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Am I Allowed To Review the Aircraft Logbooks Before I Rent?

Reviewing an aircraft's maintenance logbooks before renting is always a good idea.

Reviewing maintenance logbooks before you take up an airplane is good practice. [File photo]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

Question: I am a fairly new private pilot and I just moved to a new state, which means I need to find a flight school to rent airplanes from. I went to one and when I asked to see the logbooks for the aircraft the person behind the counter refused, saying they weren’t going to do that unless I was from the IRS or the FAA and the owner of the school was there.

I thought it was common practice to review logbooks before you rent an aircraft? Or should I just trust that the school knows what they are doing?

Meg Godlewski

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.

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