Why We Should Be Taking Better Care of Aircraft Records

Aircraft maintenance records are documents that both back-up and support the Airworthiness of the aircraft. When done properly, these records contain the age of the aircraft; its maintenance history; the total time on the aircraft when work was accomplished; major modifications accomplished since the aircraft was new; damage history to the aircraft if any; and any other information relative and important to understanding the aircraft’s history and Airworthiness. 

These records (commonly referred to as logbooks) will either prove, or disprove, the validity of an aircraft’s Airworthiness when examined. If information necessary to prove the aircraft’s airworthiness is missing from the record; the FAA considers it the same as if the event never took place … and the aircraft is determined to be Unairworthy. 

Additionally, when an aircraft is involved in an incident causing damage, personal injury, or loss of life; chances are a lawsuit will follow.  In this case, maintenance records (or lack thereof) in an aircraft’s record will either convict, or absolve, the aircraft owner and maintenance personnel having worked on the aircraft.

The financial cost of the current method of record keeping is also a problem we should solve. Business aviation’s paper records are estimated to cost the industry over $175 million annually. That’s over $7,000 per aircraft, per year, just to keep up with the requirements of normal operations. 

Adding to this large expenditure is the fact that missing information from the record has an extreme financial impact on the value of the aircraft as well. Logbooks have been proven time and again to be worth as much as 30% to 50% of the overall market value of an aircraft. Without its records an aircraft violates the requirements for its Certificate of Airworthiness. Even a $70 Million jet that is found to be unairworthy … is almost worthless.

Missing only one document from the record can also be a problem resulting in one of two things happening:

1. Maintenance, although previously accomplished, must be completed again to show compliance.
2. Life limited or time-controlled components, even though operating perfectly fine, will need to be replaced to understand the components’ total time and/or total cycles.

Either of these events waste both the owner’s money and contribute to the time the aircraft would otherwise be available to fly. Unfortunately, most aircraft owners only find out their aircraft’s logbooks are deficient when its’ already too late to recover from the missing information; usually impacting a sale or hampering the time required to begin flying the aircraft.

In many cases, the cost of recovering missing record information or replacing time-controlled or life-limited parts on the aircraft is not even financially justifiable. More than one aircraft has been rendered a total loss as a flying machine due to the loss of the aircraft’s collection of records.

With respect to aircraft records or logbooks; aviation insurance is yet another concern in business aviation today. Insurance companies simply do not insure aircraft logbook. For the straightforward reason that the value damage to an aircraft due to missing logbook information is so difficult to establish beforehand, the easiest way to prevent an argument from occurring between the aircraft owner and the insurance company over the value of missing information, if it happens, is to eliminate the potential argument altogether. Insurance companies have a term for aircraft logbooks: Low Risk, High Impact Assets. Anyone owning or operating an aircraft should take note.

With so much riding on the condition of an aircraft’s records, you would think, as an industry, we would be highly focused and concerned with them. But the evidence shows that this is not the case. Even though good records reflect a well-cared-for aircraft and save valuable maintenance time for technicians when researching the history of the aircraft; the reality is that good management of aircraft records as a normal way of operating an aircraft today rarely happens. 

As an industry we need to change the way we manage aircraft records. For that to happen, aircraft operators, and their maintenance departments, need to be held more accountable for the care and condition of these valuable documents. Like most activities, improving the way things are done usually takes education. As an industry, we should start this education process today. 

With a steady improvement in aircraft record keeping practices and the chronicling the aircraft’s history of Airworthiness; we will soon see the benefits to both the business aircraft industry and the professional image of business aircraft maintenance. And that’s exactly where we need to be.