Digitizing aircraft paper logs

[ianamit]

Mooney owner for 4 years now (a 1970 M20F) and have been dealing with paper logs dating to the first test flight.
Managing PDFs of scans, trying to correlate equipment, ADs and maintenance, and couldn't find a decent way to somewhat automate this (barring very expensive services).
As a techie, I whipped up something to work for me, and ended up running it in the cloud (better backup, and wanted the ability to scan logs when away from home as needed).
Would love to hear comments and feedback from fellow owners, as well as mechanics here! The platform is available for free (always) and is even open-source.
MyTailLog is where I run it (tipping hat to Eric from MyFlightBook from whom I stole the free and open source approach).

To make it clear: not selling anything, it's totally free (and you can even take the source code and run it yourself). Mostly looking for feedback and answer any questions (especially having managed to cover ~50 years of logbooks that include handwritten entries from the 70's...)

 

[ianamit]

Main thing: does it auto-tag ADs from entries or are you typing every one in? That's the killer feature.
Also can you flag missing annuals or expiring items at a glance? If yes, you've got a solid tool.
Handwritten OCR is a nightmare. Smart move keeping it searchable by your own notes.

Thanks!
And yes - ADs are identified in two ways - from log entries in the logbooks themselves, but also through scanning an AD report that a lot of shops produce. When you scan those AD reports, the system adds a "A&P Report" tag to it, and the appropriate "complied"/"upcoming"/"Doesn't Apply" tags. You can also enter them manually of course (and the system provides suggestions based on what it can see so far).
It identifies gaps in the logbooks history (missing annuals, or over 1 year gaps in entries).
Feel free to check it out (as I mentioned - it's free, and I have no intentions of selling anything related to this). https://mytaillog.com/

 

[EricBe]

Mooney owner for 4 years now (a 1970 M20F) and have been dealing with paper logs dating to the first test flight.
Managing PDFs of scans, trying to correlate equipment, ADs and maintenance, and couldn't find a decent way to somewhat automate this (barring very expensive services).
As a techie, I whipped up something to work for me, and ended up running it in the cloud (better backup, and wanted the ability to scan logs when away from home as needed).
Would love to hear comments and feedback from fellow owners, as well as mechanics here! The platform is available for free (always) and is even open-source.
MyTailLog is where I run it (tipping hat to Eric from MyFlightBook from whom I stole the free and open source approach).

To make it clear: not selling anything, it's totally free (and you can even take the source code and run it yourself). Mostly looking for feedback and answer any questions (especially having managed to cover ~50 years of logbooks that include handwritten entries from the 70's...)

I just added TachTime support to MyFlightbook a few weeks ago - does MyTailLog have an oAuth API that would let me pull inspections/ADs/etc.? Happy to integrate!

 

[ianamit]

I just added TachTime support to MyFlightbook a few weeks ago - does MyTailLog have an oAuth API that would let me pull inspections/ADs/etc.? Happy to integrate!

First of all - thank you for everything you've put into MyFlightBook, long-time user and fan!
Second - sure thing, I just added OAuth API support - it's live on https://mytaillog.com/developers/docs
Would love to see a full integration sync!

 

[pburger]

I have scanned copies of all my airframe, engine, and prop logbooks. This thread motivated me to ask AI (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) to try and build a spreadsheet of maintenance events by date, tach time, description of what was performed. I wanted the spreadsheet to include whether or not a 100-hour or annual was completed, etc. I also wanted my digital friends to extract and create an AD compliance list as a separate tab in the Excel workbook. The early logbooks were primarily hand-written entries that were somewhat less than legible in some cases. There were a few years with hard to read cursive entries that the AI couldn't read. So, I tried HandwritingOCR.com to see if it could transcribe those hard-to-read entries. I paid $19 for 1 month which gives up to 250 pages. This was a one-off for me, so I immediately canceled my subscription, which gave me 1 month to use the service. It worked surprisingly well. I then took the transcribed document and ran it through Claude. The results were pretty amazing. Not perfect, but pretty darned good.

So, today I went to MyTailLog.com. I like the look & feel. I like the idea of snapping a picture of the logbook entry and boom it's in there. The problem is getting my old data in there.

I created an account at MyTailLog and figured out how to upload the transcribed pages that HandwritingOCR had done for me. I started the extraction process and found that almost every entry needs to be reviewed. Many entries failed, so I had to manually enter the data. And then it hit the 100 page daily limit on AI extraction. Well, it's just too much trouble for me at this point. I like the concept, and if all my records were the typed stickers I bet it would've been easier. For me, right now, it's too much trouble getting 50 years worth of logs into the system.

