LogTen Pro, Version 6

Paper logbooks have a certain charm for both seasoned and neophyte pilots alike. Thumbing through a paper logbook is an experience that an electronic logbook has a hard time matching, but the more hours you have recorded the more difficult it is to manage and track currency and aeronautical experience. That's why I encourage pilots I train to duplicate the times recorded in their paper logbook in some sort of electronic format. Many pilots resist migrating to an electronic logbook because training flights require an instructor's signature, or because they need a place to record endorsements, or simply because they have amassed a fair amount of flight time and the thought of entering all that data is just too daunting. The latest release of LogTen Pro, a popular electronic logbook program for the Mac, iPhone, and the iPad has added features that move the electronic logbook closer to completely replacing hardcopy logbooks, including the ability to store digital signatures and endorsements.

Readin', 'Rightin', & 'Rithmetic

Most brands of paper logbooks provide precious little space for pilots and instructors to document each flight. That's why instructors either learn to write in very small letters or they end up taking multiple lines on a page to describe a single flight. Even when instructors succeed in writing in tiny letters, they still have to appropriate some blank space to record their signature, certificate number, and expiration date as required by 14 CFR 61.51.

By far the biggest disadvantage of paper logbooks is that mistakes, omissions and arithmetic errors invariably creep in. Even if you are incredibly circumspect in your math, there will be times when you'll be asked to provide statistics from you logbooks that can be time consuming to compile. For example, student pilots filling out an airman's application Form 8710 will need to provide some numbers like night cross country instruction received. Form 8710-10 (National Examiner Board-Designated Pilot Examiner Candidate Application) asks for very specific flight times, like multi-engine instrument flight instruction given. Ferreting out obscure flight times from a paper logbook can be time-consuming and error prone.

'Lectronic Solution

Several features make electronic logbook applications like LogTen Pro (LTP) appealing. You have more space to enter a description of the flight, track day and night landings, and the times for various categories will be totaled for you - a good job for a computer. Most electronic logbooks let you print out a hardcopy of your flight times, too.

LTP runs on MacOS, the iPhone, and the iPad, though you'll have to purchase separate versions of the app for each device. LTP lets you synchronize the logbooks on any and all devices that you have, just be sure you're backing up the logbook file somewhere safe. You can configure LTP so that certain hours, like PIC, are automatically populated when you enter a new flight.

You can record Hobbs and tach times as well as block-out/off/on/block-in times. Accurately record block times and LTP will automatically calculate how much of your flight was officially night time. You can also track night takeoffs and landings in a meaningful way, something that is missing from many brands of paper logbooks. Virtually all of the fields are configurable, so you can adjust LTP to be as simple or as detailed as you like.

For pilots who fly professionally, LTP can track your duty times and inform you when you've reached or are about to reach duty limits. As a flight instructor, I use this feature to track how long I've spent with each student.

Previous versions of LTP let you track things like instrument and type-specific currency, but one shortcoming was it was difficult to record multiple instrument approaches for a single flight. Version 6 lets you configure up to ten instrument approach fields for a single flight.

When an insurance company or flight club wants to know how much time you have in a specific aircraft type in the last 90 days, LTP makes it relatively easy to provide an answer. You can create your own Smart Groups that use multiple criteria to extract pretty much any flight time you might be able to imagine.

Signature Required

The coolest feature in LTP version 6 is the ability to sign a logbook entry for a specific flight. Before signing, fill in the flight details completely and correctly because once the entry is signed, it's locked. It can be unlocked to be corrected, but the instructor's signature will be removed, which makes sense. Assuming you've filled in the flight details, the signing process is relatively simple.

1. Tap on the signature button

2. Select instructor by name

3. Enter the instructor's certificate number

4. Enter expiration date of instructor's certificate

5. Instructor signs in the white box using their fingertip

I Certify ...

LTP lets instructors enter endorsements directly into a pilot's electronic logbook, but this feature is found in the Certificates section. This may be a matter of semantics, but I found that odd. It seems Endorsements should be a separate category, but I digress ...

