Plastic Pilot

In an older post, I wrote about what is left when the aircraft is back to its hangar, at home-base: souvenirs, and possibly new stamps in my logbook. Yes, I’m one of these pilots getting their logbook stamped when they visit new airports.

Other important stamps are those collected after examination flights (PPL, IR, renewals, …), but this is not the topic for today. The gallery below contains photos of some swiss airports and airfields. The Grenchen (LSZG) one is also signed by the person on duty when I flew there, as it was part of my solo navigation, with Bern (LSZB).

Yverdon (LSGY) has also a special place: it is the first airport I flew to, after completing the basic part of the training (including solo) in Geneva. Neuchâtel (LSGN) and Les Eplatures (LSGC) are the two first airports I discovered all by myself, after getting my license.

Lugano (LSZA) and Samedan (LSZS) were collected on the same day, when I flew Lausanne - Lugano - Samedan - Altenrhein - Bern - Lausanne with a friend. At three airports I flew to (Zurich (LSZH), Prangins (LSGP), Saanen (LSGK)) I forgot to stamp my logbook, or there was no stamp available.

Another one that I missed it the “Lac Noir”, the frozen lake which can in rare occasions be used as an airport. There was a stamp there, but I was so impressed and amazed that I did not even think of having my logbook stamped. Doh !

In a next post, I’ll share photos of stamps I collected in other countries, and also stamps and endorsements for the various ratings I hold. If you have some that you want to share, send a picture to me, I’ll be happy to publish them.

Pilots have to keep track of their flight time in a logbook, which contains various columns for time spent in training, as pilot in command, co-pilot, in single engine or multi engine aircraft, by day, by night, flying visually or on instruments…

To me, the best column however is the last one: Remarks and Endorsments. During initial training, my instructor had me writing down the elements of the syllabus we trained by the end of each lesson.

Later, I used to note the route flown, and I always note the name of transported passengers, together with general remarks. When flying IFR, I write down the type of approach flown, and the weather conditions, and any special event is briefly described there.

Each time I fly to a new place, I also use this space to get an airport stamp. I did not logged thousands of hours, but I can no longer remember all of my flights. When I flip through the pages of my logbook, I always stumble upon a forgotten passenger or flight.

All the other columns reflect my flight experience, and are kind of a legal and technical record. The last column is somehow of social nature, and it is like a chronicle of my flying. Several names there remind me of friends, colleagues, fellow pilots, instructors and examiners.

Without them on board, the flights recorded in my logbook would not have been the same, so I’m happy that I started the habit of tracking more that departure - destination - aircraft and time. That might sound sentimental, particularly to commercial and airline pilots, but for me flying is a passion and a hobby.

All what remains by the end of the day is a couple of new entries in my logbook, so yes, I’m sentimentally attached to it… Am I the only one, or do you feel the same ?

Do you know Brownian motion, the apparently random motion animating molecules which constantly move but stay around the same position ? Flying is quite similar…

I logged 348:55 hours in 423 flights. I operated in 39 different airports. Because I swapped seats a lot with fellow pilots, there are 3 airports where I did only land, and 3 other from which I only took-off. I landed in and took-off from the 33 others. I flew 113 different “departure - destination” combinations. This looks like Brownian motion…

Why doing that ? What is left in the end ? Passengers bring photos and videos back. As pilots, we make entries in our logbooks, one for each flight. Personally I add remarks like name of passengers, or important figures, like 500th landing, or 300th hour.

I also get my logbook stamped each time I land in a new airport. This is quite common practice in Europe: pay the landing fee, stamp the logbook. I will soon post scanned pages of my logbook with my favorite stamps: Biggin-Hill, White Waltham in UK (far away for me), but also Samedan (higher airport in Europe) and the page of my first solo, and initial IFR check.

Flipping my logbook’s pages bring many pleasant, stressful, interesting and happy moments back. In my opinion, this is the most valuable thing remaining after all these flying hours. All the money spent for these 423 flights was really worth it - however I’ve never been brave enough to sum it all

If you have special, exotic, or simply important stamps in your logbook you want to share, please e-mail them to me (see About Me page for my address), I’ll be happy to publish them together with extracts from my logbook.