Too bad, so many aircraft owners haven’t caught on to that little trick. When someone sets out to buy an airplane they’ll ask how many hours are on it? What avionics does it have? What condition is the paint and interior in? When was the last engine overhaul/inspection? Pretty much everything but how correct and complete are the logbooks and records?
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So, it just stands to reason that when Bluetail celebrated its first anniversary - which by the way, coincides with Lucky Lindy’s trip - with the introduction of the aviation industry’s newest and most powerful digital records search and automation tool, it appropriately named that revolutionary new capability: MACH Search.
While the FAR does give guidance on the ingredients that make up your FAA logs, like many fast-food burgers, how those records are finished off is up to you. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Why? Well, like building a great burger, there’s really no wrong answer when it comes to how to fill out your logbooks.
When it comes time to determine the current market value of your aircraft back on earth, the broker is going to look at all the obvious stuff; paint, interior, engine time, avionics, etc. But, here’s what a lot of owners overlook. The condition of the aircraft’s logbooks.
And, yet, as good as CAMP is, a rapidly-growing number of its users have found a way to make it even better. Don’t just take our word for it. Currently, over 80% of Bluetail’s customers are current CAMP users. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. But here are a few:
Some operators do not secure their logbooks as well as they should, and there have been cases of logbooks being lost between leaving for maintenance and returning to its home base. There are many advantages to having an aircraft's maintenance records in digital form, even if only as a back up.
For aircraft owners who want to digitize their records and securely transport them to local scanning centers, deciding on which transportation mode can be daunting choice.
Listen to the Asset Insight Podcast as they sit-down with Bluetail co-founder Stuart Illian as they discuss the aircraft ownership life cycle and much more.
I have been searching for a way to keep our logs current, safe and make them accessible to more than just me. One solution was to copy everything onto a flash drive which involves a lot of duplication of the whole process. But from my research, I now have an alternative that has not been available to General Aviation before.
When researching the best way to digitize your aircraft records, it’s always important to consider many factors when selecting an outsourced scanning service. A low-cost document scanning vendor can be extremely tempting, but is it safe and secure and what exactly does that aircraft record scanning quote cover? Often a low-cost scanning quote means you may be surprised later with certain hidden fees.
When it comes to scanning aircraft records, owners and operators take security and privacy seriously. Choosing a HIPAA compliant trained company, and SOC 2 scanning partner, can be very important since the employee training is very stringent and vital information is locked down. Why take the risk of an unqualified vendor to later find out that such information was leaked out to the public?
The simple answer is… not always, as it depends on the aircraft and type of installation. A more relevant question is the inspection and maintenance of the equipment installed covered in the manufacturer's maintenance manual (AMM).
In addition to properly performing all the requisite sales steps such as cleaning the aircraft, taking nice photos/videos and developing a detailed aircraft specification sheet, it is imperative that the aircraft is in best shape (and spotless!) and that all inspections are up to date, that all related records (such as logbooks) are impeccable and that the aircraft is in the best possible condition.
Although digital logbook and maintenance entry systems are definitely the new, easier route, plane owners still keep paper logbooks and records just to be on the safe side. One simple way that many plane owners have discovered to make this as easy as possible is called “smart scanning and indexing.”
While maintenance tracking software allows an owner/operator the ability to track and forecast maintenance, manage parts, and much more, unfortunately, these systems can fall short when it comes to managing aircraft paper and digital records.
Aircraft/pilot logbooks and flight logs have been around as long as aviation itself, with the Wright brothers keeping detailed notebooks of their aircraft build, experiments, dates of a flight, airplane used, pilot, passenger’s name, time aloft and course flown. They also recorded distance flown, height achieved, weather and any related comments.
Understanding Instructions for Continued Airworthiness (ICA) Requirements for an aircraft is important as ICAs provide a standardized approach for aircraft, engine and propeller maintenance data, thus replacing such data from the OEMs and other Type Certificate (TC) holders.
It’s been a huge last couple of months for us here at Bluetail. With every day that passes, we’re inching closer and closer to our official launch date— a milestone that our whole team has been dedicated to achieving since day one.