Separation Anxiety: When Your Instructor Moves on, Your Logbook Tells the Story

Both the CFI and learner must take responsibility for this integral part of the process.

Meg Godlewski

Wednesday, May 29, 2024 at 09:30 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: tccjeremy

If you are a CFI who intends to move on, it's important to let your learners know your plan. [iStock]

Key Takeaways:

Missing instructor signatures are a prevalent issue, invalidating dual flight hours; both learners and CFIs are responsible for ensuring immediate and correct logbook sign-offs.
Logbook entries must be precise, detailed, and comply with FAR 61.51(b) for all flight and ground instruction, acting as a legal document.
Learners should actively take ownership of their logbook, verifying entries, tracking progress, and understanding requirements, while CFIs must ensure detailed and accurate logging.
When a CFI moves on, learners must be realistic about continued training and insist on proper evaluations with new instructors, while departing CFIs should plan smooth transitions to a logical training breakpoint.

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Of all the challenges that arise from a flight instructor moving on to their next job, gaps left in a learner’s logbook are the most prevalent—and the most challenging.

Often the instructor leaves a space or empty line to record a dual instructional flight—or forgets to sign it off because the end of the lesson was hurried. Either the CFI, learner, or both had someplace else to be. There was the intention to sign off on the flight time later, but before this could happen the CFI moved on.