What rules for records?
(a) A flight instructor must sign the logbook of each person to whom that instructor has given flight training or ground training.
(b) A flight instructor must maintain a record in a logbook or a separate document that contains the following:
1. The name of each person whose logbook or student pilot certificate that instructor has endorsed for solo flight privileges, and the date of the endorsement; and
2. The name of each person that instructor has endorsed for a knowledge test or practical test, and the record shall also indicate the kind of test, the date, and the results.
(c) Each flight instructor must retain the records required by this section for at least three years.
The regulation is relatively straightforward in what the instructor must do. If you are a flight instructor, be sure to sign the logbook of anyone to whom you provide flight instruction. The type of information that must be included with your signature is set out in FAR 61.51, which generally requires that you enter the date, the total lesson time, the location, the aircraft, the type of training that occurred, and the conditions of the flight. In addition, the flight instructor must keep his or her own record, in a logbook or another document, of the endorsements given to a student. There is no requirement to keep all of the instructor's flight training activities in a separate record, just endorsements for solo flight and knowledge and practical tests--but practically speaking, the other information is generally kept by the flight instructor in a logbook recording the instructor's flight time, for building time, recording currency, and other reasons.
As for the separate record of endorsements given to each student, the regulation requires that the record be kept for three years. There is nothing that precludes a flight instructor from keeping this record for a longer period of time. In other words, the regulation does not require that you destroy the record after three years. But, should you keep the record longer than required? The answer may depend on whom you ask, and the reason that you are asking.
I think that we would all agree that complete and accurate records are the best evidence of what was done and what was not done, and these records may some day provide the strongest defense against an FAA enforcement action. Usually, if there is an issue with an endorsement, the issue will arise within three years after it is given. After all, endorsements are only valid for a limited period of time, much less than three years. If the FAA is going to take any enforcement action, it must do so within a specified period of time, again less than three years. So any protections afforded by having that separate record seem to be accommodated by the three-year record retention period in the regulation.
After that three-year period has passed, there is an argument that the information may prove to be more of a liability than a benefit. First, it may be an undue burden to keep that information for a longer period. There is organization required in knowing what must be kept and what can be discarded. Second, there may be times when having that information is no longer in your best interest, but that may be hard to know in advance.
Keeping a record of flight training information as required by the regulation is your responsibility as a flight instructor. How long you keep that information after the time required by the regulation has passed is your choice.
Kathy Yodice is an attorney with Yodice Associates in Washington, D.C., which provides legal counsel to AOPA and administers AOPA's legal services plan. She is an instrument-rated private pilot.
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