Stolen Logbook

Pjsmith

Pjsmith

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
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513
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Cary, Illinois
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pjsmith
A sucky day all around. Woke to find my truck broken into. :frown3:

Gone was the GPS, radar detector, and most importantly, my Bose X headset which was in its case along with my Logbook (which had my medical in a pocket).

Besides being stunned, I'm really bummed out.

I've done some searches and see you can 'recreate' your logbook starting with the most recent 8710. I had a medical in June and I think I reported hours then, but can't say for sure. Definitely reported hours when I bought my insurance at about the same time. A combination of economics and my BFR being due means I haven't flown much in the past 8 months, and none as PIC in the past few. So I don't have any idea the actual number of hours I"ve flown recently. All of this is an argument, of course, for redundancy...and a very expensive lesson.

Has anyone here actually gone through the process of recreating a part of their logbook? I can get records from the FBO for all of the training time (through 8710), and I can copy records from my own plane use in the past two years. What else do I have to do?

I certainly appreciate any pointers or tips (other than to double check my car doors are locked at night).

TIA,

Patrick

p.s. If you're in Northern Illinois and someone clearly not a pilot offers to sell you a straight-cord used Bose X headset, would you let me know? The police seem to think that criminals would be just about dumb enough to do that...and I have the serial numbers/paperwork to track back to.
 
Sorry to hear about that.

Keep an eye on craigslist too.
 
Sorry to here that this happened Pat. Where did this happen? Your driveway or somewhere else?

Also if you need a new headset I can get you a good deal on a straight-cord Bose X headset ;)
 
Man, this bites.

An unfortunate reminder that we all need to ensure that we have backed up our logbooks.

smigaldi said:
Also if you need a new headset I can get you a good deal on a straight-cord Bose X headset ;)
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Hmmm.... tell more!
 
I try and xerox my logbook once in a while, plus I double-log everything. One entry goes on paper, one goes up to logshare.com.
 
logbook, excel spreadsheet and copies of the pages after they're filled in, as well as any endorsements/signoffs for me. Belt, suspenders and velcro ...
 
Sorry to hear that, Pat. As far as recreating the logbook goes, if you've rented recently they probably photocopied your most recent BFR, as well as appropriate endorsements that would have been required for whatever you were renting, such as complex or tailwheel.
 
You can get a fax of your medical from OKC, I believe. You can reconstruct your time from your last 8710 and or your last medical, or FBO records, aircraft logs (if you own your own airplane), instructor logs/notes, and pretty much anything else. You self certify all time not logged as dual, anyway.
 
Chairboy said:
I try and xerox my logbook once in a while, plus I double-log everything. One entry goes on paper, one goes up to logshare.com.
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A reasonably good digital camera makes a pretty good photo copier for this.

Brian
 
I finally got around to backing up my logbook; it's a bit of work but worth doing. I have a good but inexpensive all-in-one scanner, and after finishing a page or two I scan, crop, and save in largish but not huge JPEG files... each image shows the entries from left to right as if the book were open in front of you.

One thing I still need to do is keep a re-writable disc, in addition to the hard drive... probably also worth doing. And of course, paper copies that never leave the house would be a great backup, as well.
 
I thought about backing up my logbooks, but this could take a bit..................

personallogs.jpg
 
smigaldi said:
Sorry to here that this happened Pat. Where did this happen? Your driveway or somewhere else?

Also if you need a new headset I can get you a good deal on a straight-cord Bose X headset ;)
Click to expand...

Scott -

Happened in my Driveway. I'm on the south end of town on Cary/Algonquin. A few other cars in the neighborhood were hit too. I'm about 50/50 in my brain that I locked the truck, so this might all have been 'my' fault.

A good deal on the Bose X's, huh? I'll swing by and take a look at them (and the serial number!):D:D

My best hope is that the thief tries to sell them to a local pawn shop or the eventual buyer breaks em and sends them to Bose for service.....
 
keep an eye on eBay! We found my brothers Mac on there a few years back. Stupid idiot gave us all the info we needed to call the cops and get it back.

