One of the important roles of a pilot’s logbook is to keep track of all examination flights, endorsements and ratings. Some are simply signed by the examiner, others come with a stamp. In all cases, a form is sent to the administration that issued the license, but a long term mark is also left in the logbook.

I got the first stamp below after my very first examination flight, which validated the first part of my basic training. After that, I was the proud holder of a Restricted Private Pilot License. This is a swiss national rating, whose privileges include flying to non-controlled airports (except the place where the pilot got his / her training), outside of controlled airspace, and within Switzerland only. For obvious privacy reasons, I blurred out the examiner’s name and license number.

I flew with that rating for 10 months, building some experience, and training towards the full JAR PPL. This involved more radio-navigation, radio-communication, and a longer solo navigation. That second rating  allowed me to fly in all Europa.

There is another souvenir of this flight in my logook: a post-it like instrument cover that the instructor used to simulate an airspeed indicator failure during one of the landings. I kept it as a precious trophy earned on a particularly warm summer day.

As you probably already noticed, I’m rather proud of the next one. There is no stamp, but a simple endorsement by the examiner, but later on a new line was printed in my license: IR(A), standing for Instrument Rating. I still consider getting and holding this rating as a great achievement, even if I can’t use it a lot nowadays.

Instruments ratings have to be renewed every year through an examination flight, so I already renewed it three times. The last time was during the FADEC challenge, flying on a DA40-TDI with G1000 – a state of the art aircraft when it comes to modern airframes, engines and avionics.

I’m wondering where my next IFR renewal flight will take place. Switzerland ? Germany ? France ? Some new place ? Will that be a flight on a good old PA28 ? A PA32 ? A DA40 with G1000 ? A Cirrus ? If you’ve something to propose, I’m open to anything.

Stamps of some swiss airports I visited.