Logbook for Clubs and Flight Schools: What to Look For When Choosing

A club or flight school does not keep one logbook but many: one per member, plus aircraft records, the booking system and the instructors’ signatures. Anyone choosing a digital logbook for the whole group therefore asks different questions from a single pilot. This article collects them.

For the individual pilot there is a separate guide: Which digital pilot logbook fits you?

1. Is every flight entered only once?

The core problem in practice is double or quadruple entry: in the aircraft log, in the club system, in the booking system, and then again in the personal logbook. Ask every provider which systems it connects and what is carried over.

cloudlog.aero has three connections:

• Aircraft Info Desk (AID): Once a flight is entered there, it appears in the logbook seconds later, with PIC, instructor, student, landings and, where available, the instructor’s signature.
• Vereinsflieger: Your full history is imported once, and new flights follow continuously. Launch method and night time carry over.
• Charterware: Flights recorded directly in the aircraft arrive automatically once the chip ID is connected.

The connections are part of Pro and TEAMS. More on the Integrations page.

2. How does the instructor sign?

A training flight without the instructor’s or examiner’s signature is not valid proof. A good system makes missing signatures visible instead of quietly waving them through.

In cloudlog.aero it works like this:

• The student collects the signature directly on the device or sends a signature request from the flight to a contact with a stored email address.
• If the instructor is a user themselves, the request lands in their inbox. Otherwise they get a link by email and sign without an account of their own.
• Each request has a status: Open, Signed or Declined.
• Until the signature arrives, the training flight stays marked as incomplete.
• If a signed flight is changed afterwards, the signature lapses, but only after that has been explicitly confirmed.

The steps are in the tutorial Request and give flight signatures.

3. How are members and roles managed?

Ask how a team comes together and who approves members. In cloudlog.aero TEAMS, members join with a team code, and a team administrator confirms the admission. Instructors, students and examiners are marked as such, including instructor and examiner licence numbers, and then appear directly in the role selection of the flight editor. A flight is entered once and passed to a student or instructor, and the recipient takes it into their own logbook.

4. What does it cost per member?

Calculate with the number of your active members, not with the price for one pilot. At cloudlog.aero, TEAMS costs €4.99 per member per month and requires at least five members. It includes the full Pro feature set plus team administration, digital instructor signatures and a team flyer with a QR code for recruiting. All memberships are cancellable monthly, and the first 30 days are free.

TEAMS is not a self-service product. You write briefly how large your club or flight school is, and the team is set up together. Aircraft Info Desk users pay €6.90 instead of €7.90 for Pro.

5. Where is the data stored, and how do I get out again?

At cloudlog.aero the data is stored in German data centres subject to the GDPR. Flights can be exported at any time, and every member can delete their own account. Ask every system what happens to the data of a member who leaves or after cancellation.

Checklist for the board decision

• Is our booking system connected (AID, Vereinsflieger, Charterware)?
• Can the instructor sign without having to create an account?
• Can we see at a glance which training flights still lack a signature?
• How do members join the team, and who approves them?
• What does it cost per year at our membership size?
• Where is the data stored, and how do we get out again?
• Can members bring their existing logbook? (See Switching to cloudlog.aero)

Conclusion

For clubs and flight schools the process matters more than individual features: is every flight entered only once, and is every mandatory signature visible? If you want to look at cloudlog.aero, you will find features and prices on the page For clubs and flight schools.