Scanning Log Books

[poadeleted21]

I've been scanning in my log books.
WHAT A PITA.

What I'd like to do is put them into one document of some sort but retain the quality of the images, they're a "funny" dimension. My initial thought was word document to pdf. Any thoughts on how to organize them or what sort of software to put them in. I'd like some sort of eBook thingy other than "Just a bunch of pictures"

Attaching "a page" for reference. I'd like to sew the pages together too. Yes, I'm bored.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

I am old school.

I do this:

1. Photo copy page on left and right side.

2. Use scissors and tape to make fit onto a 8.5 x 11 paper (top and bottom)

3. Write with sharpie page numbers

4. Scan

5. Use Acrobat to merge with other PDFs - the file includes my pilot cert, medical, etc plus log book

 

[Mattl]

I put mine in a fireproof safe and call it a day....

 

[murphey]

Yes Rusty, it's a PITA. But....I've scanned aircraft, engine and my logbooks when the weather is crappy or I'm home with a cold. It really doesn't matter that the size is strange, just scan one page at a time into a file. Yes, lots of files.

Scan into JPG and save the files. The advantage of JPG is being able to crop the image. Then save as a PDF, with some naming convention that makes sense to you. I use a prefix A, E or P (airframe, engine, pilot) with the first date on the page for the Engine and the Tach time for the Airframe, e.g. A2012.Jan.15.pdf

I've attached the JPG image for the airframe starting at hour A2673 and then the PDF of the same. The JPG is very small compared to the PDF file.

Then, I can take all the PDF files into Adobe Acrobat Pro and combine into a single PDF file. Got more pages to add? No problem, just append to the end of the file.

When I finish my taxes each year, I burn 2 DVDs with the tax info and all my aviation info. One stays at home and the other in the safe deposit box. I also burn 2 CD/DVDs of only the aircraft logs. One stays in the safe deposit box and the other one is stored at the hangar with the airplane for convenient reference. And since the docs are PDF, they can be uploaded to any device that can handle PDF.

Because most of the logs are handwritten, and handwriting recognition software is pretty bad, there's not much hope for a searchable document.

 

[SCCutler]

Gotta tell you- SO much easier than scanning, many digital cameras have a document mode, just snap pics. Equal or better quality, about ten times faster. My little nikon did great.

 

[gprellwitz]

Gotta tell you- SO much easier than scanning, many digital cameras have a document mode, just snap pics. Equal or better quality, about ten times faster. My little nikon did great.

Now that's a good idea!

 

[murphey]

Gotta tell you- SO much easier than scanning, many digital cameras have a document mode, just snap pics. Equal or better quality, about ten times faster. My little nikon did great.

Excellent idea! But I didn't have a digital camera when I started scanning the log books.

 

[TMetzinger]

For a pilot log, I'm not too worried about the times - I have those in logbook pro. I'm not worried about the various dual received stuff before my last checkride - it all got validated when I took the ride.

So, at this point, what I need to be able to keep evidence of is:
Any dual received since my last checkride that I'm going to use for my next checkride.
All my endorsements (complex, hi perf, pressurization) received.
BFR/Wings
Endorsements given.

For me, just taking good photographs of the log pages with a digital camera is sufficient. They're a backup in case the paper log is destroyed. At that time I could print out the digital stuff if I need to. But since all I need it for is backup to my electronic logbook (which is itself backed up in multiple places), I don't need to make the backup be "pretty".

If I'm an aircraft owner I'll use an electronic logbook for the airplane in the same way. People will make entries in a paper log, and I'll enter them into the electronic log and back up the paper log with photographs.

 

[bcso48]

I use zululog.com and have for about 4 years. Great service and accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. I still keep an old school written logbook. I don't see a reason to scan pages anymore

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Gotta tell you- SO much easier than scanning, many digital cameras have a document mode, just snap pics. Equal or better quality, about ten times faster. My little nikon did great.

I did that too- works great!

 

[poadeleted21]

I use zululog.com and have for about 4 years. Great service and accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. I still keep an old school written logbook. I don't see a reason to scan pages anymore

I'm referring to my Airframe,Engine and propeller logs, I too use zululog.

 

[Ghery]

I like the idea of photographing the log book pages. Much faster than my scanner. And I'm probably a page or two behind, anyway. Anything on the computer is backed up, automatically, off site. Yay Cabonite!

 

[poadeleted21]

I like the idea of photographing the log book pages. Much faster than my scanner. And I'm probably a page or two behind, anyway. Anything on the computer is backed up, automatically, off site. Yay Cabonite!

I can't imagine to "do it right" that a camera would be better or much faster. Today's consumer level scanners are near instant and you can "pre crop" the area you want to scan and it's done.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I can't imagine to "do it right" that a camera would be better or much faster. Today's consumer level scanners are near instant and you can "pre crop" the area you want to scan and it's done.

Just snap a shot of a page (or two in the same image), flip the page & do it again. It's not slow at all. My scanner (a few years old) is much slower. keep the camera aperture small and it doesn't even matter if the page is not completely flat.

 

[poadeleted21]

Just snap a shot of a page (or two in the same image), flip the page & do it again. It's not slow at all. My scanner (a few years old) is much slower. keep the camera aperture small and it doesn't even matter if the page is not completely flat.

