German pilot fined €5000 for incorrect pilot logbook entries, and Germany requires paper logbooks

Speyer

I would suspect that guy was a BfL, so an authorities official delegated officer. They do have the task to record a specific number of checks for their license as so to be prolonged. And yes, not all are mentally suitable for the job by common citizen judgment …

Peter wrote:

Most people would agree [bringing your personal log book in the aircraft] is a bad idea in case of a crash (or theft, actually, which is why I never leave mine in the back of a car and if carrying them I always put them in my backpack)

…and clearly EASA agrees with you, given how the regs are phrased. FCL.045 states that you need to carry your license, medical license and photo id, but that your “flight time record” only needs to be presented “without undue delay”.

But to sum it up, even if I don’t have a German licence, is it still advisable to bring the paper log book on any trip to Germany?
I don’t care what the rules say, I just want to avoid having people shout at me.

Also, @Mooney_Driver did I understand correctly that they were expecting you to already have entered the flight you just had concluded even before taking off? This must be considered crazy by 99% of the pilots right?

Seba wrote:

I just want to avoid having people shout at me.

In that case – don’t fly to Germany, just to be safe

In theory, you could ask the BfL / Flugleiter / Blockwart to point out the rules under which he insists on seeing your logbook / grounding you until you present it and watch while they can’t find it – but in practice it is much easier just to carry it.

The aviation world is full of mindless enforcers of made-up rules and power-drunk wannabe policemen; in Germany this is exacerbated by some having the official power to do what amounts to ramp checks. Other countries have high visibility vests, mandatory local language, or PPR for passport control in contravention of the law; and again it is best to comply and not question.

The times I log are “B. Off” to “B. On”. These are adjusted to nearest 5 minutes when put in my log book.
I don’t know if ATC record these times – they record take-off and landing.
2 minute discrepancy between my kneeboard "B. Off "entry and ATC “Take-off” time record would be much less than possible at many airports, with taxi, checks, and holding.

Seba wrote:

did I understand correctly that they were expecting you to already have entered the flight you just had concluded even before taking off? This must be considered crazy by 99% of the pilots right?

This guy expected me to have filled in the log before leaving the aircraft or rather before presenting it to him. He insisted, that all times need to be properly logged before you report at the Luftaufsicht after landing.

He was obviously wrong and just enjoying himself. But he sort of had a point in as so far that a paper log must be present and filled in correctly in Germany at that time. So he decided to make a point to this bloody foreigner and do his best Sgt Major imitation on me.The 2 minute thing obviously just was too good to miss on.

In the modern world he’d get a lot of one star reviews for the airport, get pilloried on social media and the airport would have to make a press release apologising while expanding that this wasn’t a true reflection of ‘who we are’ while confirming that he was receiving retraining.

Oh, your’d also complain (and get loads of support) because you believed this happened because he didn’t recognise your self identified gender of ‘pilot’.

Presumably this was a long time ago.

Mooney_Driver wrote:

This guy expected me to have filled in the log before leaving the aircraft or rather before presenting it to him. He insisted, that all times need to be properly logged before you report at the Luftaufsicht after landing.

He was obviously wrong and just enjoying himself. But he sort of had a point in as so far that a paper log must be present and filled in correctly in Germany at that time. So he decided to make a point to this bloody foreigner and do his best Sgt Major imitation on me.The 2 minute thing obviously just was too good to miss on.

Just out of curiosity, did all of this happen in German? I doubt they would go through the trouble of doing that in English.

dublinpilot wrote:

In the modern world he’d get a lot of one star reviews for the airport, get pilloried on social media and the airport would have to make a press release apologising while expanding that this wasn’t a true reflection of ‘who we are’ while confirming that he was receiving retraining.

Oh, your’d also complain (and get loads of support) because you believed this happened because he didn’t recognise your self identified gender of ‘pilot’.

Presumably this was a long time ago.

Not necessarily in Germany. You are lucky if you can pay with card in some places, so assuming a small airport even has a social media page is being overly optimistic.