Off airport logging

[ZionHeliman]

I just began working for a small tour operation that is not located on or near an airport. I was just curious about how a logbook entry would look since I am so used to using airport identifiers. Latitude and longitude or the name of the company? I just want it to look professional and be accepted by the FAA or a future employer. Thanks

[Flying Pig]

As long as you can ID it. I do the same thing. I can make several off-site landings in a day. Usually Ill just note it in the area of my logbook as say .."3 off site landings" and then if there was anything notable I might put something down. After a while I noticed the details dropped off and my notes section went from being tiny writing with a lot of detail and now its just "Patrol, 2 off site landings". "Patrol, 3 off site, 1 toe-in with a psgr drop off". I may note any SVFR or bad weather ops just for reference.

 

If your tour company is based off site (non-airport) nothing wrong with writing somethig like "HB" for home base or something. I wouldnt worry about a lat/long unless you need to record where you were. If you land at several locations often, you could note the lat/longs in the back of your logbook and name them Site 1, Site 2 etc. When you write it in you logbook columns it could look like. HB - S1- S2- HB. If your company is Jacks Helicopter Tours use "JHT" as your identifier. Big thing, Just make it neat, to the point and more important make it so YOU can explain what it means 4 yrs from now .

[eagle5]

For tours I've just put the location/type of tour, i.e. KXYZ - city tour - KXYZ. For remote locations I either find a name on the chart (town, waypoint, etc.) that is close by, or just put what it is, i.e. KXYZ - Jerry's Farm - KXYZ.

[apiaguy]

I just put local.... even abbreviated "LCL"... and list # of landings......unless im going beyond the cross country distance to make a note of where the other landing sites were.

[eagle5]

Speaking of logbook entries from tour companies; If you're sitting in the helicopter while they hot load/fuel you all day long and you end up with say 30 5min. tours, 15 10min. tours, and 3 30min. tours, do keep track of all of them, or just lump them together in one entry?

[Azhigher]

I did daily entries when I did tours. Eventually that got too tedious and I went to monthly totals. All the details of my flights were on a monthly flight and duty sheet so if someone wanted further details they just needed to take a peek at those.

[Flying Pig]

I can easily do about 5hrs per day with several

start ups and shut downs. I just do a total for the day and log my landings. It looks really neat when you are newer to have a bunch of entries to start filling up pages but there is no reason to waste paper

[Gomer Pylot]

Use whatever identifier you like for flights from off-airport sites. I have far more flights from non-airport sites than from airports, including offshore platforms, customer heliports, unnamed spots in the marsh/swamp/middle-of-nowhere. You can make up an identifier, use a generic like "field site", or whatever you like. I doubt the FAA or an employer really cares all that much about the exact identifications.