Check with your neighbors as well. My headset was stolen last fall, and found by my neighbor on her front lawn. She found a pen from my FBO and called that number, I saw the note as I went it for work and quickly retrieved my headset.

It's a horrible feeling, I know. I never leave anything in my car...it's just not worth it. (sad..isn't it?)
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I thought about backing up my logbooks, but this could take a bit..................
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I'd still photocopy them all. Mail them to me and I'll do it for you. A dime a page.
I've got copies in the house and in the office, plus a few electronic versions. Seems I might be needing them too. I lost a book during my last move.
 
SCCutler said:
Man, this bites.

An unfortunate reminder that we all need to ensure that we have backed up our logbooks.
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PJ, that sucks. Regarding Spike's comment about "backing up our logbook"; I don't use an electronic logbook (I would, if I flew more)... but everytime I fill a page and sign it, I scan that page (left side, right side) and a copy goes on my computer and also gets uploaded to an external website's storage area. So I'll never lose more than one page worth of data... interested in hearing other people's methods.
 
rottydaddy said:
I finally got around to backing up my logbook; it's a bit of work but worth doing. I have a good but inexpensive all-in-one scanner, and after finishing a page or two I scan, crop, and save in largish but not huge JPEG files... each image shows the entries from left to right as if the book were open in front of you.

One thing I still need to do is keep a re-writable disc, in addition to the hard drive... probably also worth doing. And of course, paper copies that never leave the house would be a great backup, as well.
Click to expand...

A simple solution is to get a Gmail account and email yourself a copy of the scanned JPEG files. You'll have a permanent, backed up, offsite free copy.
 
Pjsmith said:
Scott -

Happened in my Driveway. I'm on the south end of town on Cary/Algonquin. A few other cars in the neighborhood were hit too. I'm about 50/50 in my brain that I locked the truck, so this might all have been 'my' fault.

A good deal on the Bose X's, huh? I'll swing by and take a look at them (and the serial number!):D:D

My best hope is that the thief tries to sell them to a local pawn shop or the eventual buyer breaks em and sends them to Bose for service.....
Click to expand...
That sounds likely to be the work of kids. What sucks is that they probably have already thrown the logbook away.

I have caught a couple of kids in my garage when I forget to close the door. They are thieves of opportunity.

I did look on the Chicago and Rockford Craiglist for a headset and did not see one. I will also keep my ears pealed at 10C and 3CK to see if anything starts popping up. My guess is they have no idea it is an aviation headset and probably think it is for listening to their mp3's.
 
Another way to back up your files, simple zip them up in a password protected file, then rename them to something distinct like: "BRITNEY SPEARS SEXXING A GOLDFISH.AVI" and post it on a P2P site.

Years later, when you need them, just go to any P2P program or website and type in that name, and you'll be certain to find multiple copies.
 
Hey PJ, consider calling Bose and registering your serial number as stolen. Ask them to contact you and your local detective if somebody tries to get service or register it.

Bose Customer Svc: 1-800-999-2673
 
This exact same thing happened to me a few years ago. I had a late flight, then an early morning flight the next day, since my driveway and house fairly isolated, I just left all my gear in my Jeep (hard top). The next morning, window smashed and everything gone.

I never got anything back, but my flight instructor took it on his own and completely re-built my log book from my flight school records. I had a little over a hundred hours that he recovered.

The only thing that bothered me is I have lived in this house for many years, there has never been this type of crime anywhere around here. The only people who knew I would be flying early are the flight school people. More than one person suggested that it was an employee at the school who did it. How are you going to prove that?

Frustrating lesson about leaving stuff in your car.

John
 
Bummer!

I scan EVERYTHING now. Aircraft logs, logbook, etc..... sigh.
 
My backup solution is the program in my signature, that backup file is then placed on our "emergency" backup drive regularly through my network. This is a drive that I quickly grab from my room if we have a fire or tornader. I also back this file up to my iDisk (a networked drive) and print of my latest logbook page to a file that is kept downstairs. Also, once a year I print off my whole logbook (I only have around 100 hours, so this isn't too crazy yet) and file it.