 

[ianamit]

I have scanned copies of all my airframe, engine, and prop logbooks. This thread motivated me to ask AI (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) to try and build a spreadsheet of maintenance events by date, tach time, description of what was performed. I wanted the spreadsheet to include whether or not a 100-hour or annual was completed, etc. I also wanted my digital friends to extract and create an AD compliance list as a separate tab in the Excel workbook. The early logbooks were primarily hand-written entries that were somewhat less than legible in some cases. There were a few years with hard to read cursive entries that the AI couldn't read. So, I tried HandwritingOCR.com to see if it could transcribe those hard-to-read entries. I paid $19 for 1 month which gives up to 250 pages. This was a one-off for me, so I immediately canceled my subscription, which gave me 1 month to use the service. It worked surprisingly well. I then took the transcribed document and ran it through Claude. The results were pretty amazing. Not perfect, but pretty darned good.

So, today I went to MyTailLog.com. I like the look & feel. I like the idea of snapping a picture of the logbook entry and boom it's in there. The problem is getting my old data in there.

I created an account at MyTailLog and figured out how to upload the transcribed pages that HandwritingOCR had done for me. I started the extraction process and found that almost every entry needs to be reviewed. Many entries failed, so I had to manually enter the data. And then it hit the 100 page daily limit on AI extraction. Well, it's just too much trouble for me at this point. I like the concept, and if all my records were the typed stickers I bet it would've been easier. For me, right now, it's too much trouble getting 50 years worth of logs into the system.

Thanks for the feedback! As far as the approval/review process - did you upload the transcribed pages as PDFs?
I'm curious to the accuracy issue - since if the uploads are not handwritten (you can turn that on/off when uploading documents), the system should just use regular OCR on it, and the accuracy there is very high. If you already have those rather than the original scanned logs - I'd recommend giving it a try (just "print" whatever you already had transcribed to a document and save it as a PDF).
From a review/approval point of view, I opted for a more conservative approach that requires human verification, since it's mostly a one-time process for the bulk onboarding (I manage my 1970 Mooney on the same system) and once done, it's minimal effort to keep things straight. And you get the advantage of AD management, equipment, W&B, and recency (annual, oil, etc).

 

[pburger]

Thanks for the feedback! As far as the approval/review process - did you upload the transcribed pages as PDFs?
I'm curious to the accuracy issue - since if the uploads are not handwritten (you can turn that on/off when uploading documents), the system should just use regular OCR on it, and the accuracy there is very high. If you already have those rather than the original scanned logs - I'd recommend giving it a try (just "print" whatever you already had transcribed to a document and save it as a PDF).
From a review/approval point of view, I opted for a more conservative approach that requires human verification, since it's mostly a one-time process for the bulk onboarding (I manage my 1970 Mooney on the same system) and once done, it's minimal effort to keep things straight. And you get the advantage of AD management, equipment, W&B, and recency (annual, oil, etc).

I uploaded the transcribed pages as pdfs, but I think I had the handwritten box checked by accident (which wouldn't apply to the transcribed pages.) I may circle-back and try again, making sure to have that unchecked. That may help things. I may not get back to this before Oshkosh, though. The older I get the more I realize the value of time, and I can't seem to string 10 minutes together in a row to work on any task these days.

 

[ianamit]

I uploaded the transcribed pages as pdfs, but I think I had the handwritten box checked by accident (which wouldn't apply to the transcribed pages.) I may circle-back and try again, making sure to have that unchecked. That may help things. I may not get back to this before Oshkosh, though. The older I get the more I realize the value of time, and I can't seem to string 10 minutes together in a row to work on any task these days.

Totally get it - I had about 3 sprints of 20-30 min to validate and approve my own logs, so I am not expecting anyone to spend less time on it. And as I mentioned - I have intentionally forced the review/approve process to be as such as I won't trust anything that doesn't go through human verification when it comes to these logs.
To me, that's a small investment that's worth the squeeze in order to digitize and automate it.

 

[pburger]

Totally get it - I had about 3 sprints of 20-30 min to validate and approve my own logs, so I am not expecting anyone to spend less time on it. And as I mentioned - I have intentionally forced the review/approve process to be as such as I won't trust anything that doesn't go through human verification when it comes to these logs.
To me, that's a small investment that's worth the squeeze in order to digitize and automate it.

Well I took another crack at AI: I took my transcribed logs and asked Google Gemini to prepare an Excel spreadsheet. The last one was okay, but lacked a lot of detail, so this time I was more specific with the columns I wanted, and the results were overall very good. I'm thinking at this point I could use the spreadsheet as my entry point into MyTailLog. I might give that a try sometime this week.

 

[ianamit]

Well I took another crack at AI: I took my transcribed logs and asked Google Gemini to prepare an Excel spreadsheet. The last one was okay, but lacked a lot of detail, so this time I was more specific with the columns I wanted, and the results were overall very good. I'm thinking at this point I could use the spreadsheet as my entry point into MyTailLog. I might give that a try sometime this week.

Nice!
Feel free to share additional feedback (the only way I can improve things) and also to reach out directly if you need any help.

