Tracking AD's and Maintenance?

CC268

CC268

Final Approach
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CC268
Hey guys,

New aircraft owner here (1965 Cherokee 140). I am just wondering what you guys do to keep track of all the AD's and Maintenance (oil changes, inspections, etc). I have read some other threads on here to get some ideas. I am thinking an Excel sheet should work fine, or maybe a notebook (I am partial to Excel though).

I noticed the A&P who did the annual provided this nice list of AD's from Triton Aviation Data Corp - it tells you whether or not the AD is recurring, etc. Otherwise I guess you just have to go to the FAA AD list and manually go through them? AD's seem to be the most "complex" thing to keep track of I guess. Excuse my ignorance. For instance I believe there is an AD that requires inspection of the muffler for cracks every 50 hours. Stuff like that I need to make sure I am keeping track of. What is the best way to keep track of AD's?

Other things like oil changes, ELT inspection, and transponder can just be setup with like a "due date" in Excel.

I am generally a very organized person so I am just trying to think of the most efficient way to keep track of all these things.
 
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A sticky note on the front of the logbook works. Google calendar to email you would work. A white board in the hangar...
 
No BEST way, but excel list of all the applicable AD's with the page number from your logbook and next due dates will assist in proving it out.
 
rolivi said:
No BEST way, but excel list of all the applicable AD's with the page number from your logbook and next due dates will assist in proving it out.
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You read my mind...doing this right now! This actually a good exercise going through the logbooks myself and finding these things.
 
My plane came with a printed list for all the equipment, with notes saying P/C/W and logbook entry date, or N/A and why, or tach hours when complied with last. Even though there are tons of AD's, only a few apply to you because of S/Ns, years installed and so on.
 
Little moleskin binder in the glove box, I also add everything I do to the plane, adding a qt of oil, adding air to a tire, brake fluid etc.
 
mtuomi said:
My plane came with a printed list for all the equipment, with notes saying P/C/W and logbook entry date, or N/A and why, or tach hours when complied with last. Even though there are tons of AD's, only a few apply to you because of S/Ns, years installed and so on.
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Yea noticed that as well in my logbooks which is quite helpful. Still working on my Excel sheet should be done today
 
mtuomi said:
My plane came with a printed list for all the equipment, with notes saying P/C/W and logbook entry date, or N/A and why, or tach hours when complied with last. Even though there are tons of AD's, only a few apply to you because of S/Ns, years installed and so on.
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Nice thing about ADlog, they only send you the ADs that apply.
 
IMHO to aid you in being compliant with the FARs, to make life easier on your IA at annual and to ease the mind of future buyers, you need three things.

1. An actual logbook entry for whenever an action on an AD is taken whether it is a terminating action or a recurrent inspection. As with any maintenance entry, it should comply with the requirements of 43.9.

2. A listing that shows each AD and that meets the requirements of 91.417(a)(2)(v) which states that the owner shall maintain records including: The current status of applicable airworthiness directives (AD) and safety directives including, for each, the method of compliance, the AD or safety directive number and revision date. If the AD or safety directive involves recurring action, the time and date when the next action is required.

Also you should take note of:
91.419 Transfer of maintenance records.
Any owner or operator who sells a U.S.-registered aircraft shall transfer to the purchaser, at the time of sale, the following records of that aircraft, in plain language form or in coded form at the election of the purchaser, if the coded form provides for the preservation and retrieval of information in a manner acceptable to the Administrator:
(a) The records specified in §91.417(a)(2).

So while your method way suit you, it must also suit a potential buyer and the FAA.

3. A method to alert you whenever a new AD is issued against your aircraft and when a recurrent AD is due. Let's look at these individually.

-When a new AD is issued. You can sign up here. Or you can sign up for a paid subscription service that is tailored to your make, model and serial number. Either will work.

-- When a recurrent AD is due. This can be done in a variety of ways but should be based upon time/date information recorded in your 91.417(a)(2) record described above. If it is date based then setting it up in a calendar app or writing it on a paper calendar is easy. If it is based upon hours then you need to keep a close eye on it. Remember that you can always do a recurrent AD inspection early so if your plane is in for an annual, oil change, etc. and the AD will come due in the near future based on your typical flying amount, knock it out. Otherwise you need to keep very close track of your times.

Note: As a new owner it is a very good idea to know your maintenance responsibilities as outlined in Parts 39, 43 & 91. While you might employ an A&P/IA to do certain things or to provide expert advice, you are your airplane's DOM. Remember that.

