The logbooks of any aircraft stuck in the paths of the devastating hurricanes that recently swamped the Gulf Coast in September may be ruined. And while the condition of logbooks pales in comparison to the tragic loss of life and property, logbooks do rank high as critical documents. Lost or destroyed logbooks take a huge bite out of an aircraft's value.

To help prevent such losses several companies have launched products in recent years to store logbooks digitally. And many of these companies can help recover swamped logbooks, too. Mike Head, president of AirLog Imaging, has offered his company's services at reduced rates to operators with hurricane-damaged logbooks.

The most important move with wet logbooks, he said, is to dry them off as quickly as possible. "Don't try to pull them apart while they're wet," he warned. The entire book must be dried with fans and dehumidifiers. As a first step, he added, "that's all you can do."

Once damaged logbooks are dried, companies such as Airlog can scan the pages and store them digitally. Or the operator can scan them on their own scanner. Head explained that wet individual pages also could be scanned or copied, as long as the pages aren't stuck together.

Anyone can buy an inexpensive scanner and make digital files of logbook pages. But the companies that specialize in this service add value to the result by indexing the information. If a company, for example, is performing a prepurchase inspection on an aircraft, it's easy to provide digital files that the inspector can search through to establish the maintenance history. This feature also saves maintainers tons of time when searching for AD compliance, part-replacement times, and other critical airworthiness information.

Eventually, logbooks initially will be digital files that come with new aircraft, signatures will be digitally encoded in logbook files, and maintenance history searches will take place at computer terminals instead of in dusty boxes of old documents.

In light of the recent hurricane disasters, the trend to "go digital" will ensure the safety of aircraft documentation, "regardless of what's happening at home base," said Gerald Kosbab, president & COO of Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP), Brisbane, California.

Digital management
ATP's Maintenance Director E*Log was designed to be a complement to traditional paper logs. It is meant to verify an aircraft's exact configuration, what work has been done, and what work needs to be done, according to Kosbab. The E*Log allows maintenance planning while managing historical data and records and retrieves all maintenance for aircraft, engines, and inventory. E*Log also shows compliance and status of airworthiness directives, service bulletins, and maintenance events and monitors component install and removal history among other capabilities.

"It's flexible to the level of detail [and] can be configured to the engine/airframe level or all the way to individual component level," said Kosbab. He added that customers could start out with a more basic entry-level configuration and work up to take advantage of all the product's power. He also noted that one corporate flight department was able to meet its transportation needs with six aircraft instead of seven by better controlling fleet availability through digital maintenance management.

AirLog Imaging

"I'm a mechanic, not a typer or computer programmer," said AirLog Imaging's Head, who claims to use his experience in aircraft maintenance to help design products with a mechanic's needs in mind. He added that, since the hurricanes, his Troy, Alabama-based company has been "seeing a significant increase in companies and owners directing their maintenance departments to back up aircraft documents. It's about asset protection."

AirLog Imaging's LBCD V2.0 Aviation Scanning and Indexing Software is used to digitize all documents associated with an aircraft, including logbook pages, component tags, 337s, 8130s, service bulletins, airworthiness directives, discrepancies, etc. On-site training comes with the software, and there are no annual fees. "We go to the customer's location and train them. Then they can scan at their own pace," said Head.

The program allows for customizing for each aircraft and can be tailored, for example, to accommodate a category for accounting or schematics. The category would be added in the index drop-down menu. Once all the paper logs and documents associated with an aircraft have been converted, logbook research is reduced from days to minutes, according to Head.

Before it's too late, Head suggested that aircraft operators learn what proper backing-up of aircraft documents really means. "It can be misleading," he said. "Don't think you are backing up when you're not."

Logbook Organizer

Tim Carr, president and CEO of The Logbook Organizer, located in Sacramento, California, stresses the need for record back-up. "If you lose the maintenance records for a Gulfstream, it can cost you millions of dollars. It's a nightmare," he said.

The Logbook Organizer's S.M.A.R.T. (System Maintenance Aviation Record Tracking) system is an Internet-based, combined tracking and logbook system. It has secure Internet access with 24-7 instantaneous backup and daily remote backup. The company's system uses T1 connections and delivers data quickly on any connection the end-user has because Logbook Organizer's servers do the work. The records are meant to be easily transferable to any maintenance facility of the customer's choosing.

Carr, too, is an A&P and strives to design a user-friendly product that avoids unnecessary steps. "The product has integrated instructions," he said, "and we have the ability to shadow customers." The shadow feature allows training while using the product, while a Logbook Organizer specialist is offering assistance. Both the customer and a trainer are online at the same time and looking at the same screen. Then, via phone conference the trainer can explain a process and the customer can see the input on their screen instantaneously.

Avtrak

Avtrak, based in Littleton, Colorado, has developed E-Log, a digitized version of each aircraft's historical inspection and maintenance logs. The company organizes the logs and makes them accessible on its GlobalNet secure website. The E-Log is also provided to customers on mini-CD-ROM.

In addition, E-Log was designed to catalog digital images taken from aircraft, engine, propeller, and APU paper maintenance logbooks. Each record is scanned into an E-Log portable document format (PDF) file. The records are then organized just like the hard copies. Operators can update E-log by submitting paper copies directly to AvTrak, to be scanned and incorporated into the E-Log.

Resources

AirLog Imaging
Phone: 334-566-9890
www.airlogimaging.com

Aircraft Technical Publishers
Phone: 800-227-4610
www.atp.com

The Logbook Organizer
Phone: 530-672-6020
www.lboinc.com

Avtrak
Phone: 303-745-5588
www.avtrak.com