 

[ianamit]

Quick update - MyTailLog now has full integration with MyFlightBook (thanks @EricBe for the smooth coordination and implementation). If you are a MFB user, simply connect your aircraft from MyTailLog and you can keep track of all maintenance tasks seamlessly.
Just in time for OSH ;-) -

 

[VectorsPlease]

I built a paper to digital logbook convertor within our web app, no extra charge or anything. Its helped a few users now, but its pretty new still but would love to have more test it and give feedback! VectorsPlease

 

[UngaWunga]

I'm curious... would either of these be able to generate a PDF of my aircraft's logs from images? That's all I'm really looking for right now.
Thanks

 

[ianamit]

I'm curious... would either of these be able to generate a PDF of my aircraft's logs from images? That's all I'm really looking for right now.
Thanks

Should be. What exactly are you looking for in that PDF?
Right now, at MyTailLog you can generate one with the extracted entries in a nice formatting that’s easy to read, but without the original images. If adding the images alongside makes more sense I can definitely look into it.

 

[Cole18]

This seems handy, I’ll have to check it out, thanks so much for all the hard work and making it free! Question, any chance we are able to make an aircraft’s logs shareable among several people? I’m in an aircraft club (many are in clubs as well as partnerships for planes) so having the ability to share the logs and have others tracking it and able to upload new maintenance events would be very useful. Is this something you may plan to implement at some point?

 

[ianamit]

This seems handy, I’ll have to check it out, thanks so much for all the hard work and making it free! Question, any chance we are able to make an aircraft’s logs shareable among several people? I’m in an aircraft club (many are in clubs as well as partnerships for planes) so having the ability to share the logs and have others tracking it and able to upload new maintenance events would be very useful. Is this something you may plan to implement at some point?

Of course! You can share among different people, and also set the level of sharing (i.e., read-only for some, full access for others).

 

[ianamit]

Quick update: after a beta period with a few owners using the app, Apple has officially published the iPhone/iPad native app for MyTailLog.

Check it out here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mytaillog/id6795396758

Thanks to all the users who were part of the beta - you really ironed out some kinks there and helped polish the usability and functionality!

 

[ianamit]

And following popular demand (and a few brave beta-testers), the Android App is now officially available as well!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mytaillog.app

 

[Steamflyer]

I'm curious... would either of these be able to generate a PDF of my aircraft's logs from images? That's all I'm really looking for right now.
Thanks

You can just tell Claude to work in the folder with the images and ask it to create a pdf. It will read the handwriting and compile the images into whatever you want - pdf, word, excel spreadsheet, etc. You may have to do a bit of proofreading (Claude will generally tell you of uncertainties) but once it's done, that's the copy I keep in a loose leaf binder in the hangar.

 

[UngaWunga]

You can just tell Claude to work in the folder with the images and ask it to create a pdf. It will read the handwriting and compile the images into whatever you want - pdf, word, excel spreadsheet, etc. You may have to do a bit of proofreading (Claude will generally tell you of uncertainties) but once it's done, that's the copy I keep in a loose leaf binder in the hangar.

I found it easier to just use my android phone to create a PDF from images using google drive scanner. Ended up being pretty easy

 

[M20K]

I'm curious... would either of these be able to generate a PDF of my aircraft's logs from images? That's all I'm really looking for right now.

I get this is an old post, but I saw the post Steamflyer just posted...

If you use a Windows machine, you can just Print to PDF to convert your image. If you want to edit the image (crop, etc.) then there are some free Apps in the Microsoft Store.

Take a look in the MS Store for:
• Photo To PDF: Allows batch uploading, rearranging, cropping, and generating clean image-based PDFs.
• Image to PDF Converter - Offline: A private, local tool supporting A4, Letter, and custom image fitting without uploading files to the web.
• Convert JPG to PDF: Runs locally using jsPDF, supports clipboard pasting (Ctrl + V), and includes an auto-convert watched-folder feature.

I'm sure Mac has something similar.

 

[Steamflyer]

Any file can be printed to pdf on a Mac. This is a legacy of NEXT which was display postscript based which morphed later into OsX when Jobs came back.

I thought the topic was more “take a bunch of pics, recognize the chicken scratch, convert to ASCII and write me a nice searchable pdf compilation of the logs/pics.”

This is what I did in Claude and it worked much better than expected.

 

[ianamit]

Yes - creating a PDF from an arbitrary input is easy.
Moving from arbitrary input (a set of photos of your logbook), or even having a snapshot of those photos transcribed, is another thing.
MyTailLog is designed to manage those over time, make sense of times, equipment lists, AD tracking, oil and engine data tracking, and maintenance planning.
If you are simply looking to get a one-time PDF of your data - sure, pass your logbooks through Claude/ChatGPT and export a PDF. If you are looking to actually help with your maintenance and tracking, spend the same amount of time and money (actually, less money - you are paying for Claude/ChatGPT, while MyTailLog is free), and give it a go!

Happy to get more feedback on the app (whether the web version or the new Apple/Android ones) and see how I can help!