Resume, CV & logbook guide
Before anyone assesses your flying, someone screens your paperwork. A CV that's disorganised, inconsistent, or hard to scan gets filtered before a human ever weighs your actual hours and training. This guide covers how to structure a pilot CV, present your logbook cleanly, and avoid the mistakes that quietly cost freshers a shot at the shortlist.
What a pilot CV should actually contain
Recruiters scanning cadet or line pilot applications aren't reading prose, they're scanning for specific fields in a specific order. Structure the CV so those fields are impossible to miss.
Header
Full name, DGCA license number and type (SPL/PPL/CPL), contact details.One line stating current medical class validity.
Licenses & ratings
CPL/ATPL(A), any type ratings held.Instrument rating status and RTR(A) status.
Flight experience
Total hours broken into PIC, dual, cross-country, night and instrument.In a small table, not a paragraph.
Aircraft flown
Types and variants you have flown.With hours on each, if you've flown more than one.
Education
10+2 and any degree.Ground school and DGCA exam subjects cleared, with dates.
Additional certifications
Medical class and expiry, English proficiency (ELP) level and expiry.Any relevant short courses.
A fresher's CV rarely needs more than one page. Padding it with unrelated part-time jobs or generic "objective" statements dilutes the fields that actually matter. If you genuinely have relevant additional experience (aviation-adjacent internships, flying club roles), keep it to one line each.
Presenting your logbook cleanly
Your actual logbook stays as the legal record, but most applications ask for a summary sheet, and this is where clarity matters more than most cadets expect.
| Category | Hours |
|---|---|
| Total flight time | e.g. 210:30 |
| Pilot in Command (PIC) | e.g. 65:15 |
| Dual / instruction received | e.g. 140:00 |
| Cross-country | e.g. 45:20 |
| Night | e.g. 12:10 |
| Instrument (actual/simulated) | e.g. 18:00 |
Entries signed and endorsed properly, running totals that are actually correct (recruiters and later DGCA verification do check arithmetic), and no unexplained gaps in dates. If you switched aircraft, training schools, or had a break in training, be ready to explain it factually in one sentence rather than leaving it as a silent gap.
What gets freshers filtered out, and what to do instead
Each mistake below is paired with the action that avoids it. Read across.
Do
- Scan documents flat, at full resolutionYour license number and hour totals have to be readable at a glance.
- Recalculate every total before you sendCV, logbook summary and application form must agree exactly.
- Put license number and medical in the headerThe first two things checked should be the first two things seen.
- Use a format built around licenses, hours and ratingsStructure it the way the industry screens it.
- Quote hours exactly as loggedTo the same decimal your logbook uses.
Don’t
- Photograph documents at an angleBlurry or low-resolution scans get the application set aside rather than followed up.
- Let totals disagree across documentsEven a small margin reads as carelessness at best.
- Bury the license number in a paragraphOr leave the medical class and expiry off altogether.
- Use a generic, non-aviation templateA “career objective” paragraph signals inexperience with how the industry screens.
- Round or exaggerate hoursIt gets cross-checked, and a mismatch costs far more trust than the hours ever gain.
Cover letter, if one is required
Not every cadet program asks for one, but when it's requested, keep it short and specific.
Three short paragraphs is enough: who you are and where you're at in training, why this specific airline and program (reference something factual, fleet type, network, training partner), and a closing line confirming availability and eligibility. Avoid restating your CV in prose, the cover letter's job is to add the one thing a CV can't, genuine motivation in your own words.