I hope this is helpful. I am by no means an expert though I am certain the expert will be along shortly to correct me.
 
SkyDog58 said:
IMHO to aid you in being compliant with the FARs, to make life easier on your IA at annual and to ease the mind of future buyers, you need three things.

1. An actual logbook entry for whenever an action on an AD is taken whether it is a terminating action or a recurrent inspection. As with any maintenance entry, it should comply with the requirements of 43.9.

2. A listing that shows each AD and that meets the requirements of 91.417(a)(2)(v) which states that the owner shall maintain records including: The current status of applicable airworthiness directives (AD) and safety directives including, for each, the method of compliance, the AD or safety directive number and revision date. If the AD or safety directive involves recurring action, the time and date when the next action is required.

Also you should take note of:
91.419 Transfer of maintenance records.
Any owner or operator who sells a U.S.-registered aircraft shall transfer to the purchaser, at the time of sale, the following records of that aircraft, in plain language form or in coded form at the election of the purchaser, if the coded form provides for the preservation and retrieval of information in a manner acceptable to the Administrator:
(a) The records specified in §91.417(a)(2).

So while your method way suit you, it must also suit a potential buyer and the FAA.

3. A method to alert you whenever a new AD is issued against your aircraft and when a recurrent AD is due. Let's look at these individually.

-When a new AD is issued. You can sign up here. Or you can sign up for a paid subscription service that is tailored to your make, model and serial number. Either will work.

-- When a recurrent AD is due. This can be done in a variety of ways but should be based upon time/date information recorded in your 91.417(a)(2) record described above. If it is date based then setting it up in a calendar app or writing it on a paper calendar is easy. If it is based upon hours then you need to keep a close eye on it. Remember that you can always do a recurrent AD inspection early so if your plane is in for an annual, oil change, etc. and the AD will come due in the near future based on your typical flying amount, knock it out. Otherwise you need to keep very close track of your times.

Note: As a new owner it is a very good idea to know your maintenance responsibilities as outlined in Parts 39, 43 & 91. While you might employ an A&P/IA to do certain things or to provide expert advice, you are your airplane's DOM. Remember that.

I hope this is helpful. I am by no means an expert though I am certain the expert will be along shortly to correct me.
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Great thanks for the feedback!
 
CC268 said:
How much is this system?
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I've heard $39/yr from one user. We haven't gotten it done yet, but we're thinking heavily about using it. It's "too much" money for something as silly as a pile of colored printed sheets and a notebook, but... but...

It's a really well done system, and $39/yr for most aircraft is absolutely nothing in comparison to the time and effort to maintain something similar, or compared to the overall maintenance costs.

Especially in a co-ownership, since any of us could **** away $13 with a drink and an appetizer and still come up short these days.
 
denverpilot said:
I've heard $39/yr from one user. We haven't gotten it done yet, but we're thinking heavily about using it. It's "too much" money for something as silly as a pile of colored printed sheets and a notebook, but... but...

It's a really well done system, and $39/yr for most aircraft is absolutely nothing in comparison to the time and effort to maintain something similar, or compared to the overall maintenance costs.

Especially in a co-ownership, since any of us could **** away $13 with a drink and an appetizer and still come up short these days.
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That's a lot more than my little notebook, does the same job, actually not really, even with zero power or reception my notebook works.

If you're flying a Pt91 GA single you really don't need online MX tracking.

Moleskin and a pen.
 
I looked at ADlog but in the end, my 150 has 3 applicable ADs, I can manage those manually. Looks like a neat system though and for more complex planes, I'd probably use that too.
 
denverpilot said:
I've heard $39/yr from one user. We haven't gotten it done yet, but we're thinking heavily about using it. It's "too much" money for something as silly as a pile of colored printed sheets and a notebook, but... but...

It's a really well done system, and $39/yr for most aircraft is absolutely nothing in comparison to the time and effort to maintain something similar, or compared to the overall maintenance costs.

Especially in a co-ownership, since any of us could **** away $13 with a drink and an appetizer and still come up short these days.
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The initiation fee is higher than $39. You supply airframe and engine serial numbers, and some details about installed equipment, then they do some research and mail you the three-ring binder and colored logbooks. The first year cost could be north of $150. Renewals are at the $39 rate.
 
toto said:
The initiation fee is higher than $39. You supply airframe and engine serial numbers, and some details about installed equipment, then they do some research and mail you the three-ring binder and colored logbooks. The first year cost could be north of $150. Renewals are at the $39 rate.
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Still pretty much a yawn when a single full tank of fuel runs $400.
 
