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I spent morning reading through airplane/engine logs... One would hope that since those are official records, a requirement for readability would be mandatory...

attached an example of entry that I gave up on deciphering...

not making fun of AP that put it there, but just venting out of frustration that this is acceptable practice...

- Dominik

 

F3776C96-97A7-4ADB-928D-F7561FE8D6DF.jpeg

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I keep a "working" copy of my logbooks on Google Docs, where I've set up 8.5x11", scanned each entry as a separate block, expanded them to page width and pasted them in order.  The actual entries are kept in a separate hard folder.  While it doesn't solve the legibility problem, it's much easier to read and flip through than the small paper logbooks, and if I have to give it to my mechanic, I just send him the Google Docs link.  There's also no reason you couldn't transcribe handwritten log entries to text and attach it to (or substitute it for) the handwritten entry for readability's sake, at least in the working logbooks.  Of course, you have to keep the actual signed entries elsewhere.

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Laura at SWTA is particularly good at deciphering these types of handwritten cursive log entries. That's just one reason to send logs to her for inspection prior to a pre-buy. It's the best $250 you'll spend. And then if SWTA is doing your maintenance, you can expect to have very well organized and legible logs going forward.

I just did my Commercial check ride and the DPE warned me that he would spend time going through the log books for the airplane prior to the Oral portion of the test. He said they were the best organized, easiest to read logs he'd ever seen. The AD list was separate and organized in such a way that you could see the whole AD situation in just a glance. 

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10 hours ago, dominikos said:

I spent morning reading through airplane/engine logs... One would hope that since those are official records, a requirement for readability would be mandatory...

attached an example of entry that I gave up on deciphering...

not making fun of AP that put it there, but just venting out of frustration that this is acceptable practice...

- Dominik

 

F3776C96-97A7-4ADB-928D-F7561FE8D6DF.jpeg

......checked all gauges and controls for proper operation and function no fluid leaks note. I certify that this engine has been inspected in accordance with A ANNUAL inspection and....

 

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Generational thing. We learned to read and write a thing called cursive in school and entries were actually written in the log book instead of being typed on a little sticker thingy by a printer thingy directed by a computer type thingy. I ain't complaining, I have lots of sticker thingies in my log, but not every mechanic had a computer and printer, or even a typewriter not so long ago. Our planes lived and were maintained before the computer era, remember that or no, maybe not?

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If you haven’t written in cursive in a while... try it...  :)

There are probably a few letters that you won’t remember where/how to start quite right...
 

Some people are blessed with awesome artistic writing skills... I got block printing of capitol letters.... and a pretty small vocabulary to go with that...   :)

Best regards,

-a-

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was reviewing the logbook entries as part of an appraisal effort some years ago and ran across an entry that I simply could not read - and I look at quite a few logbook entries.  It turned out the mechanic who wrote the entry was on the field and close by.  I took the entry to him and asked him to de-code and de-cypher the entry.  It took him a few minutes and HE couldn't read it either.

The mechanic explained that the entry was written in August when the temperature and dew-point were competing against each other in NC.  The aircraft was in the middle of nowhere at an airport that I think has been abandoned since due to flooding issues.  He wrote the entry after working on the aircraft (it had been sitting for a number of months) and he was sitting on a bucket pulling his thoughts together.  GREAT but apparently he skipped "penmanship" day in school.

Good luck

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7 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

This post reminds me I need to finish making an electronic copy of my logs. I copy the page and then transcribe the entry below the photo, I do this for even the typed stickies so the document is searchable 

Having a searchable version of your logs is an excellent idea.  I wonder if there is a super heavy duty OCR program out there that would read scanned handwritten text (cursive and block) as well as printed text and give you a plain text file you could clean up with an editor.  That would make life easier for the owner, the A&P and a future buyer.

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29 minutes ago, whiskytango said:

Having a searchable version of your logs is an excellent idea.  I wonder if there is a super heavy duty OCR program out there that would read scanned handwritten text (cursive and block) as well as printed text and give you a plain text file you could clean up with an editor.  That would make life easier for the owner, the A&P and a future buyer.

Depending on how many logbooks you have (and how fast you type) it really didn’t take all that long. I just got lazy and haven’t done the last few years, my IA was a happy camper when I gave him a printed copy on my first annual, once complete the originals got new stickies. 

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On 10/27/2020 at 4:46 PM, Bayern Speed said:

Many older log books have cursive in them. The A/P school I attended 30 plus years ago impressed upon all us hopeful AMTs that block printing was the ONLY way to make a legible log entry. 

The first log for my aircraft is cursive and in Spanish. Try read that!

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2 hours ago, RLCarter said:

Cambia accite - Change oil
   “ filtro accite- Change oil Filter
Limpieza de Bujia - Clean spark plugs 
  “ filtro aire- clean air filter
:)

You missed the last line, all of whose letters I can't quite make out . . . . Loudto motor?

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Washed motor. "Lavado motor." "Oil" is "aceite" not "accite" but whose counting?

They must have a 50 hour inspection in the Dominican Republic. Yes, that is what my first log looks like. El avion estaba in Santo Domingo de 1981 a 1994. Sitting right next to yours. It even has stamps from Carlos Bruno Manuel. 

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5 hours ago, carusoam said:

Timed the motor..?

 

If you look up at "Limpieze" which means "clean" he writes his capital L's as a sort of upside down "t". The same letter appears in "Lavado." Then if you look at cambio in the top line, which is the word for "change", he writes his "a's" as a sort of small delta symbol. That decodes the second and fourth letters. The rest of the word is easy to read. Its "lavado". The word for "timed" (the verb) I am not sure of, but it is not short. "chronometrado" I think.

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