Jason,
some time ago, I researched the question whether a journey log is strictly required for an N-reg being operated in Europe. Being from Germany, I looked at the german side of things.
In Germany, it is (at least as of today...) the LuftBO (stands for something like "air operations order") that regulates this and requires a "Bordbuch". However, the thing is that the LuftBO does not apply to third-country registered aircraft that are not operated commercially. In other words, it does usually only apply to D-regs.
Therefore, no immediate need for a logbook. The ICAO articles mentioned previously don't automatically constitute binding regulations.
But....and that' a large but...it still does make a lot of sense to keep a log if you operate an N-reg in Germany. These are:
-when you get rampchecked (happens rather often at medium size and bigger airports in Germany) the official will definitely ask you about the Bordbuch. There is just no point in arguing about FAR91, the applicability of the LuftBO and things like that with a german jobsworth.
-the moment you sell the aircraft, lack of a Bordbuch would be a bad thing...definitely if the owner wants to put it on the german register, but even if the owner wants to leave it on the N-register, it will smoothen things to have one
-to a lesser extent, it can be beneficial for maintenance reasons to have a record of airborne time. However, it's a bit of a moot point because on a FAR91 operated piston aircraft, there is usually no maintenance that is governed by flight time (most is calender time and/or "on condition").
I understand that EASA ops (which will apply to third country registered aircraft) will definitely require the journey log.
I keep an electronic logbook with Safelog that records my hours and does currency etc. I also just keep a google drive spreadsheet with details of each flight:
Date
Departure airport
Arrival Airport
Distance
Fuel Used
Flight time
Logged time
I use that to estimate cost of each flight including eurocontrol charges etc.
on a FAR91 operated piston aircraft, there is usually no maintenance that is governed by flight time (most is calender time and/or "on condition")
That is true but only if the owner is completely stupid, because then for example he won't be changing the oil (etc) in accordance with accepted practice, never mind the engine maker's recommendations.
All this stuff should be in the maintenance logs, however, and that is what one looks at on a prebuy check. They can be forged but the CAMO would need to be "in bed" with the owner on outright document forgery, which is unlikely if there is a Hobbs meter which is used as the flight time reference (which is how I think most people do it).
Put an SD card in the top slot of a G1000 MFD, and every time you flick the electrical master it creates an ANSI format CSV file with sec-by-sec records of UTC time, various engine, oil & electrical parameters, OAT, fuel flow(s), GS/IAS/TAS, gps/baro altitude, lat/long, pitch/bank/bearing info etc etc. I've logged everything since aircraft factory pick-up.
Extremely useful for documentation, trip post analysis & engine trend monitoring.
I keep a separate Excel sheet as well, including fuel top-off amounts (& price), oil levels & changes, sector PIC, next event times for 100hr, 200hr, annual, VOR, ELT, xpdr check, pitot static, TKS panel activation etc. (you need to activate the FIKI system at least once a month)
Works great! All backed up regularly of course. I put nothing on paper.
Jason, I would think your Meridian has exactly the same G1000 logging feature...
-when you get rampchecked the official will definitely ask you about the Bordbuch.
I had 1 ramp check in my life, last year in Mannheim. I had no Bordbuch and they didn't ask about it. The main thing they were after was insurance documents, CoA and Licence.
I think the greatest risk would be - as at present - ramp checks for the Certificate of Free Circulation for VAT.
The French enjoyed doing that big-time some years ago, on N-regs (they can't do it on EU-regs except F-regs). I have heard sporadic reports of the Germans doing it (they can't do it on EU-regs except D-regs) and one could rely on a German inspector being more thorough than a French one.
This is notwithstanding the fact that any Socata (made in EU) plane cannot possibly require this certificate unless sold to e.g. the USA and then sold back to EU again.
Peter, aren't you referring to what I know simply as 'the tech log'?
I appreciate it probably doesn't need to be kept, and certainly doesn't need to be kept in the aircraft.
But doing it this way seems to make our lives simpler, certainly for a group aircraft. If the flight details (from, to, times) are entered here then everything else that needs to be done (personal logbooks, airframe, engine and prop logbooks) can just be copied up from there.
The 'tech log' is therefore the source data and can be referred back to if anyone needs to know anything. We also keep a running total of hrs to run until the next 50hr. This sits in a folder alongside the CofA, CoRtS, ARC, insurance docs, etc and means anyone flying it can immediately satisfy themselves it is legal without lots of digging around.
If I was buying I would be very interested in reviewing the journey log / tech log. The airframe, engine and prop logbooks contain the maintenance records, but it terms of hours flown they tend to be written up in batches (so someone sits down and writes up all of September's flights in all three logs). This 'batch reporting' makes it difficult to assess truth vs fabrication, whereas the tech/journey log (written up at the time, different dates, different pens, different handwriting if different pilots) is a lot harder to forge.
I have a side question. Under a UK CofA, when you have an annual done does your 'time to 50hr check' counter get reset to 50hrs, or does the reset only happen at a 50hr check?
I tend to agree, Graham, although
anybody forging logbooks will probably use a collection of pens :smile
the incentive is not to create extra entries but to skip entries so the plane appears to have fewer hours
This may sound suspicious of human nature 
but when I used to rent out my TB20, 2002-2006, I saw all kinds of stuff you would never believe, like an instructor messing with the fuel totaliser to get a lower fuel invoice from me, and another instructor falsely claiming to have an IR... anything you can imagine does actually go on if there is an incentive and the chap thinks you are new to the game.
An Annual resets to zero the hour counter for the 50hr, 100hr, 150hr checks. It would be daft otherwise.
I don't doubt it - I share your suspicions of human nature. People will try anything.
We're currently looking at how we log time in order to maximise the use we get between 50hrs checks.
Currently we do everything (pilot billing, aircraft logs, 50hr checks) based on the tacho hours. This works nicely for billing and personal logbooks, since you tend to find that a flight lasting exactly an hour only registers 0.85-0.9 on the tacho. It is also convenient to do everything the same way.
I am wondering though, since 'time-to-check' can be done on flight time rather than block time whether we'd get more usage between checks if we based tn on actual flight time rather than tacho time - since we're logging tacho time on the ground towards the checks at present. But if we did this we'd lose the benefit that tacho time seems to, on average, run a little more slowly than 'real' time.
Your maintenance will instantly become 10-20% cheaper if you log airborne time for that purpose, which is 100% legit on both G and N-reg.
For pilot hours, log brakes off to brakes on.
Obviously there is the extra admin workload there, and you need to make a judgement on whether you can trust the group members or renters to be honest.
The advantage of a Hobbs meter is that it is tamper-proof.
Unless it is electric (one example is the Socata revcounter which is electric and measures "true hours" when above 1200rpm) in which case people will soon realise if they turn off the electric Master in flight, the meter stops running. I am not kidding; I have known of pilots where I am based who told me they do that when they rent.
What catches the shysters out is having an EDM700 and downloading the data regularly. They cannot tamper with it (other than a complete reset) and in-flight powering-down will be obvious too from the instant fall and rise in the engine temperatures 
That is how I caught that instructor who fiddled with the Shadin flow totaliser.
