DR Laura, I never knew your husband was a pilot! Even for as short a time as I enjoyed being a private pilot, losing that flight log would be heartbreaking. I'm so sorry to hear that.
Learning to fly was on his bucket list. NOTHING I ever want to do EVER will be as expensive as that.
He flew a wee Cessna for a few years.
I flew the wee Cessnas (high wing) off and on between 1977 and 1985. In those last few years I also flew Pipers (low wing) which I really liked. In that time I accumulated about 260 hours and made 401 landings.
For years I've intended to either scan or photocopy the logbook as a backup. At one point I designed an Excel spreadsheet to enter all the data and have it do all the math for me. The design is good but I didn't get very far because, to my regret, there were a number of entries made by instructors or others that were barely decipherable. They write like doctors, and very very tiny.
As for the expense -- I kept track of every penny spent in the pursuit of flying from my first textbook to the day I got my license in 1978. That year of instruction, materials, and practice flying cost me $1500. No one believes that now. Today it costs student pilots $1500 to get out of bed in the morning.