Tap on the Certificates tab, then add a certificate, select Endorsement as the type, and the instructor can enter whatever text and limitations they desire. Instructors can also specify an expiration date which is very handy for student pilot solo endorsements.

The bad news is that instructors must manually enter the text for each endorsement. Sure, you can cut-and-paste from AC 61-65E, but your student must have that AC stored on his or her device.

Once you've signed an endorsement, it will be locked and you can store the "certificate" (endorsement) on www.mylogten.com by tapping Share and specifying an email address. MyLogTen will send an email to the specified address which will contain a link where you can view and print-out the endorsement. This data will be stored on their server for one week and will then be automatically deleted. Not the best arrangement, but it's workable.

Hardcopy, Too

If you want to print out a copy of your LTP logbook, a dizzying array of report and summary formats are provided. In addition to doing a backup of your electronic logbook file, it's probably wise to maintain a printed version, too.

Warts and Requests

LTP offers a lot of features for a lot of different pilots, from students to instructors to airline pilots. Their instructional videos on their various products are good, but each one begins with the hyperbolic claim that logging your flight time with LTP "... couldn't be easier." The truth is that with all these features and options, configuring LTP can be a bit daunting. LTP eases things a bit by asking you what your role is when you first install the app, but there are a lot of bells and whistles. If you have questions, customer support for LTP is pretty darn good.

The biggest drag with LTP version 6 is that the app start-up time on the iPad and the iPhone is noticeably longer than the previous version: It takes anywhere from 15 to 20 seconds for the app to initialize and that's a bummer if you woke your iPad up simply to record a block-out or off time. I'm not sure what LTP is doing during that delay, perhaps it's busy calculating currency or duty times? The developers have been releasing updates on a regular basis (at least two have updates to version 6 have already been released), so one hopes this will be addressed.

The mechanism for entering instructor certificate expiration dates could be better. All certificates expire at the end of the calendar month: One should only have to select the month and year of the expiration without scrolling through the day to find the end of the month. This is likely a limitation of the iOS programming interface, but still ...

If both pilot and instructor are using LTP, there should be a way to record the flight once and have it be distributed to the pilot's and the instructor's logbook. Since I already log flight times and descriptions on my iPad, it's tedious to have to enter the details twice. I'd like to see a way to enter the flight, sign the entry, and then transmit it (perhaps via email) so the student can import it into their logbook.

Instructors are required to keep records of any endorsements they have given for three years (five years for TSA-mandated endorsements). Flight schools and flying clubs often want copies of those endorsements. With the ability to sign-off flights and give electronic endorsements, LTP is just crying out for a better way share this info. An email facility with a data attachment that could be imported into LTP might do the trick.

Which brings us to iCloud support. The lack of iCloud integration is more a reflection of Apple's iCloud not being ready for prime time than it is a lack of will on the part of LTP developers. Assuming iCloud app support does become generally available, some of the sharing issues mentioned above may find a solution. Until then, LTP has limited ways to share flights and endorsements.

Out With the Old?

Will electronic logbooks replace paper logs? Will most NDBs be decommissioned? The answer to both of these questions would appear to be "yes, eventually." You may have resisted switching to an electronic logbook because you don't want to enter all the flights recorded in your paper logbook. That's certainly understandable and you may want to consider this service for converting your logbook to digital format. Given LTP's ability to record signatures and endorsements, it may finally be time for pilots to consider converting from a paper logbook to an all digital version.

Privileged to Fly

The beginning of the New Year is a time when many of us look back, take stock of what's happened, and look forward. There are other important dates, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, deaths. Some prominent dates for pilots include the expiration of their flight review and their medical certificate. If you're over 40 years of age or if you hold a 1st or 2nd class medical, you get used to your medical certificate expiring more often. If you've ever had your medical certificate denied or revoked, the medical expiration date takes on even more significance, reminding you how precious our flying privileges are.

It's been nearly one year since I was awarded a special issuance 2nd class medical certificate after waiting out a one year "recovery" period. A lot has happened in the intervening months.

I'm 25 pounds lighter, within the "average" Body Mass Index for my height.

