Officially certified digital pilot logbook
What does it mean for a digital pilot logbook to be FCL.050 certified?
Certification is the result of a successful audit process. During this process, a Competent Authority of an EASA Member State is called in to review the software and its components and confirm that the requirements have been met.
For digital logbooks, both the general requirements and the requirements specific to digital logbooks are relevant.
What are the effects of certification?
Pilots can rely on a competent third party opinion with an officially endorsed certification. In addition, certification offers a high degree of legal certainty for all parties involved.
Regulatory compliance: Users can be assured that certified software complies with relevant legal and regulatory requirements, which is crucial for domains with strict compliance standards.
Enhanced reliability: Certified pilot logbook software is rigorously tested and verified to meet the highest industry and regulatory standards, giving users assurance of its reliability and performance.
Better performance: Certified software undergoes performance testing, ensuring it operates efficiently and effectively.
Higher quality: The certification process involves several layers of quality checks, ensuring the software is free from major bugs, delivers an excellent user experience and guarantees a high-quality-data record.
Improved security: Certification processes include stringent security checks, ensuring the software is less vulnerable to attacks and data breaches, thereby protecting users' privacy.
Consistent updates and support: Certified software vendors are likely to offer regular updates and reliable customer support, ensuring that users can address issues quickly and keep their software up to date.
The development of regulations is a lengthy process. In EASA, it is often the case that the first progressive countries develop and use a standard, which is then adopted by others and finally fully incorporated.
At the same time, the standards already established in some countries also have an impact on license holders with licenses from other member states. These standards are tried and tested and therefore logically defined as the first benchmark within EASA.
Even if your member state has not yet issued an active regulation itself, you can use the existing benchmarks as a guide.
What are the benefits for a pilot to use a certified logbook?
An officially certified digital pilot logbook provides legal validity and ensures regulatory compliance.
It acts as an official document of proof and therefore protects against problems in the event of an incident.
Performance tests ensure that the software works reliably, efficiently and effectively.
The quality of the data is guaranteed, errors are consistently eliminated and consistency is ensured.
The provider offers the user access to highly qualified specialists in order to eliminate professional and technical problems quickly and sustainably.
An FCL.050 certified logbook can replace your paper logbook.
It is from a legal perspective equivalent to a classic paper logbook and may therefore be kept as a stand-alone record.
What must a FCL.050 certified digital pilot logbook contain?
General logbook requirements
Read about the general requirements which apply to all types and formats of logbooks. Many of these requirements are structured similarly in the various regulations.
Requirements for digital pilot logbooks
Learn more about the specific requirements for digital pilot logbooks. Most of these are still very new and under development.
Is your logbook compliant? Get the checklist and find out
The trend in pilot logbooks is towards digitalization. Use our checklist to see if your current logbook is ready for the future. Or simply test capzlog.aero and become future-proof immediately.
Logbook Compliance Checklist
This checklist allows you to see how your current logbook format complies with legal requirements.
It works for sheets such as Excel, electronic tools, paper logbooks or extracts from your operator's system.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have any questions about capzlog.aero and its functionalities?
Ask our support teamIs capzlog.aero the only certified logbook?
No. As of today (11/1/2024), there are two FCL.050 certified pilot logbooks worldwide. One is capzlog.aero and the other is the dLogbook provided by FOCA for Swiss licence holders.
Can I easily transfer my data from another digital flight log into capzlog.aero?
Yes and no. We cannot give you a general answer to this question, as it is strongly dependent on the data quality. However, we will be happy to check your data and tell you what adjustments you need to make such that an import is possible. And from that moment on, you no longer have to worry about whether your data is correct or not.
Do I have to keep a logbook as professional air transport pilot?
Flights performed as part of commercial air transport may be recorded by the operator. However, the recording must meet the same requirements, and often companies do not pay much attention to this concern. However, since you are obliged to provide a clean record, it is worthwhile to keep a reliable, independent record yourself.