Maintenance Records, Online

The move to online maintenance recordkeeping is growing, and more companies are entering this nascent market.

The FAA’s October 2002 advisory circular on acceptance of electronic records sets the scene for a dramatic change for the time-consuming paperwork mountain needed to keep an aircraft flying. (See AC120-78: "Acceptance and use of electronic signatures, electronic recordkeeping systems, and electronic manuals.")

Aviation recordkeeping is mandatory to reflect an aircraft’s airworthiness and is also a vital ingredient of its commercial value. Lost or incomplete records can have a negative effect on an aircraft’s resale value. Today’s information technology techniques, can, if applied in the right direction by the right people, be readily harnessed to cope with an aircraft’s documentation.

Paperless electronic recordkeeping solutions, which are not mandatory, may become so. However, in order to be effective, such programs must be able to synchronize with flight logs and address the existing and future paperwork created by companies that have not yet progressed to an electronic standard. Four such solutions, developed by companies with a broad range of experience in aviation maintenance and recordkeeping, are profiled in this feature.

Most of these programs share common capabilities, such as automated logbook entries, electronic transfer of records, spare parts tracking, airworthiness directive/service bulletin tracking, recording of 337s and defect reports, tracking labor time and costs, report generation, aircraft and fleet "due" indicators, and monitoring part history and reliability statistics.

The companies that provide online electronic logbooks all share a common benefit: protection of valuable maintenance documents, the loss of which could cause a drop in value of the aircraft. The use of online logbooks has another benefit, and that is making it possible for other people or agencies to view the data online, without having to ship copies. This is an ideal setup for pre-purchase inspections and can save technicians hours of searching through old logbooks for obscure entries.

Avtrak’s E-Log

Aurora, Colorado-based Avtrak is an aviation compliance management services company. Joseph Hertzler, Avtrak’s president and co-founder, has more than 15 years of aviation maintenance and inspection experience and has extensive knowledge of aviation maintenance and certification regulations. Avtrak offers two main services, Globalnet On-line Maintenance Tracking and E-Log On-line Logbook Imaging, which is a digitized version of an aircraft’s maintenance logs, organized and available on Avtrak’s secure GlobalNet web site. E-log is also provided to the user on a miniature CD-ROM. Original documents are scanned into the system as Adobe pdf images and indexed so they are text searchable and organized in an industry-familiar manner. E-Log, which has been accepted by the FAA, provides regular updates and is billed on a start up fee per aircraft basis for 1,000 scanned images, plus an annual fee per aircraft thereafter.

Key Avtrak features:

• E-log interfaces with the Corridor and EBiS maintenance work order system to create and track work orders.
• Tracking of all maintenance and inspection requirements.
• The ability to provide on-screen company log of system transactions.

Logbook Organizer

Logbook Organizer founder Tim Carr is a former aircraft inspector with more than 25 years of aircraft maintenance experience. The industry’s inconsistency and disorganized recordkeeping was the driving force behind Carr’s and his associates’ three-year development of the Logbook Organizer, an online aviation recordkeeping system that addresses all areas of aviation recordkeeping.

Logbook Organizer combines maintenance tracking and maintenance logbooks for any make or model of fixed-wing and rotory-wing aircraft including engines, APUs, propellers, appliances, components, and parts. Logbook Organizer, launched in August, 2003 runs over secure Internet access with 24-7 instantaneous backup. The product is aimed at government agencies, business aircraft owners, individual aircraft owners, and manufacturers.

The company recommends that users should securely store existing paper records and start with the Logbook Organizer from a convenient date. Fees are billed on an annual fee-per-aircraft basis, based on gross weight. Fleet owners benefit from discounted rates.

Key Logbook Organizer features:

• The ability to track personnel.
• One-time button update-all-records facility.
• The ability to create and track work orders.
• Tracking of all maintenance and inspection requirements.
• Provides on-screen company log of system transactions.
• Spell check feature tailored to aviation terminology.

Logbook X

With aviation maintenance and safety auditing personnel at its core, Compass, an aviation software company, developed Logbook X. Michael Head, Compass president, has logged 25 years in aircraft maintenance, 15 of them as a corporate director of maintenance. Logbook X, which also interfaces with Compass sister company Airlog Imaging’s logbook archive CD-ROM, is a combination of electronic logbooks and maintenance management programs. Forms, logbooks, and documents can be filled out and stored electronically and any document can be printed out or e-mailed. Logbook X is compliant with current FARs for electronic record keeping, logbooks, signatures, and maintenance data. As far as billing is concerned, Compass is selling the Logbook X program to corporate and individual aircraft owners on a per-aircraft basis; optional updates are billed, again per-aircraft, on an annual basis.

Key Logbook X features:

• Automated logbook entries for easier data entry.
• The program can be carried on a portable memory cards for pilot flight logs.
• Electronic signature pad.
• The ability to create and track work orders.
• The ability to update weight and balance and to perform reweighs.

V-Log

The "V" in V-Log stands for "virtual," as in virtual, not paper-based, logbooks. The company was founded in 2002 by information technology expert Richard Lemons, maintenance management consultant Larry Hinebaugh, and digital audio businessman Bill Neighbors, who is V-Log president.

The V-Log system is different in that instead of sending in the moldy boxes of maintenance logs and paperwork to the logbook company, V-Log sends its personnel to the customer location. This eliminates any concerns about shipping valuable logbooks back and forth, although this has not been a previous problem for Avtrak, Logbook Organizer, and Compass.

At the customer site, the V-Log representative scans each page into a notebook computer. Back at V-Log, the scanned logbook pages are indexed and organized according to the customer’s requirements. Customers can specify, for example, which key words will be used for the indexing, the make searching for historical data easier.

After the indexing is done, the notebook computer is returned to the customer, along with a scanner that is used to input new logbook pages as they are generated during subsequent maintenance. V-Log is developing a system that will allow users to enter data directly into the computer, eliminating the paper step if so desired.

Key V-Log features:

• Scanner located at customer facility, to speed document input.
• Dedicated notebook computer included in V-Log package.
• On-site training.
• Personalization to customer format.

In an increasingly digital and paperless business environment, it was inevitable that aviation recordkeeping would be changed for the better. The FAA has already expressed great interest and issued guidelines for acceptability for the move to e-recordkeeping, and these guidelines could well become the basis for rules in the future. In the meantime, aviation authority-approved electronic aviation recordkeeping has many advantages. For instance, the information that is generated and stored, can be used to manage the supply chain, cut paperwork time (paperwork audits can be reduced to hours instead of weeks), plan more effectively through enhanced maintenance projections and scheduling, provide timely availability of records for security and safety, allow mixed-fleet operators to use one compliance system, provide the ability to generate more accurate cost projections, and allow the generation of useful statistics, such as parts life from various manufacturers.