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:

Unsigned or improperly completed logbook entries by flight instructors are a prevalent issue that can invalidate flight hours, making it crucial for both instructors and learners to ensure immediate, accurate logging and CFI signatures after each lesson.
Logbooks are legal documents requiring precise and detailed entries, including specific maneuvers, ground instruction, and addressing deficient areas, to properly count towards certification requirements (FAR 61.51(b)).
Both CFIs and learners must proactively manage instructor transitions: CFIs should plan departures with learners, while learners need to be realistic about new instructor availability, insist on thorough skill evaluations, and seek solutions for existing logbook gaps through former CFIs or the FSDO.

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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.