Air Force flight records: what to keep before you separate
What to save from ARMS, ARTEMIS, Envision, G/TIMS, SARM, and your Flight Evaluation Folder, plus what each record can prove.
An Air Force flying career scatters records across systems and offices: source forms, ARMS histories, current system exports, training reports, and the Flight Evaluation Folder. No one file holds everything you will want later, which is why collecting broadly beats hunting for the single best export.
The flight-level record
The AFTO Form 781 records mission and aircrew flight data. Digital bundles carry exact values; scans and photos earn a closer look. The AF Form 3521 serves the RPA record, while the AF Form 3520 captures individual flight data used in training and other cases not represented by an aircraft's 781.
For official blank forms and current publications, use the Department of the Air Force e-Publishing repository. Search without spaces in the form number when the site instructs you to do so.
The system history
An ARMS Flight History Report or IFRR provides line-by-line history. ARTEMIS/SARM and Envision exports usually keep more useful detail than a printed table. Keep the original spreadsheet instead of converting it to a PDF.
The ARMS Flying History page is still valuable: it is a career-level cross-check by aircraft, not a replacement for the underlying flights. The Individual Data Summary adds currencies, ratings, and service dates. For carrying those totals into an application without rewriting the source, see ARMS and CAFRS to airline applications.
Training records
G/TIMS material may include flight summaries, a Summary Record of Training, individual gradesheets, and a full Aviation Training Jacket. Course phases, ride dates, grades, and simulator history are all in there, and all of it gets hard to reconstruct once you have left the training environment.
Evaluation and qualification history
Keep the AF Form 8 qualification package and AF Form 942 evaluation history alongside the flight log. They answer a different question than hours: when and how you were evaluated, the result, and the qualification level recorded at the time.
What to request or export
- Your line-by-line ARMS flight history in the original file format.
- ARTEMIS/SARM or Envision spreadsheet exports if your unit uses them.
- Flying History and Individual Data Summary pages for career cross-checks.
- Any 781, 3520, or 3521 source records not represented in the system export.
- G/TIMS course summaries, gradesheets, and the training jacket.
- AF Form 8 and AF Form 942 records from the Flight Evaluation Folder.
Save originals before renaming or combining files. Then compare them with the current Air Force formats supported by the product.