While there’s no shortage of exciting tech out there designed to keep aircraft flying safely, one of the most important unsung heroes in the safety world comes in the form of good records management. Yes, everything from logbooks, maintenance records, and your aircraft registration to your airworthiness certificate, flight manual, and ops books all contribute significantly to your safety.

Aircraft inspections, as we know, are all about preventative maintenance. Certain critical parts simply cannot fail while they are in service, which is why the FAA mandates that all owners/operators follow a maintenance program. Anything that impacts an aircraft such as maintenance, parts, life-limited components, inspections, etc., needs to be documented in a logbook entry.

While a logbook may be legally compliant, it may still hurt you from a safety perspective as well as a resale perspective. Having a logbook full of vague entries that say things like “Complied with all Chapter 5 entry requirements at this time,” really doesn’t help you when your aircraft is in for life-limited component inspection, such as landing gear or the many parts within the landing gear.

You’ll be asked if they were overhauled, repaired, or replaced. If you don’t know, you could be flying your aircraft in an unsafe state. From a financial perspective, if your aircraft is up for sale, vague entries have the potential to kill any potential sale and knock up to 10% off the value of your aircraft. In addition to detailed logbook entries, we recommend including work order information as part of your records. Otherwise, if maintenance is not documented in the logbook, it’s like it never happened.

At Leading Edge Avionics, we’re happy to provide our customers with a level of detail that exceeds the FAA mandate. It not only helps us keep your aircraft in tip-top shape, but it gives you the confidence that if you ever need emergency repairs away from home you’ll get the best possible outcome.