Summary: 1 original logbok, 3 digital backups, and 1 full printed backup.

Overkill? Nope, those numbers are just to valuable, sentimentally as well as financially.
 
RossFischer said:
My backup solution is the program in my signature, that backup file is then placed on our "emergency" backup drive regularly through my network. This is a drive that I quickly grab from my room if we have a fire or tornader. I also back this file up to my iDisk (a networked drive) and print of my latest logbook page to a file that is kept downstairs. Also, once a year I print off my whole logbook (I only have around 100 hours, so this isn't too crazy yet) and file it.

Summary: 1 original logbok, 3 digital backups, and 1 full printed backup.

Overkill? Nope, those numbers are just to valuable, sentimentally as well as financially.
Click to expand...

Email the file to yourself and you'll have offsite backup too. What if the house burns down when you're not there to grab the backup drive?
 
That's terrible to hear. Hopefully they'll do something dumb and you'll recover your headset. How many common thieves will know what an expensive headset is? They might just dump it as headphones or something.

I use the same program as RossFischer (with a remarkably similar backup setup), with a addon for my phone, plus I also maintain a standard paper logbook.

So I have a paper log, the log on my phone wich is synced with my computer, the computer is backed up to a network drive as well as iDisk (remote storage provided by Apple).

Just a little paranoid, but the past has taught that if you are going to maintain digital versions of important documents the more backups the better, and offsite is better yet.

And the paper log is handy for showing people where you are. For some reason people trust a good old paper log when you hand it to them over something displayed on the screen of my phone.
 
Logbook, Excel spreadsheet, log program and I scan log book pages when full and store them on the computer and a separate disc box. And I keep the Excel spreadsheet on my computer at work, as well. Paranoid? Me? Just prepared. Too bad I can't capture the signatures and endorsements in the Excel spreadsheet (then again, add the scanned images?).
 
Ghery said:
Too bad I can't capture the signatures and endorsements in the Excel spreadsheet (then again, add the scanned images?).
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Yup. From any cell, Insert > Picture > From File, Browse to the scanned signature/image, click Insert button. Voila!! :cheerswine:
 
Cedhed said:
That's terrible to hear. Hopefully they'll do something dumb and you'll recover your headset. How many common thieves will know what an expensive headset is? They might just dump it as headphones or something.
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Welcome to the board!

And, on a tangential note, I have a funny story. I once worked in a computer store. One of our customers, a church, had their computers stolen. I got a call from someone who had recently purchased a computer asking for assistance, and it sounded fishy, so I convinced him to give me the serial number under the pretext of its possibly being under warranty. I investigated and found that it was indeed one of the ones stolen from the church. Michael, Our repair tech, actually drove out to pick him up for the "warranty work!" Even better, IIRC, Michael was actually a minister or divinity student:D.

The caller had apparently bought the computer on the street from the thief, and was charged with receiving stolen goods. Michael went to the hearing to testify. Unfortunately, no one from the church could be bothered to make it on time and the charges were dropped.:mad3:
 
Pjsmith said:
p.s. If you're in Northern Illinois and someone clearly not a pilot offers to sell you a straight-cord used Bose X headset, would you let me know? The police seem to think that criminals would be just about dumb enough to do that...and I have the serial numbers/paperwork to track back to.
Click to expand...

Keep checking ebay. When I was a cop, I used to have a list of stolen property that I would run through ebay every week. I found more stuff than you would think. Also pawn shops are good for finding stolen property, but I don't know how many pawn shops around Cary, Il. We only had three. However, a thief tends to pawn stolen property as fast as they can, before they get caught carrying the goods.
 
