The airfield has local code and name, but no ICAO code. What can I write to departure/arrival place field of my pilot logbook in this case?
I’d write “ZZZZ” and add the name of the location under “remarks”. This should satisfy the bureaucrats.
The one time it happened to me, I did mention the a/d name in the remarks, as already suggested, and left the relevant columns blank. No comments when I handed in my logbook for license renewal.
But the ultimate answer should come from your own CAA, rather than from the www.
I write whatever I want in my logbook, including nothing at all if it’s convenient. I also don’t hand in my logbook to anybody, and never will.
Codes for airports are tedious, and I’ll never remember them later. So I often write the airport name except for my home airport.
Ah, dear Silvaire, once more you are duly reminding us that everything depends on the authority one is under. In most European countries, the pilot’s log is a legal document and therefore subject to validation, either periodically at license renewal and/or ad hoc at ramp checks.
I just write the name of it in the column where I would normally put an ICAO code. It is generally hours doing certain things like night / IFR and how many landing in a certain period of time that people look at for currency or credit towards ratings. Where you did them as far as I know isn’t of much interest so you can write what you like really.
Just write in the name, end of story.
Yes – AFAIK you can write what you like in your logbook. You could write your 747 to Florida passenger trips in there. It’s 100% legal. I know a guy who writes his passenger time in his logbook. The pilot logbook is your property and you could write your speed dating successes in there.
It’s just that you can’t use such time towards licenses/ratings that need the hours.
Here in the US, we are not required to log a flight in a logbook unless it is used to satisfy a requirement for currency or for a rating. The main prohibition is to not put something in the logbook that is false. A good number of US airports do not have ICAO identifiers. Regardless, if one is required to make a logbook entry, the location where the aircraft departed or arrived is part of the log entry. I can log it as Charlotte Douglas International Airport, CLT, or KCLT, who cares, not the US government.
EASA Part FCL.050 simply requires you to record the place and time of departure and arrival using either the full name or the 3 or 4 character code.
It’s a bit difficult getting something like ‘Hinton-in-the-Hedges’ in the space provided in the standard log book column.
Using flight plan type codes is probably the tidiest way of doing it i.e. ZZZZ in the column and DEP:xxxxx or DEST:xxxxx in the remarks. But as long as the information is there in some form, it doesn’t really matter.
It must get trickier if you’re say an air-ambulance or sea-plane pilot.
