I don’t think there is a professional pilot out there who has not at least thought about adding a little flight time to their logbooks that they never really flew.
In the jargon of the industry this is called pencil whipping or padding a logbook, the whipping up of flight time with nothing but your pencil. It can be as small as adding an extra tenth to two to each flight to completely fake flight and aircraft.
The reason this can be so temping is twofold, first flight time costs a lot especially when you are trying to build flight hours and second the need to have flight time, especially multi-engine hours, to get more flight time.
With a multi-engine aircraft costing $150 an hour to fly adding ten hours can easily save $1,500.00 plus. When starting out this is a lot of money.
It is never worth it
First because you are robbing yourself of much needed experience and it will show. Gaining flight time is about gaining experience and learning how to deal with problems. This lack of experience can show in check rides and interviews.
When interviews candidates those who have faked time stand out like a sore thumb. As professionals, we have an idea of the experience level that goes along with your flight time. Therefore, when you see a 1,500-hour pilot show up but they are completely clueless about bad weather…you just know something is off and they fail the pilot interview.
Oh and don’t think you can outsmart the interviewers. There are just too many little clues that give fake flight time away.
The second reason not to pencil whip flight time is it is illegal. I know this might sound high and mighty but the penalties are high, especially when you use this false time towards a rating. You are signing federal papers asserting you have flown the required hours. The FAA does not look kindly lying here.
When I was a flight instructor one student of from another school decided to pad their logbook by adding flight they never did.
All went well right up to the commercial pilot check ride.
The examiner, as they always do, flipped through the applicant’s logbook. There is a reason they do this not just to take up time. While doing this, the examiner can across a couple of these “fake” flights and started to question the student about them. One had been on a particularly harrowing flying day and some others on a friend’s plane that had not flown that much.
One thing led to another and a full investigation was started. To make a long story short the pilot had all of his licenses revoked, and destroyed any career chances this person had. Not the ideal way to end the dreams of becoming a professional pilot.
A third and powerful reason not to fake flight time is it can cost you your job at any pilot in your career.
Having your licenses revoked can kill your career, even if you are at a major airline. You will lose your job. You will also find most airlines are rules allowing them to fire you regardless of how long you have been at a company if you falsify anything on your application. Pencil whipped flight time qualifies.
It can and does happen. Aviation is a very small world, with very few secrets.
Pencil whipping, padding, just adding a little flight time, regardless of what you call it can be very tempting, but is never worth it. What you save in the beginning can easily cost you tens or hundreds of times more down the road.
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