What exactly is a “journey log”?
I don’t know what the legal definition is, if there is one, but I made my own as a spreadsheet which shows date, route, t/o and landing times, running and grand total airframe hours, fuel remaining, fuel uplift, fuel on board (for next departure), oil on board and defects. The page has about 25 lines, and once it’s full, I transfer the flights to the airframe, engine and propellor logbooks and start a new page.
The only real difference between mine and an airline tech log is the tech log has signature blocks for acceptance and engineer sign-offs. My engineer signs the real logbooks, not my “journey log”.
Anyone care to give a logical reason why each one of the documents listed need to be in the aircraft!
Hi Chris,
Indeed we do something similar. We (obviously?) don’t carry the airframe logbooks in the aircraft. So when this “sheet” is taken away to complete those books, there is no historic record of journeys on the aircraft for the next flight. Hence, why I was wondering about how far the journey log needs to go back.
If it’s only relevant from departure of the country of registration then that’s easy for us. The log sheet won’t be removed once we’ve left home, until we are back home again. We ain’t going to post it home 
Colm
I really don’t stress about it too much. If you’ve just started a new sheet and you get ramp-checked, explain it to the inspector, if he even asks.
Years ago I got ramp-checked in JFK in an A340. I happened to recognise the FAA inspector – he’d been in Franfurt years before and I’d met him there. He was very pleasant, looked at the tech log, our licences and medicals and we chatted for a few minutes. When he got up to leave the flight deck I noticed he’s written Boeing 747 on the top of his form!
bookworm wrote:
Definitely not a “navigation log for the planned flight”.Yes and no. If you have navigation logs for every flight, part-NCO (and part-CAT/NCC, too, I guess) permits you to collect them instead of having a proper journey log. The important thing is that there is a record of every flight.
A followup question: what about for nationally regulated aircraft (e.g. non-EASA permit-to-fly), especially when flying outside of their home country?
My aircraft for instance doesn’t have a manual. As far as I can tell one never existed (internet searches have revealed absolutely zero).
I guess I could write my own…
Peter wrote:
Can anyone guess, or has there ever been an explanation?
It’s an ICAO requirement for international navigation and from what I read at least one of the reasons is investigation of navigational errors. These days it’s probably only relevant in oceanic crossings and such. That’s why you’re meant to keep a record.
bookworm wrote:
How far must it go back? There’s no guidance but the concept comes straight from the Chicago Convention, so the implication was that it should at least record journeys since it left its home state. Don’t ask me how that works in EASA-land.
I think ICAO suggested six months. And I recall EASA having a record keeping period specified for commercial operations. And Airborne_Again is correct, anything containing the required information is acceptable, even a stack of plogs. They might not be required, but if you’re using them, you don’t need a separate log.
dublinpilot wrote:
So when this “sheet” is taken away to complete those books, there is no historic record of journeys on the aircraft for the next flight. Hence, why I was wondering about how far the journey log needs to go back.
You can keep it in an electronic form (like a scan of the sheet).
A Journey Log is already mandatory for Belgian and French aircrafts. The flight time (=block time and not airborne time)must be recorded in it.
A UK plane with 2000 hours in the tech log has probably flown as much as a French plane with 2400 hours in the carnet de route
Piotr_Szut wrote:
A Journey Log is already mandatory for Belgian and French aircrafts.
For Dutch aircraft as well. We need the journal to check the hours between maintenance as well (for aircraft hours related maintenance)
Jesse wrote:
For Dutch aircraft as well
And has “always” been for Swedish aircraft, In fact, the Swedish CAA provides the log books!
