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Lost Student Pilot Logbook

Asked by: 3794 views FAA Regulations, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

Hello, My question is in regards to the FAA Order 8900.1.  I am in the military and have taken about 40 hrs in the DA-20 at DOSS Aviation.  In the process of moving around I have lost my logbook, and would now like to continue my training.  The training took place about 2 years ago.  I found the provisions in 8900.1 to sign an affidavit to affirm that the hours are true.  I do have a print out from the records at DOSS Aviation as well as a hand written account of all the hours with times A/C Tail number, T/O's and Landings, as well as the Instructor name (no signature or #).  I understand that the examiner does not have to accept the affidavit, but in your best guess would this be proof enough with the supporting documents to count these hours towards my PPL?  Also, if so is there a template for the affidavit that would need to be used? Thank you, Brandon Fowler

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2 Answers



  1. Dauntless Aviation - PilotLog.com on Jun 22, 2015

    Brandon, it is probably proof enough, doubly so if you can go back to your original flight school and get some sort of supporting statement along with receipts, photos, and anything else you might have. I encourage you to contact your local FAA FSDO (flight standards district office) to see if they have any particular advice on logbook reconstruction as well. Honestly, even your credit card receipts showing aircraft rental can be helpful.

    Meanwhile, this is another reason why many pilots have chosen to go digital with their logbooks. This site is supported by Dauntless Aviation, makers of a very excellent and very reasonably priced eLogbook product called Safelog, available at http://www.PilotLog.com. Safelog works natively on all major platforms – PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, Android, and Web and has plenty of features for student pilot such as yourself, including automatically comparing your logbook to FAA Aeronautical Experience Requirements for checkrides and automatically generating FAA Form 8710 / IACRA. Please do give it a try – it’s free to try for a limited number of entries and the price after that is as little as $2 a month or even less.

    For those of you reading this who are already experienced pilots and may have your logbook in some other eLog, remember that Safelog offers a FREE TRANSITION SERVICE by which you upload your data and we make the migration process painless. Over 10,000 pilots – from student pilots to senior captains – have now used this transition service and have migrated to Safelog – we welcome you to be next.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Jun 22, 2015

    The practical answer is, as Dauntless, said, to speak with the FSDO or, I would add, the potential DPE(s) about the problem. The records you describe should be sufficient under FAA guidance.

    The most difficult part may be that the Examiner is not just concerned about total hours; he will also need to see that required tasks have been covered. So, for example, “3 hours of solo cross country” would probably not be enough without identifying the starting and landing locations. Other training records, especially if DOSS kept an ongoing record of all student fights, including dates, hours and tasks and will authenticate them, would not only be best, but the easiest type of reconstruction record in your situation.

    The affidavit involved “should” be pretty straightforward – a statement of the flight time totals, using the same “boxes” as a standard logbook. a list of the attached flight records being relied on and a statement at the end to the effect of “I certify this is an accurate record of my flight time as reconstructed based on the attached records.”

    After I collected everything and put together the best package I could, I’d review it with the DPE or FSDO.

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