My total cholesterol dropped over 45 points and my HDL/LDL readjusted to levels considered healthy, all without taking statins. Diet and exercise worked for me. Being mostly vegetarian to start with, the key seemed to be giving up cheese and most milk products, though I still occasionally partake.

In the last year I logged just under 500 hours compared with 210 hours during my year sans medical certificate. And if you're wondering if it is legal for an instructor to teach without a medical, the answer is "yes," you just can't do so in situations that require you to act as pilot-in-command.

The most fun in the last year was flying a C441 Conquest for a few hours, doing aerial survey. Flying in the flight levels in pressurized, climate-controlled comfort, above the weather, at 280+ knots - what's not to like? The aerial survey part was tedious and tiring, but still.

Other miscellaneous statistics:
Candidates recommended - 1 private, 1 commercial, 1 instrument, 1 CFI
Wings flights given - 9
Flight Reviews given - 8
Instrument Proficiency Checks given - 5
Types of aircraft flown - 12

The clouds on my horizon have to do with renewing my special issuance certificate, which is only good for 12 calendar months: It does not revert to a 3rd class after a year. The letter I received from the FAA last year explained what was required for renewal, so I started the process in July. There were delays in getting the required examination, but by the last week of August I had the doctor's report. By the way, these reports have to be current within 60 days of the day you apply for a medical certificate.

I promptly faxed the doctor's favorable report to the FAA's medical certification folks, waited 10 days, and then called to see where things stood. The good news is they received the report, the bad news is they can't guarantee they'll be able to review it before the end of September. So rather than waiting for a letter that would give my medical examiner permission to issue a certificate after performing the required exam, I chose to get the exam knowing it would be deferred back to the FAA in Oklahoma City. The exam went well, I learned I was a couple of pounds lighter, with a low resting pulse rate and normal blood pressure. Now all the paperwork is in the FAA's hands and all I can do is wait.

Several people have expressed and continue to express incredulity that I reported the medical problem to the FAA in the first place. We live in a culture that tells us we don't have to play by the rules as long as we don't get caught and in a hyper-competitive environment, it's natural to look for ways to get ahead. One way is to opt out and the thought process, to the extent that higher-level thought actually takes place, goes something like this: "These rules/regulations/laws are really inconvenient/outdated/stupid. I'm really smart/savvy/well-educated and I know better, so I'm just going to do what I want or think is best." One colleague told tell me they respected me for choosing to disclose what happened and that they thought it took guts. That meant a lot to me.

My hope is that I will get a new medical certificate before my current certificate expires at the end of September. I have called Oklahoma City a few times and will call once a week until this is resolved. When I informed the last person I spoke with that I need a medical certificate in order to work, they seemed unmoved. I'm just a one of many cases they have to sort through. Next year, my hope is that I will be allowed to return to a normal medical issuance process and we all live for hope.

Don't wait for New Year's Eve to take stock of what's happen or think ahead to the future. Just sit down with your logbook, look back through the pages, count the landings, the aircraft flown, recall the people who flew with you, the aircraft check-outs, and the check rides. Make plans for your flying future. Get a tailwheel endorsement, earn a new certificate or rating, share the joy of flight with a friend, split safety pilot duties with another instrument pilot, or transport an ill child to their chemotherapy treatment. The world is your oyster when you have the privilege to fly.

Marking Time, Part II

Following up on my previous post about LogTen Pro, I wanted to post my impressions on LogTen Mobile for the iPhone. By the way, I believe you can also use LogTen Mobile on the iPod Touch if you want these features but are locked into a mobile phone contract. I can't verify that claim as I haven't personally used LogTen Mobile on the iPod Touch.

LogTen Mobile lets you log your flight time on your iPhone and then sync it with the LogTen Pro logbook program for MacOS X. LogTen Mobile provides a subset of the features found in LogTen Pro, but it lets you enter all the pertinent data about a flight. Here's what you'll see first when you launch LogTen Mobile.



After initializing, LogTen Mobile will display the Flights screen. There are five categories of logbook data from which you can choose to display: Flights, Totals, Limits, Certificates, and Sync. To access one of these categories, simply tap on the icon at the bottom of most any LogTen Mobile screen.

I have smudged out some of the information and some of the remarks for reasons of privacy.