I bought Adlog when I first bought my plane. Kept it for a few years until I was sure everything was taken care of. I then listed all my equipment and appliances in excel with model and serial numbers. It makes the annual AD search very simple. I also subscribed to the FAA AD notification service. I only have 1 recurring AD.
 
I got everything laid out in Excel and it worked quite nicely actually. I still need to look up ADs for all the equipment/appliances though. That seems like a real PITA, I gotta look for my equipment list in one of these binders I have.
 
Chances are your mechanic is subscribed to some form of an AD subscription service. Ad log is unnecessary unless that is his method and it helps you. Pay a little extra next annual and have him make you a brand new AD listing and clean out the old bundles of repeat, indecipherable old ad logs. Starting fresh with a new listing in hand he can show you what is recurring so you can track them. Chances are high that many of your ads (if you have them) go on a 100 hours cycle. Excel is a good idea for keeping track.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Boomer said:
Chances are your mechanic is subscribed to some form of an AD subscription service. Ad log is unnecessary unless that is his method and it helps you. Pay a little extra next annual and have him make you a brand new AD listing and clean out the old bundles of repeat, indecipherable old ad logs. Starting fresh with a new listing in hand he can show you what is recurring so you can track them. Chances are high that many of your ads (if you have them) go on a 100 hours cycle. Excel is a good idea for keeping track.
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Ours does but all the shops around here are so busy they take forever doing paperwork. We kinda wonder if it would go faster if we had the book pre-set up like that service.

There's one shop here that we can expect the bill for any work done about three months later, like clockwork. It had us concerned in the early years of owning the aircraft, but as we learned and talked to people we found out it was totally normal.

Strange. I can't imagine running a business like that, a full quarter behind all the time on Accounts Receivable even sending the invoice, let alone getting paid for it.

The threads in the past about "holding logbooks" are entertaining. None of the shops around here would ever be able to even try to do that with as far behind on billing as they always seem to be. Half of the GA fleet would be grounded all the time.

And it's not just one shop. Many do it. The one I mentioned is just the furthest behind.
 
I got a beautiful spreadsheet done for all this now...it was a great exercise for me too really diving into the logbooks and getting familiar with them.
 
CC268 said:
I got a beautiful spreadsheet done for all this now...it was a great exercise for me too really diving into the logbooks and getting familiar with them.
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I would have thought that you would have dug into the logs before buying the plane. I hope nothing caught you by surprise.
 
SkyDog58 said:
I would have thought that you would have dug into the logs before buying the plane. I hope nothing caught you by surprise.
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Haha I knew someone would say this. I should have put this into context. I didn't purchase the airplane. My dad did. My dad went through ALL six logbooks for the airplane. So did the A&P to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary. And no we didn't find surprises.

I simply wanted to go through the logbooks for my OWN entertainment. Almost as an exercise, and it was very valuable. Despite what anyone wants to say, it was a useful exercise and putting this all into one spreadsheet was worth it.
 
now that you're done with the fun stuff....another exercise is to put together a spreadsheet of all the equipment. List the part number, serial number, time installed, and calculate time since install. I've done this for mine and it's nice to see how much time is on each item.....vac pumps, cylinders, mags, etc...
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
now that you're done with the fun stuff....another exercise is to put together a spreadsheet of all the equipment. List the part number, serial number, time installed, and calculate time since install. I've done this for mine and it's nice to see how much time is on each item.....vac pumps, cylinders, mags, etc...
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Yea that is a good idea I can look into that.
 
CC268 said:
Haha I knew someone would say this. I should have put this into context. I didn't purchase the airplane. My dad did. My dad went through ALL six logbooks for the airplane. So did the A&P to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary. And no we didn't find surprises.

I simply wanted to go through the logbooks for my OWN entertainment. Almost as an exercise, and it was very valuable. Despite what anyone wants to say, it was a useful exercise and putting this all into one spreadsheet was worth it.
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Oh, I definitely think it was a useful and valuable experience for you and worth the effort. I never meant to imply that it wasn't. I was just thrown off by your initial post that stated that you were a new owner and then when you followed it up with the comment about diving into the logbooks, I drew the conclusion that I did. Glad that there were no surprises. :)
 
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