It's still going to take a "whole picture" isn't it? so if the aspect ratio of the camera doesn't match the dimensions of the log book you're going to get a border composed of whatever surface the book was lying on won't you. I know splitting hairs here but... I just put one page down on the scanner, cropped it, then set the scanner to GO! Flip page, press button, flip page press button, flip page press button. Auto crops out all the "extra"

 

[gprellwitz]

It's still going to take a "whole picture" isn't it? so if the aspect ratio of the camera doesn't match the dimensions of the log book you're going to get a border composed of whatever surface the book was lying on won't you. I know splitting hairs here but... I just put one page down on the scanner, cropped it, then set the scanner to GO! Flip page, press button, flip page press button, flip page press button. Auto crops out all the "extra"

Yeah, but who cares about the border? It's a little extra data, but again, so what?

 

[Cap'n Jack]

It's still going to take a "whole picture" isn't it? so if the aspect ratio of the camera doesn't match the dimensions of the log book you're going to get a border composed of whatever surface the book was lying on won't you. I know splitting hairs here but... I just put one page down on the scanner, cropped it, then set the scanner to GO! Flip page, press button, flip page press button, flip page press button. Auto crops out all the "extra"

Meh- whatever works for you. Pictures work for me, you like the scanner. It's all one.

 

[poadeleted21]

Yeah, but who cares about the border? It's a little extra data, but again, so what?

I do. Must... Crop... Cannot...Resist. Hence, my OP. Looking for something to really "put it together" thinking about doing one of those online magazine viewer type things but would like to have them contained in a file and easily updated with new pages.

 

[Jim_R]

Once you have each page in an individual picture file, you can paste them into your favorite word processor so that you have them all in one file. Set the "document" to be landscape format with minimal borders, and it's pretty much an e-book for you.

If somehow you don't already have a word processor, LibreOffice gives almost all the functionality of MS Office, for free. Get it here: https://www.libreoffice.org/

 

[steingar]

Years ago I started a logbook as an Excel file. I copy all my entries into there, and scan in all my endorsements as well. It can easily be done with any spreadsheet application. I have it on multiple computers even.

 

[n12365]

I scan in each page of my logbook as a pdf, crop to a standard size, and then collect them together into a multipage pdf. I update it every few months or after a big trip or check ride.

 

[JCCordes]

Scanning logbooks is actually quite easy. Make sure you have decent scanning software. Most scanning apps today let you do the following:

1) Predefine a custom page size for your logbook. This saves a LOT of time cropping, etc.
2) Scan to a multi-page PDF document. No need to keep track of individual pages or convert from Word to JPG to PDF. Just scan a page and go to the next page.

Sometimes I find it easier to put the opposite-side pages onto the scanner upsdide-down, so the paper edges can fit into the corner of the glass bed. When the scanning is complete I then open the PDF (using Adobe Acrobat) and rotate every other page.

Pretty simple!

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

The two easiest ways to scan your pilots logs or aircraft maintenance logs is first to take them to Office Depot and pay 10 cents per page for them to do it. I did both my airplanes and my pilots logs for about $75.

The 2nd easiest way to do it is with a digital point and shoot camera or digital slr camera. I thought this sounded crazy but its true. The quality of a 10MP camera will give you good crisp easy to read and reproduce documents.

As you import the pictures to your computer just name the project N6496R and they will all be named that followed by a page number.

 

[JGoodish]

I've been scanning in my log books.
WHAT A PITA.

What I'd like to do is put them into one document of some sort but retain the quality of the images, they're a "funny" dimension. My initial thought was word document to pdf. Any thoughts on how to organize them or what sort of software to put them in. I'd like some sort of eBook thingy other than "Just a bunch of pictures"

Attaching "a page" for reference. I'd like to sew the pages together too. Yes, I'm bored.

I scanned my logbooks into PDF a year or so ago, using VueScan. VueScan supports direct entry of crop values, so I always scan the pages cropped exactly the same. VueScan will also permit scanning into a multi-page document, but I got about always through 30+ years of log entries and it spit out a blank doc; so, I re-scanned them to individual pages and stitched them together after all of the pages were scanned. VueScan is cross-platform, but the stitching was done on a Mac using Apple's Preview app.


JKG

 

[John221us]

I have a great digital copier / scanner at work and it banged them right out and emailed them to me.

 

[jpower]

Years ago I started a logbook as an Excel file. I copy all my entries into there, and scan in all my endorsements as well. It can easily be done with any spreadsheet application. I have it on multiple computers even.

I put everything in a google doc so I don't have to worry about backing it up.

 

[Silvaire]

I started doing this a few years ago with customer aircraft logbooks that I did annuals on. I used a digital camera on the Document setting (B&W) At first I was really anal about setting the picture scene up and getting the pages aligned perfectly but eventually I realized that this isn't an art project, it's just a document copy for backup purposes. So I started doing it James Bond style - just flip the page and snap the picture. It doesn't matter if it's a little crooked or your thumb's in it so long as you can read what's on the page.

Doing it this way I can get through an entire logbook in just a couple of minutes.

The only danger is in forgetting to reset your camera from document mode. I went on vacation one time and came back with 150 black and white photos.