The Flights screen allows you to view currently logged flights, to edit a logged flight, or to add a new flight. You can choose how many of your recent flights you wish to store on your iPhone. Each line shows the departure and destination, the date, registration number, aircraft type, block out and in times, total time, and remarks.

I recommend setting your iPhone to 24-Hour time by launching Settings, selecting General, then Date & Time. If you plan to log block-out and block-in times as well as on and off times, a 24-hour time representation will make it much clearer to select the correct time.



To add a new flight, tap on the plus sign in the upper right corner of the Flights screen.



Next, you'll see a screen where you can choose to add a New Flight, enter the Next Leg (the departure will automatically be set to the last destination airport), enter the Return Trip (the departure and destination will be the inverse of your last flight), Duplicate the last flight, or Cancel and return to the Flights screen.



To add a new flight, just tap on New Flight and you'll see a screen where you can enter data about the flight as it becomes available to you. The flight data is broken down into basic categories that you can scroll through: Trip, Times, Takeoffs & Landings, Operations, Duties, People, and Notes. You can configure each section to display only the data that is important to your style of flying.



Tap on Aircraft ID and you'll see a list of the aircraft registration numbers that you used in previously logged flights, grouped by aircraft type. If you're adding a new registration number, just tap on the plus sign in the upper right corner. When you enter a new flight for an existing registration number, LogTen will automatically fill in the Hobbs Out and Tach Out times that you entered as Hobbs In and Tach In the last time you flew that aircraft. There is a minor bug is the Hobbs and Tach entry screens that requires an extra tap when entering the numbers, but that should be fixed in an upcoming release.

Tap on out and you'll see this screen allowing you to spin the wheels of the clock to set the desired time. This is where having your iPhone set to 24-hour time makes it much easier to ensure you've selected the correct time rather than seeing a mix of UTC in 24-hour format with your local time in 12-hour format.



Here are snaps of the rest of the New Flight screen, scrolling downward. You can configure each section to show as little or as much detail as you choose. Anywhere you see a green equals sign, you can tap on that sign to make that particular time equal to the total time.





Moving on, the other mains screens allow you to shown your flight experience grouped again by the simple categories Overview, Times, Takeoffs & Landings, Operations, and Custom. You can use LogTen Pro on the Mac to create a variety of custom categories for display.

The Limits screen is useful for pilots flying under Part 135 or 121 who need to track their duty limits for the last 24 hours, last 7 days, and the last 28 days. You can also create custom duty categories using LogTen Pro on the Mac. I wish I'd had this back when I was flying freight.

The Certificates screen lets you display all of the certificates you hold (the ones you entered in LogTen Pro), kind of a gee whiz feature I guess. To be truly useful, I wish this screen would display the date your received a particular certificate or rating.

The Sync screen is used when you want to synchronize the times you entered on your iPhone with your LogTen Pro logbook running on your Mac. Synchronizing is pretty easy. First, connect your iPhone to your Mac with the USB cable. If you're using iTunes version 8.X, iTunes will launch automatically when you connect your iPhone to your Mac. My procedure is to wait for iTunes to back-up my iPhone and synchronize my calendar and other data. Once iTunes is finished and displays the message that it's okay to disconnect my iPhone, I launch LogTen Pro. On you iPhone, select the Sync screen and tap Sync Now.

There are a few minor improvements that need to be made and from what I've seen so far, Noah (the developer of LogTen Pro and Mobile) is aggressively developing these two products and open to suggestions and bug reports. I've found LogTen Pro for MacOS X and LogTen Mobile for the iPhone to be quite useful and usable combination.

Should pilots trust an electronic logbook program? Since I migrated to using the LogTen suite, I have yet to log any time on paper. So I feel very comfortable going paperless (where I can). I do regular back-ups to my iDisk and CD-ROM, just to be sure. If you're ready to try LogTen Pro, just click here

Marking Time

For pilots who fly frequently and need to log their time accurately, keeping a paper logbook can be a real pain in the fundament. Even if you only fly occasionally and always in the same aircraft, logging time can be important. Especially when you need to generate a Form 8710 for an FAA check ride. I've used an electronic logbook for several years in addition to my hardcopy logbook. I recently found that I'd let my electronic version fall behind by several months. The further it fell behind, the more I dreaded the inevitable hours of drudgery that would be required to bring it up to date. Add to that the fact that there always seem to be arithmetic errors in my paper logbook, no matter how careful I am.