Maxmosbey said:
Keep checking ebay. When I was a cop, I used to have a list of stolen property that I would run through ebay every week. I found more stuff than you would think. Also pawn shops are good for finding stolen property, but I would guess that there are hundreds of pawn shops around Gary, Il. We only had three. However, a thief tends to pawn stolen property as fast as they can, before they get caught carrying the goods.
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He's in Cary, IL, not Gary, IN. Cary is smallish suburb. So might not be that many pawn shops!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary said:
A 2003 special census put the village's population at 17,827. As of 2007 it has grown significantly because of the mass of new houses, due to avaricious developers and individuals seeking a "small town atmosphere" in the midst of urban sprawl.
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gprellwitz said:
He's in Cary, IL, not Gary, IN. Cary is smallish suburb. So might not be that many pawn shops!
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None in Cary but one in Algonquin a nearby town. Getting Gary, IN and Cary, IL confused happens a lot when talking to people form not around the area. Lots of people know Gary but have not heard of Cary. Even though we are famous for our small part in the movie Ground Hog day. All of the inside shots of the boarding house were on a set in our industrial center.

It is similar but not as bad as when I lived in New Mexico. Lots of times you have to convince people when you are ordering stuff that your are in the US. Far too often when you gave people the name of the state they would tell you that they would not ship internationally. SIGH!

My mom even had a postal employee try to tell her once that she needed to put a customs form on a package she was shipping me for my birthday. Double SIGH!
 
gprellwitz said:
He's in Cary, IL, not Gary, IN. Cary is smallish suburb. So might not be that many pawn shops!
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Yea, I figured that out after I posted it. I also noticed that he got the same advise already, but just trying to help out. It really makes me mad when a crook grabs something like someone's log book, with no value to the crook. Ive seen crooks take peoples wedding videos or even their picture albums. One thought though, if it was in a bag or something, sometimes the crooks go through the bag and throw out everything that they don't think they can sell. It might be a good idea to check the dumpsters, and look in the bushes around the area.
 
Maxmosbey said:
Yea, I figured that out after I posted it. I also noticed that he got the same advise already, but just trying to help out. It really makes me mad when a crook grabs something like someone's log book, with no value to the crook. Ive seen crooks take peoples wedding videos or even their picture albums. One thought though, if it was in a bag or something, sometimes the crooks go through the bag and throw out everything that they don't think they can sell. It might be a good idea to check the dumpsters, and look in the bushes around the area.
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max your daughters works in Arlington height if I remember right. FYI Cary is just NW of that suburb on Northwest highway by about 13 miles. Cary is south of Wisconsin by a few miles too. So close in fact that we can smell their Dairy Air. :D
 
smigaldi said:
max your daughters works in Arlington height if I remember right. FYI Cary is just NW of that suburb on Northwest highway by about 13 miles. Cary is south of Wisconsin by a few miles too. So close in fact that we can smell their Dairy Air. :D
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She used to work at Arlington Downs, but now that the season is over, she is unemployed. She is having a tough time finding work. She was pretty discouraged when she came home for Thanksgiving, but she loves Chicago, so she is back there now. Anyway, I looked it up on a map, so my geography is a little better. Thanks.
 
Thanks to this thread...I had left my flight case out in my car last night because I had a two arms full of groceries when I came in. I had meant to go right back out and get it, but I got distracted unloading bags. Fast forward to midnight as we're lying in bed watching the Simpsons...it all the sudden dawned on me that my bag was still in the car. I jumped up and ran outside (much to the confusion of my wife and her retarded cat) and came back minutes later with my flight bag. All I could think about was having to recreate my log book and how much that would suck! I'm very sorry to hear this happened to you, hopefully it's not too hard to recall everything!
 
Teller1900 said:
Thanks to this thread...I had left my flight case out in my car last night because I had a two arms full of groceries when I came in. I had meant to go right back out and get it, but I got distracted unloading bags. Fast forward to midnight as we're lying in bed watching the Simpsons...it all the sudden dawned on me that my bag was still in the car. I jumped up and ran outside (much to the confusion of my wife and her retarded cat) and came back minutes later with my flight bag. All I could think about was having to recreate my log book and how much that would suck! I'm very sorry to hear this happened to you, hopefully it's not too hard to recall everything!
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Gee just what I wanted first thing in the morning. A picture in my head of you in your PJs and fuzzy slippers with a pilot log book in your hand. that will haunt me for a while now! ;) :rofl: :rofl:
 
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