Writing down False Hours in Log Book?

Question

Is this possible?

Say i went for a joy flight may 20th. I flew for one hour, but i wrote down three in my log book. Can you do this? Can you get your ratings revoked if done? How will airline's/FAA know you did this?

Thanks

Answer 1

Happens all the time. I gave up keeping my logbook up to date because it means nothing anymore because so many carry on with your thoughts on this. When asked, I tell people I have over sixteen thousand hours. That works out to about 400 hours a year but I don't remember a year where I only flew 400 hours. A couple I exceeded a thousand hours in a year. I haven't even looked at a pilot's logbook when I've interviewed them to come work for me. I may as well read a fairy tale. Too bad it's come to that.

Nowhere does it say you even need a log book as long as you can show the time required to maintain currency or a rating. And that's all available in company flight logs and such. I lost my logbooks during a move in 1978 and have yet to buy a new one. And I don't know how many type ratings and upgrades on my ticket I've added since then so it's obvious the FAA could care less.

Yep, there's no way anybody will find out. You can join the ranks of "high time" pilots just sitting in your living room. Or, you can build your career around honesty and integrity. Your choice.

Answer 2

Dear Comair,

Writing false hours into your logbook is basically falsifying a document.  You probably would not get caught unless you did it often and copiously.  

I'm not sure if the FAA would yank a rating unless the fake hours recorded were vital for a particular rating.

The way these are caught is fairly simple.  It's an audit.  I do not know a pilot who has been audited, but the process is just comparing your log book against the logs of the companies renting you aircraft, or, if you own your plane, checking the log against the engine time to see if they compare.  It would be a time consuming process for either the FAA or the airline and would probably not be initiated unless your flying skills were a gross mismatch against your stated time in grade/type or something else made an investigator smell a bad fish.

Tiger Toy

Answer 3

I knew a guy like that once.  Uh, he got fired for it.  No I work with the D bag at a different place.  Just can't het away from him.  Don't be that guy.

Answer 4

So you want to cheat?

I'm guessing you are not married, or you never will be, haha.

Answer 5

Falsifying entries in your logbook is a felony crime at the federal level, punishable by up to 25 years in federal penitentiary.  An occasional honest mistake is to be expected, but if it looks like a pilot has made a habit of it, that is trouble.  The FAA audits airline crews frequently, and there are "ramp checks" for other pilots.  They can look at your logbook at any time, and will notice things that don't seem reasonable.

They use a method of "statistical auditing" to point out patterns that don't seem believable.  This can be followed by in-depth auditing of your friends and instructors, mechanics, and anyone else who might be able to corroborate or contradict your logbook entries.

Obviously this doesn't happen often.  But it is a source of grief when it does.

Answer 6

In reality, if the FAA finds out, you won't spend 25 years in prison.  You WILL get your certificates revoked if they decide that it wasn't a simple, unintentional mistake.  I know of a person that saw a nice looking twin engined airplane at an airport, and decided he would start logging some multi-engine time in his logbook under the twin's N-number.  He never actually flew it...just logged time.  Later, the individual went for a checkride.  The examiner looked at his logbook, and saw the time logged in the twin.  The examiner started chit-chatting with the guy about how he liked the airplane, etc.  The guy said he really enjoyed it.  It turns out that the examiner OWNED that airplane.  Let us just say that the aforementioned individual is not flying airplanes anymore.