My electronic logbook had fallen behind on previous occasions, which got me to analyzing just why this was the case. I'm a tech-savvy sort of pilot and I use my laptop for a variety of aviation-related tasks, so it wasn't technophobia. Then it hit me. The reason was so obvious: The electronic logbook I was using is a Windows-based application and I'm primarily a Mac user. This meant that I had to first launch my virtual Windows environment on my Macbook before I could enter my times. After getting the application going, I had to deal with Windows-style user interface conventions, which is one of the main reasons I don't use Windows.

I had investigated Mac-based logbook programs in the past. Since I wasn't sure I'd like a new logbook program and I had thousands of hours to enter, I was hesitant to migrate. Two things pushed me over the threshold. One was the realization that my DPE application had expired and I was going to need to tabulate some weird statistics to re-apply. The other was my recent acquisition of an iPhone.

The iPhone has help simplify my life as a flight instructor, especially for the two or three times a week when I commute to the airport on my bicycle. The iPhone lets me access the Mac calendar that I use for my teaching schedule, it provides an email interface as well as a web browser that I can use to access aircraft scheduling sites. And of course I can use it to call Walmart ... er ... I mean Lockheed-Martin Flight Service. And it all syncs up automatically with my Macbook at home, allowing me to leave my Macbook behind and carry a lot less weight on my bike.

I've installed a few apps from the iTunes store and this got me to thinking that someone must have created an aviation logbook app that would sync with a Mac-based application. It didn't take long to discover that such a combination of products already exists in the form of LogTen Pro and LogTen Mobile. But before I committed to the whole shooting match, I wanted to be sure my investment in hours of data entry for my old electronic logbook would not be lost.

I was able to export my old electronic logbook as a comma-separated value (CSV) file. Next I downloaded a trial version of LogTen Pro and began The Great Import Experiment. It took a bit of massaging of the CSV file to get things right (just a few mass search/replace commands in TextEdit) and then I was ready to import. LogTen Pro makes importing data easy by providing a field-driven selection process that allows you to map fields from your CSV file to the LogTen Pro fields. After about 25 minutes of experimenting, it was clear that importing all my old electronic data into LogTen Pro on my MacBook would be successful. So I purchased a license on-line, entered the key I received by email, and I was ready to import my old data.

I spent about 4 hours over the next three or four days entering the data from my paper logbook and correcting some errors I found in the data I had imported. While this sounds like a lot of work, it actually took far less time than entering the information in the old PC-based logbook I had been using. In the process, I became very familiar with LogTen Pro's user interface. Most of what I saw I liked, though I do have a few minor complaints.

One issue was that I specified "Instructor" as my user profile and LogTen made the inconvenient assumption that all my flight time was dual instruction given. That was easy enough to get around as was adding some custom fields that I need to track (hours of instrument and multi-engine instruction given, for example).

There are several features that make LogTen Pro powerful and easy to use. You can configure all the aircraft types that you fly and as an instructor, I fly a bunch. LogTen Pro also remembers each aircraft and has an auto-complete feature that makes it easy to enter registration numbers. Once you've told it what aircraft type is associated with a particular registration number, the aircraft class, category, and type are automatically filled in when you enter a flight. While this might not be as important to folks who fly just one type of aircraft, it's a huge time-saver for me.



You can also print out your logbook in a variety of popular formats, such as the one used by the venerable Jeppesen Professional Pilot Logbook.




If you are a professional pilot, you can enter the time you reported for duty so that LogTen Pro and LogTen Mobile can track your duty limits for the day, week, month, and year. There are too many features to describe here and while you might not need all of them, I've found that LogTen Pro contains all the bells and whistles I need.

