How to prevent lost logs?

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4RNB

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4RNB
Is there a resource for keeping logbooks online? Some app? Does anyone do anything like this to recover logs if something happens to them?

I've thought to start taking photos of every page and storing them in the cloud, perhaps google drive.


EDIT: For clarity, my question is about airplane logs, not flight logs.
 
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4RNB said:
I've thought to start taking photos of every page and storing them in the cloud, perhaps google drive.
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That's what I've done. That's how I started almost 50 years ago and now it's so easy to photograph them and store them in various places digitally. I think most people now would just recommend digital logbooks, but I'm on my 7th paper log and it's just not worth transitioning to a whole new format now.
 
@dbahn @Salty
Thanks for the replies, good stuff. However, my intent was to ask about airplane logs.
 
Ah. Personally, I take pictures and put in a big pdf on the cloud.

I also ocr them so they can be searched. Not real useful for the older hand written entries.
 
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I maintain dual logbooks...tradition and electronic. I also make photocopies of each completed page as well as all of the endorsements and keep those in our safety deposit box. I started doing that after my CFI lost his current logbook and had no backup.
 
This very topic came up at our club meeting last week. Scan and save to almost any cloud storage should do it. Heck, something as simple as Google Docs would work. Even saving to your home PC should be fine if you have a cloud back up (Carbonite, etc.)

As far as the hard copies, I think there was an idea posted someplace about putting air tags on the books to help track them down if they become missing.
 
Just need someone to carry them for you.

nuclear-football-military-aide-President-Joe-Biden.jpg
 
4RNB said:
Is there a resource for keeping logbooks online? Some app? Does anyone do anything like this to recover logs if something happens to them?

I've thought to start taking photos of every page and storing them in the cloud, perhaps google drive.


EDIT: For clarity, my question is about airplane logs, not flight logs.
Click to expand...
You can always scan them. We've done that in our flying club and scan the page with every new entry. Yes, startup can be a chore with an older aircraft. If I were doing it I'd work backwards. Fortunately most STCs and major modifications are in the FAA's records.

There are also services that will digitize, index, and make them searchable for you. One such company is PlaneLogiX, not far from me (I met the owners when they started up).
 
Take a photo and put them in a folder on your phone that automatically uploads to the cloud. Thanks for the reminder I just updated mine again (not on auto).
 
Interesting question. Which is better. A PDF or JPEG? I was thinking PDF. But snapping a picture is more convenient than putting the book on a scanner.

How do you name each file btw? Airplane xyz Airframe log page xx?
 
Scanning is old-school. Kids these days just take photos with their phone. I find, I mean the kids find that the quality is much better. A lot of photo apps will also recognize you're taking a photo of a document, and will "scan" it instead of taking a straight photo. The "scan" feature on my, er, the kids' phones automatically crops to the page size and corrects for any off-angle camera aiming so that the page comes out with squared corners instead of some trapezoid shape.

Store the photos in the cloud/local hard drive/underground vault of your choice.
 
Yep - I am old school / dinosaur LOL. Need to get up to date.
 
Scan and store on multiple drives... including your smartphone and/or iPad - just in case the FAA wants to provide you with a proctology exam and a high colonic as a follow-up measure at your local airport someday.

I know this will not substitute for the actual logs - but it may ward off a microscopic inspection.

Also, make sure your A&P has a copy - just for safe keeping
 
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There are companies will do this for you. One even will translate the hand written entries into text entries you can actually read. Not the cheapest way. Planelogix is one.

My plan came with PDF of the logs. I scan each new log entry and append it to the PDF so it stays one document. I keep the paper logs and on supply the PDF logs to the shop.

I have copies on a couple of computers and on DropBox
 
WDD said:
Interesting question. Which is better. A PDF or JPEG? I was thinking PDF. But snapping a picture is more convenient than putting the book on a scanner.

How do you name each file btw? Airplane xyz Airframe log page xx?
Click to expand...

There are free combine pdf websites and compress jpg / pdf file size websites as well. Naming files for order in numbers is good.
 
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Microsoft Lens does a great job of snapping/shaping/distorting and combining into a single PDF file from logbooks. And it's free. I bet you could get a whole plane's logs scanned in about 15 minutes.
 
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Appreciate all the new to me ideas on pdf management. I might volunteer to do that for our club when I get some free time.
 
As an A&P/IA I began photocopying client's logs about 15 years ago. I'll admit that at first I made this silly easel prop with a piece of glass to hold the logbook flat and used a tripod with my camera but I quickly realized that I wasn't creating an art project or even a presentation, I just wanted a picture that was good enough that you could read the words on the page. Once I wised up it was a simple process of just snapping one handed shots, doesn't matter if your fingers are in the picture as long as they don't obscure anything and it only takes a few minutes. Never bothered with pdf's I just shoot it in chronological order and include the book covers so when the jpeg's are in a folder and you view the thumbnails you can easily see the beginning of each book. You just have to remember to set your phone or camera so you're not taking these giant high def photos, if you set it to B&W you can make tiny jpeg's that are perfectly clear.
 
I used to use an Adobe product to scan my aircraft logbooks but now I use the Notes App on the iPhone. It does a great job for free and it’s very fast.

I then print them to PDF on the Mac and save them in GoodReader to Apple’s iCloud.
 
This thread reminded me to do with aircraft logs what I do with my flight logs, i.e. back them up. So I just had the Cub annual done and got the log books that were signed off for that, then realized that the packet didn't include the original factory log book that I knew I had at one point. I started looking for it and realized that I should be looking for "them" not "it" and found all of the original logs beginning in 1946 and showing the 1 hour factory test flight as the first entry. A few years ago I replaced the engine with a 65 HP engine I found on eBay. Those logs show that it was part of a lot of 14 surplus engines that only had 10 hours on it since new, and now has only 355 hours since new. (It underwent a major overhaul at 320 hours due primarily to its long period of storage.)

The only real modifications to the aircraft from original are shoulder harnesses, sealed struts, and the STC for autofuel. I plan to keep flying it as long as I can and let my estate take care of selling it, but having all 77 years of logs should help with that . . .

J3 logs.jpg First flight.jpg
 
I have all of the logbooks for my '46 Luscombe. The original owner bought it in Texas in July 1946 and flew it straight to Fairbanks Alaska although I'm not entirely certain about the "straight" part - it took him 57 hours to get there.
 
4RNB said:
Does anyone do anything like this to recover logs if something happens to them?
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FYI: if you want your copies to be the legal equvilent to your original records, the copies will need to be certified or stored in an FAA compliant record system. Most the the 3rd party records systems like mentioned above all are compliant to that FAA standard which is based on an AC 120- something. Or you can get an A&P to certify the copies which was the common method before the AC came out. There are also a number of articles out there that discuss this as its been an ongoing topic for years. I can look for for those links if interested.
 
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