Where are your customer’s aircraft's maintenance logbooks? – Do you keep them in a safe place or piled on the side of a desk? What condition were they in when you received them? Are you sure you returned all of them when the plane left the shop? And the big question, will your insurance policy cover maintenance logbooks if they are damaged, or worse yet lost? How much would the aircraft go down in value if the maintenance logbooks were lost, damaged, or destroyed?

These can be scary questions that many aircraft repair shops and service providers may not have thought about. Don’t assume the aircraft's maintenance logbooks are considered part of the aircraft and covered by the aircraft insurance policy. It is common for aircraft insurance policies to include “tools and repair equipment” and “parts temporarily removed and not replaced” in the definition of aircraft, but no mention of aircraft maintenance logbooks.

The Federal Aviation Regulations only stipulate that aircraft maintenance logs be transferred with the ownership of the aircraft. They do not include logbooks in the definition of an aircraft. As such, it is left to the insurance policies and the courts to decide what should and should not be included in the definition of aircraft on a disputed claim.

You might say to yourself “I’m paying thousands for insurance every year to cover by maintenance shop, my insurance policy must cover logbooks, right?”. Not necessarily. Most repair shops buy liability insurance which means the shop must be found negligent for the damage or loss. If the loss was unintentional (Acts of God, theft, or simply misplaced) a liability policy may not pay. And if they do, they may only replace the logbooks (with new, blank ones), not “reconstruct” the logbooks to their original content. As you know, the older the airplane the more entries were in those logs. Complete reconstruction of older logbooks may be a monumental task.

So, what can you do?   Practice some practical and straight-forward Best Practices when it comes to handling maintenance logbooks for your customers.

• When the logbooks arrives in your shop take digital photos of each page and upload them to off-site storage. Technology and storage are cheap these days, and taking a few extra minutes on the front end can save a lot of headache if the books are lost.

• Store the logbooks in a safe, dry, secure place during the maintenance. A lockable firebox or fireproof cabinet work well for this.

• Have an acceptance/delivery document listing the logbooks and requiring signatures by the customer and the shop. Sign when you receive the logbooks, and sign when you return the logbooks. In this manner both parties acknowledge receipt of the logbooks, and no one has to rely on memory.

Taking these simple steps will give your customers renewed confidence in your shop, and may save a lot of time, hassle, and money should the logbooks become destroyed or misplaced.