After getting my LogTen Pro logbook in order, I was ready to commit to LogTen Mobile on my iPhone. I'll write about my impressions of LogTen Mobile in a separate post. Suffice to say that I've used both products for several weeks with favorable results. I'm able to use those few minutes of idle time throughout the day to enter my flight times and that sure beats forgetting to enter my times electronic form and having to spend hours to get up to date. In fact, I've yet to enter any new flights in my paper logbook. Right now, all my new flights are logged in electronic format. And of course I do back-ups on a regular basis.

If LogTen Pro interests you, just click here to download a trial version or to purchase LogTen Pro.

Affordable Flying

The price of 100 low-lead is approaching $6US per gallon. A newer Cessna 172 (one that was made in this century) rents for $90 to $120 per hour, sans fuel. The going rate for flight instruction in my area is anywhere from $25 per hour to over $100 per hour. I used to estimate that the total cost of earning a private pilot certificate was between $7000 and $9000, but now the cost seems to be more in the neighborhood of $8000 to $11,000.

Now if you decide to step up to the plate, the price of earning a private pilot certificate and, say, an instrument rating is equal to the price of a new car. Afterward, how can you maintain your currency without breaking the bank? Here are some suggestions and feel free to comment with your own ideas, too.

Many FBOs offer a block rate which allows you to put a larger block of your money into an account. In exchange for carrying a balance at the FBO, they offer you a discount on aircraft rental. This works to your advantage if you fly at least a couple of times a month.

Consider becoming involved with Angel Flight or a similar charitable organization. You can put your piloting skills toward a good cause and your expenses for each flight may be tax-deductable, too. If that's not your speed, perhaps the Civil Air Patrol might be the ticket.

Find a flying buddy and split flying costs. You can take turns being PIC, you get an extra set of eyes, and even when you're not manipulating the controls you still can look, listen, and learn. It's a great way to keep your head in the game while sharing your flying experience with someone who probably shares your passion for aviation. This can be a great way for instrument-rated pilots to maintain proficiency while splitting flying costs and duties.

Many pilots who have the work space, the skills and the interest take on the project of building their own aircraft. The experimental aircraft market is not for everyone, but it is a way to reduce the cost of acquiring an aircraft while keeping maintenance costs down.

The light sport pilot and aircraft initiatives have touted lower costs, both for the aircraft themselves and for pilot training. I'm still undecided on what to think of the light sport aircraft and the training of sport pilots, but some pilots have told me it's helped them keep flying affordable.

One way, and I'm not kidding here, is to buy your own aircraft. If you purchase an aircraft, by yourself or with a few partners, you may very well be able to reduce your hourly flying costs. Of course you and your partners will be saddled with all the responsibilities of aircraft ownership, but your overall costs may be lower than renting. And you'll learn a ton about aircraft maintenance in the process.

If owning an aircraft seems too expensive, there are organizations out where you really are in a club that shares ownership of one or more aircraft. The cost of entry varies with some clubs only charging a modest initiation fee while others charge hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to scare off less serious pilots. One advantage of a flying club is that since all members own a part of the aircraft, the aircraft is probably exempt from the 100 hour inspection requirement. This is a two-edged sword: The 100 hour inspection exemption can reduce hourly maintenance costs, but it may also provide an opportunity for cost-cutting and sloppily maintained aircraft. If this sort of arrangement interests you, one litmus test is to ask to see the aircraft logbooks. If the club balks, you should walk. If they allow you to look over the logs, what you read can reveal a lot about how the aircraft are cared for.

The cost of fuel has been rising at an alarming rate. While many FBOs charge close to $6US or more, there are some good deals out there and several web sites that can help you locate the good prices. Find the reasonable deals that are reasonably close and give those FBOs your business. You'll save some money and, perhaps, send a message to the larger airports. Unlike automobiles, it often makes sense and takes little extra time to fly somewhere else and buy fuel.

The bottom line is that flying takes money and if you love it, you can find a way to keep at it.

Shaken, Not Stirred

I'm standing in line at the 24-hour grocery because the chain of events that was my day of instructing finally came to an end at 11:30 PM. I'm standing in line at midnight in the grocery because, before I get home, I needed to buy some fruit and yogurt for breakfast tomorrow. I'm at the grocery tonight because I need to be at the airport by 8 AM tomorrow.

