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How to log flight time.
The fields 14 CFR 61.51 requires for logged time, what each one means in plain language, and a clearly fictional worked example. Whether a specific flight counts for a specific requirement is a question for the rule and your instructor.
Version logbook-guide-v1.0 · last reviewed 2026-08-31
Read this first. This is an educational reading of 14 CFR 61.51. It cannot tell you whether a particular flight may be logged a particular way — that depends on the rule and on your flight. The example form below stores nothing.
What has to be in the entry
The regulation sets out what a logged entry must contain. The list below is the core of it in plain language. Read 14 CFR 61.51 in the current eCFR ↗ for the authoritative wording, including the parts this summary does not cover.
- Date
- The date the flight or the training session took place.
- Total flight time or lesson time
- How long the flight lasted, or the duration of the lesson, recorded the way the rule describes it.
- Departure and arrival points, or the location of the lesson
- Where you started and where you finished. For a session in a flight simulator or training device, the location of the lesson.
- Aircraft or device: make, model, and identification
- The type of aircraft, or the type of full flight simulator, flight training device, or aviation training device, plus its identification.
- Safety pilot name, when one is required
- When the regulations require a safety pilot to be on board, the name of that safety pilot is part of the record.
- Type of pilot experience or training
- What kind of time it was — for example solo, pilot in command, second in command, or training received from an authorized instructor.
- Conditions of flight
- The conditions the flight took place in — day or night, cross-country, and actual or simulated instrument conditions as applicable.
The kinds of time, at a high level
These categories are where most confusion lives. Each has conditions in the rule that are not summarised here, and none of the descriptions below is a determination about your own flying.
- Solo
- Time when you were the sole occupant of the aircraft. As a student, solo flight also depends on holding the right certificate and endorsements.
- Pilot in command (PIC)
- The regulation sets out specific circumstances in which a pilot may log PIC time. It is not simply 'whoever was flying' — read the rule and ask your instructor.
- Second in command (SIC)
- Applies where the aircraft type or the operation requires more than one pilot, under the conditions the rule describes.
- Training received
- Time you received flight training from an authorized instructor. The instructor's own entry and signature is part of what makes this record meaningful.
- Simulated or actual instrument
- Instrument time is logged according to the conditions in the rule, and simulated instrument time has its own requirements. Both are commonly misunderstood; go to the rule.
“Can I log this?”
Two places, in this order: the exact wording of 14 CFR 61.51 ↗, then your instructor, who knows the flight you are asking about. We will not answer it for you, and you should be wary of anyone online who will.
Find an instructor →A worked example you can change
Every value below is invented for teaching. The registration is not a real aircraft and the airport identifier is not a real airport. Nothing you type into the example is saved, sent, or seen by anyone.
Fictional example — educational only
This is a teaching form, not a logbook. Values stay in this browser tab, are never saved or transmitted, and vanish when you close or reload the page. Keep your real logbook in your real logbook.
The date the flight or the training session took place.
Any date — this example is never saved.
How long the flight lasted, or the duration of the lesson, recorded the way the rule describes it.
Hours, in decimals.
Where you started and where you finished. For a session in a flight simulator or training device, the location of the lesson.
Airport identifiers or a lesson location.
The type of aircraft, or the type of full flight simulator, flight training device, or aviation training device, plus its identification.
Type and registration or device identifier.
When the regulations require a safety pilot to be on board, the name of that safety pilot is part of the record.
Leave blank when no safety pilot was required.
What kind of time it was — for example solo, pilot in command, second in command, or training received from an authorized instructor.
Choose the category that matches the flight.
The conditions the flight took place in — day or night, cross-country, and actual or simulated instrument conditions as applicable.
Describe the conditions.
| Field | Your example value |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-04-18 |
| Total flight time or lesson time | 1.3 |
| Departure and arrival points, or the location of the lesson | KXYZ → KXYZ (fictional) |
| Aircraft or device: make, model, and identification | Cessna 172S · N000EX (fictional) |
| Safety pilot name, when one is required | — (none required on this example flight) |
| Type of pilot experience or training | Training received |
| Conditions of flight | Day · local |
Keeping the record
Instructor entries and endorsements are part of the record
Your instructor makes their own entries for training given and signs the endorsements the regulations require. Those signatures are what an examiner looks at. Never write an endorsement for yourself and never alter one.
Back up whatever you keep
If you keep paper, photograph or scan pages regularly and keep the copy somewhere separate. If you keep an electronic logbook, export it periodically rather than trusting one account to last a career. Pilots lose logbooks; the ones who kept a copy lose an afternoon instead of years.
Log promptly and consistently
Entries written the same day are more accurate than entries reconstructed from memory a month later. Pick one format and stay with it.
'Can I log this?' has one correct route
Read 14 CFR 61.51 for the exact wording, then ask your instructor about your specific flight. Nobody on this website can make that determination for you, and we will not try.
This page is written to print cleanly — use your browser’s print command if you want it on paper.
Primary sources
The linked source always controls. Where this page and the source differ, the source is right.
- 14 CFR 61.51 — Pilot logbooks (eCFR, current) — reviewed 2026-08-31
Scope, version and corrections
An educational reading of 14 CFR 61.51. It makes no determination about whether you personally may log any particular time, and it never stores a logbook entry.
- Content version
- logbook-guide-v1.0
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-31
- Cost
- Free, permanently. No account required.
Found something wrong or out of date? Report it to fly@pilotmethodaviation.com and we will review it against the source.
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