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 or vaguely detailed logbook entries are a primary challenge, as they can invalidate a learner's flight hours and potentially force them to pay for instruction twice.
Both flight instructors and learners are responsible for ensuring logbooks are immediately, precisely, and accurately signed and documented, treating the logbook as a critical legal document.
The departure of a flight instructor creates significant continuity issues; CFIs should plan exits to reach training milestones, and learners must insist on stage checks with new instructors to ensure progress and avoid redundant training.

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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.