Today I've come close to the maximum 8 hours of flight instruction allowed in the last 24 hours. The fatigue has combined with the grocery scene to put me in an altered state. The garish fluorescent lighting provides the visuals and the weird Kenny G.-inspired muzak the unsettling soundtrack. Lost souls who, for whatever reason, must do their shopping at the witching hour are slinking through the aisles and I am one of them. Somehow I manage to quickly gather my items and find the check-out line.

Trying to keep my humanity in the face of all this, I notice the gentleman behind me has only one item - a bottle of red wine. So I tell him "Why don't you go first?" He thanks me, adding he's driven all the way from Las Vegas and just needed a glass of wine to help him unwind so he could sleep. A jazzy version of "Brazil" is now filtering down on us from above.

I'm tired, but it's been a rewarding day because each of the four pilots I flew with today, in one way or another, rose to their particular challenge. Moderate turbulence, gusty crosswind landing, partial panel holding pattern, night circling approach, deftly handling a strained interaction with a bitchy controller. It's a rush when a pilot faces a challenge and stays focused, even though they may feel shaken up inside. And when they succeed, even in a small way, it's a rush for me, too. So I listen to "Brazil," singing the lyrics in my head, as I wait my turn and wonder if I'll be able to sleep.

Hat in the Ring

I had fallen two-plus years behind on entering my flight times into my electronic logbook, but as of last week I am all caught up. Getting behind was a mistake because an electronic record of one's flight time can be invaluable. And the more flight time you rack up, the more valuable that data can be. Especially when filling out a Form 8710-1 before a check ride, also known as an Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application form.

The FAA wants to know some fairly obscure information on this form, like night instruction received and cross-country instruction received. And most logbooks do not provide a good way to record this stuff so that at the end of the day (or night) you have a running total. Filling out the Form 8710-1 accurately is important because it is a legal snapshot of your flight experience. Should you ever lose your logbook or have it stolen, the importance of a properly filled out 8710 will become obvious. Many electronic logbook programs will generate a Form 8710-1 for you and even do some basic checking to make sure you meet the aeronautical experience requirements for a particular rating or certificate.

The biggest benefit is that an electronic logbook does the tedious arithmetic for you and many will generate graphs and reports of your time grouped by aircraft category, class, and type. If you're flying professionally, you may primarily fly just one aircraft type. I was surprised to learn that over the years I have logged PIC time in nearly 20 different types of aircraft. I was equally surprised to see that I regularly log instructor time in nine different types.

The desire to have all my time in an electronic format was motivated by my needing to fill out yet another application - Form 8710-10 - Designated Pilot Examiner Candidate Application. Yes, I'm considering going over to the Dark Side. This form wants some pretty specific flight times, like instrument instruction given broken down aircraft class, number of hours of instructtion given to candidates persuing an instrument rating. The electronic logbook I used lets me create some custom fields, but I had to go back through a bunch of dates and enter the correct number of hours.

The process of becoming a DPE is fairly simple, provided everything goes smoothly. Once a DPE application has been accepted, the applicant is notified that they may take the DPE knowledge test. This computer-based test is administered like any other FAA knowledge test, but a minimum score of 80% is required if you wish to be put in the DPE pool. After passing the knowledge test and being put in the pool, you wait for an opening to occur and for a call from your local Flight Standards District Office. If you are not contacted for an interview within two years, you must reapply and take the knowledge test again. If you don't apply and your name is not in the DPE candidate pool, you can't be contacted if you FSDO decides they need another DPE. In anticipation of my application being accepted, I'm already studying for the DPE knowledge test, but who knows how long I might have to wait for the opportunity to become a designated examiner. As Woody Allen said, "80 percent of success is just showing up."

And I also completed another application form - in May I'll be running in the Bay-to-Breakers. As a youngster (read 20 something), I used to run 10K races and completed one marathon, but this will be my first time running since lower back surgery several years ago. Like anything in life, preparing for this race has taken (and will continue to take) some careful training. Since many of the non-seeded running wear costumes, a friend asked me what I was going as. "A balding, middle aged, white guy" was my response.