#LOST PILOT LOGBOOK MANUAL#
#LOST PILOT LOGBOOK LICENSE#

#LOST PILOT LOGBOOK LICENSE#

Specifically, FAR 43.3 is what gives you - as an aircraft owner who holds a pilotвЂ™s certificate but not an A&P license - the authority to do preventive maintenance on your aircraft without any requirement for an A&P to be looking over your shoulder or signing off your work.

43.12 - Falsification of maintenance records.

43.11 - Maintenance records (inspections).

43.7 - Persons authorized to return to service.

43.5 - Return to service after maintenance.

43.3 - Persons authorized to do maintenance.

But since you, as an aircraft owner, are held responsible for the adequacy of your aircraftвЂ™s maintenance records, this is really stuff you should know. Those regulations appear in FAR Part 43, a portion of the regs you may not have studied unless youвЂ™re a mechanic. Was that legal? Hmmm.While the FARs place sole responsibility for maintenance recordkeeping on the aircraft owner, they simultaneously place responsibility for recording and signing off maintenance work on whomever actually does the work - generally (but not always) an A&P mechanic.

#LOST PILOT LOGBOOK MANUAL#

In particular, any installation that requires a Form 337 and an approved Airplane Flight Manual Supplement (such as a horsepower increase, STOL kit, vortex generators, or even an approach-certified GPS) probably meets the requirements of this reg.When I had an approach-certified GPS installed in my T310R, the avionics technician who did the installation came along with me on the test flight. For example, FAR 91.407 requires that the initial flight after any installation that вЂњmay have appreciably changed its flight characteristics or substantially affected its operation in flightвЂќ must be a вЂњmaintenance test flightвЂќ during which no non-crewmember passengers may be carried, and must be logged as such. Another huge no-no is carrying the maintenance records in the aircraft - donвЂ™t ever do that.Some of these regs contain hidden вЂњgotchasвЂќ that every owner should know about. How ya gonna do that without looking at the logbooks? In my seminars I strongly recommend that owners always keep their aircraft maintenance records in their personal possession (preferably in a fireproof lockbox), and never keep them on file at their maintenance shop (as so many owners do). вЂњ(a) No person may operate any aircraft that has undergone maintenance вЂ¦ unless вЂ¦ (2) the maintenance record entry required by 43.9 or 43.11, as applicable, of this chapter has been made.вЂќ

вЂњEach owner or operator of an aircraft вЂ¦ (b) shall ensure that maintenance personnel make appropriate entries in the aircraft maintenance records indicating that the aircraft has been approved for return to service.вЂќ Owners who never look at their maintenance logs may not be in compliance with the FARs.

91.421 - Rebuilt engine maintenance records.

91.419 - Transfer of maintenance records.

91.411 - Biennial altimeter/Mode C certs.

If youвЂ™re not entirely clear on this concept, you should haul out your FAR book (or click here) and brush up on the following regs: The FARs, however, are very clear in placing primary responsibility for both maintenance and recordkeeping squarely on the shoulders of the aircraft owner, not the mechanic or shop. In fact, many owners leave their maintenance records вЂњon fileвЂќ at the shop and never look at them. Most aircraft owners assume that maintenance records are the responsibility of their A&P or maintenance shop. In this article, IвЂ™ll start by discussing what the FAA says our maintenance records must contain, and then offer some personal observations about what I think they should contain. As conscientious aircraft owners, I believe we can and should be doing more than the bare-bones minimum required by the FARs. But they also leave quite a bit to the judgment of the folks doing the recordkeeping (the aircraft owner and his mechanic). In fact, there are more than a dozen separate FARs that define what records must be kept, for how long, and by whom.These regs define the minimum records that we as aircraft owners must keep. They also play a crucial role when we want to sell our aircraft or buy another - if you doubt this, just try selling an aircraft whose logbooks have been lost.The FAA requires us to keep maintenance records for our aircraft. TheyвЂ™re vital to our ability to maintain our aircraft properly. TheyвЂ™re a fundamentally important responsibility of aircraft ownership.

Any aircraft owner who has gone through the process of getting an IFR-approach-certified GPS installation approved knows that it sometimes it seems excessive and burdensome.But the maintenance records for our aircraft - what most of us call aircraft and engine logbooks - are different. We in aviation are always complaining about the amount of paperwork that the FAA, in its infinite wisdom, makes us do. No aircraft is considered airworthy by the FAA until the weight of its paperwork exceeds its maximum certificated takeoff weight (or so goes the old joke).