Logging your first flight

Every flight you fly with Checkride lives in your logbook. Entries can start as drafts (you save and come back later), get submitted for approval by your CFI, and finalize as approved records that count toward your license requirements.

Adding an entry from scratch

Logbook → Add flight. Required fields:

• Date — defaults to today
• Aircraft — pick from your school's fleet, or type a free-form make/model + registration if you flew elsewhere
• From / To — airport identifiers (auto-completed from your home airport list)
• Flight type — Solo, Dual, PIC, Cross-country, etc.
• Total time — Hobbs-to-Hobbs, in tenths of an hour

Optional but recommended:

• Day / night landings, PIC time, Dual time, Solo time, Night time, Instrument time, Cross-country time
• Remarks — what you practiced, weather, things to remember

Time-component fields are validated against total time: PIC + dual received can't exceed total. The form catches that before submit.

Drafts vs submissions

• Save draft — keeps the entry as draft. It's yours; no one else sees it yet.
• Submit for approval — flips status to pending_instructor_approval. Your CFI sees it in their queue.

You can edit drafts freely. Once submitted, you can recall the entry back to draft as long as the CFI hasn't acted on it yet.

After your CFI signs it

When your CFI approves, the entry's status becomes approved and it's immutable. The signed payload's SHA-256 hash is stored alongside the signature so the FAA (or you) can verify the record wasn't altered after sign-off.

If your CFI rejects, you'll see their remarks. Edit and re-submit.

Importing your existing logbook

If you're coming from a paper logbook or another platform, Logbook → Import accepts CSV files with the standard column names (date, aircraft, route, total_time, etc.). The importer creates entries in draft state so you can review and submit each in batches.

Linked appointment lessons

If the flight came from a scheduled lesson on the platform, opening the appointment offers a Log this flight action that pre-fills the entry from the appointment details (date, aircraft, instructor, time). Faster than starting from scratch.