Pilot Logbook
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· 4 min read · The Pilot Logbook Team

Switching from a paper logbook to a digital one: what you need to know

A digital logbook is only useful if the transition is done right. Here is how to migrate your paper hours accurately, what the CAA expects, and how to avoid losing your history.

At some point, most pilots consider making the switch from a paper logbook to a digital one. The appeal is obvious: automatic currency tracking, instant totals, searchable history, and a backup that does not live in your flight bag. The concern is equally obvious: years of accumulated flight time in a format you trust, and the risk of losing it or doing it wrong.

Here is a practical guide to making the transition correctly.

What the CAA says about digital logbooks

The UK CAA's Air Navigation Order and associated documents do not prohibit digital logbooks. What they require is that your logbook constitutes an accurate, contemporaneous record of your flight time and that it can be produced on request.

In practice, this means:

  1. A digital logbook maintained on a reputable platform is acceptable.
  2. You do not need to maintain both paper and digital — once you have migrated, you can continue solely in digital form.
  3. The CAA is primarily interested in the content (hours flown, dates, aircraft types, functions) rather than the medium.

If you are asked to produce your logbook for a medical renewal, a licence conversion, or a currency check, a digital record you can export to PDF and print is entirely sufficient.

How to migrate your paper history

Option 1: Full manual entry

Enter every flight from your paper logbook into the digital system. This is the most complete option and gives you a fully searchable history. It is also time-consuming — if you have 500 flights in your paper book, expect to spend 3–5 hours on data entry.

Option 2: Carry-forward totals

Enter a single "historical totals" record containing your cumulative hours by category (total time, PIC, dual, night, IFR, etc.) and your landing counts, then start entering individual flights from the current date. This is faster but loses the flight-by-flight detail.

Option 3: CSV import

If you have already been keeping any kind of spreadsheet log, most digital logbook platforms can import from a CSV file. You clean up the spreadsheet, map the column headers, and upload. This is the fastest option if you have a spreadsheet ready.

For Pilot Logbook, the import screen accepts CSV files with flexible column mapping and shows you a preview before committing anything to your record.

What to include when migrating

For each historical flight, you want to capture at minimum:

  • Date
  • Aircraft registration (or type if registration is unavailable)
  • Aircraft class (SEP, MEP, etc.)
  • Departure and arrival aerodrome
  • Departure and arrival time (or total duration)
  • Pilot function (PIC, dual, co-pilot, etc.)
  • Total time
  • PIC time
  • Night time (if any)
  • Instrument time (if any)
  • Day/night take-offs and landings

If your paper logbook did not capture all of these — older CAA log books sometimes used different formats — record what you have and note any gaps. Do not invent figures you do not have.

Keeping your paper logbook

Even after switching to digital, keep your paper logbook. It is your primary record up to the date of transfer, and some organisations (air operators, examiners) may want to see the original for historical entries. Store it somewhere safe that is not your flight bag.

Validating your totals

Before you consider the migration complete, verify that your digital totals match your paper totals for each major category: total flight time, PIC time, night time, instrument time, and landing counts. A discrepancy of more than a few minutes of flight time or a few landings suggests a data entry error worth finding.

Ongoing best practice

Once you are on a digital logbook:

  • Log flights the same day, or within 24 hours. The more time that passes, the more details you forget.
  • Do not round your times. If the flight was 1 hour 23 minutes, log 1.38 hours (or 01:23 if your system uses HH:MM format). Accumulated rounding errors across hundreds of flights are significant.
  • Use your actual departure and arrival times, not the times on your booking sheet. Wheels-off to wheels-on is the standard.
  • Back up regularly. A digital logbook platform should maintain its own backups, but downloading a PDF export every few months gives you an offline copy.

The goal is not just convenience — it is having a logbook you can trust to be accurate when it matters.

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