I picked up an Aerona Champ in Idaho in March and had to fly it back to Michigan in the winter through the Rockies. It should have been a 2 day trip, but it ended up 8 with weather and diversions. And I did it for a trip picking up a Stinson in Palmer, Alaska that had to come back Michigan. The trip was an adventure with amazing flying and the journal of it is a cool reminder of the event.

My own experience with flying is that it generates memorable experiences worthy of recording. Do some in your logbook, but also don’t be afraid to do it in a separate journal. You may share it with family and friends, your children later in life, or, perhaps if they are interesting enough adventures, in a book some day!

Make what’s in your logbook legible, concise, but personal to help share some of your experience in your flying. It will also help you remember some of those great flight experiences you had.