By Jason Gould, founder of BetterPlane
I do an owner-assisted annual on my airplane with an IA. When it’s done, I have new logbook entries, an invoice, and sometimes a work order and a few parts tags and receipts. Every year I wonder how much of it I have to keep. I think the answer is more than the regulations ask for, because some records are hard to track down once they’re gone.
Whoever signs off the work makes the entry, but keeping the records is on us owners. For the curious, that’s FAR 91.417: “each registered owner or operator shall keep the following records…”
What does the reg require?
The reg sorts most records into two groups. Let’s call them work records and status records. Work records are the logbook entries for each job and inspection. You only have to keep them until the work is repeated or superseded, or for a year after it’s done. (The reg leaves out transponder and altimeter tests. AC 43-9D, the FAA’s advisory circular on maintenance records, says to keep those records 24 months or until the test is repeated.)
Status records track where the airplane stands. They cover total time in service, life-limited parts, time since any required overhaul, inspection status, and AD status, plus a copy of the Form 337 for each major alteration.
The two often overlap. If an old entry is your only record of an AD, a required overhaul, or a life-limited part, you still have to keep that information. When you sell, FAR 91.419 says both groups go to the buyer.
The reg sets the minimum, but general aviation has settled on a higher standard: keep every entry. My airplane has been flying for more than 70 years, longer than I suspect its designers ever imagined. Its logbooks tell that story, down to how long a magneto or a muffler lasted. An airplane is a big purchase, and buyers want as much of that history as they can get. Any missing logs will raise a buyer’s eyebrow. What ARE you hiding?
Losing records can cost you even if you never sell. AC 43-9D says losing them “can be troublesome, costly, and time consuming.” It adds that rebuilding AD status may take a detailed inspection, and in some cases performing the AD again.
Whoever signs off the work makes the entry, but keeping the records is on us owners.
What should you have now?
Here’s what the annual should leave you with:
- The annual entry (FAR 43.11).
- Entries for the repairs and other work done during the annual (FAR 43.9).
- A record of each AD done during the annual.
- A signed copy of the Form 337 for any major repair or major alteration. For a major repair that follows an FAA-accepted manual, a repair station can give you a signed work order and maintenance release instead.
- Any return-to-service tag or 8130-3 form for a part that was overhauled, repaired, inspected, or tested.
- The invoice and any work order. AC 43-9D counts a work order that an entry refers to as part of the record.
FAR 43.11 says the annual entry shows the type and extent of the inspection, the date and total time, and the inspector’s signature, certificate number, and kind of certificate. The entry also says one of two things. Either the airplane was found airworthy, or it wasn’t approved for return to service and you got a signed and dated discrepancy list. Keep any discrepancy list at least until those items are repaired and the airplane is approved for return to service (FAR 91.417).
If you did some of the maintenance under the IA’s supervision, the FAR 43.9 entry for that work must name you.
The record of an AD done during the annual can be an entry, or a signed AD list that the entry refers to. It shows the AD number, revision date, and method of compliance, and for a recurring AD, the time and date when it’s next due.
FAR 91.405 also makes it the owner’s job to see that the annual’s entries get made. If anything is missing or hard to read, ask about it now, while the annual is fresh.
What’s yours to keep up?
The status records are yours to keep up. AC 43-9D points out that FAR 43.9 doesn’t require mechanics to enter them, though the annual and AD entries cover some of them. The same paragraph says “it is ultimately the responsibility of the owner or operator to verify and validate all maintenance record entries.”
AD status is the big one. Most owners lean on the shop’s AD list, which is fine, but FAR 91.403 still makes the owner primarily responsible for AD compliance. AC 43-9D suggests a format for an AD compliance record, which can be kept separately for the airframe, engine, propeller, and each appliance. For each AD, it also lists the date it was done, the airframe total time then, and who signed it off.
Use that format as a guide when you read any AD list from your shop. Check the list’s date too, since a list prepared in March won’t show an AD issued in June. (The FAA doesn’t schedule ADs around your annual.) Between annuals, new ADs and recurring ADs that come due are yours to catch.
Before the logbooks go back on the shelf, I’d do this:
- Check that everything the annual should leave you with is there.
- Check that the shop’s AD list is from this annual and covers the engine, propeller, and appliances as well as the airframe. If not, ask the shop.
- File the shop’s AD list, the 337s, tags, and other paperwork with the logbooks.
- Scan the new pages, and any older ones you haven’t scanned yet. Keep the scans somewhere a hangar fire can’t reach.
Where should the copies live?
A binder keeps your records together, but it’s one copy in one place. If a second copy of every page already lives away from the hangar, keep using the binder.
BetterPlane is where I keep my second copy. After the annual I scan the new pages with my phone, and BetterPlane turns each entry into searchable data. When the app spots an AD number in an entry, one tap pulls up that AD. I scan each parts tag in as a page attachment on its logbook page, and the 337s, the invoice, and any new manuals into the Documents tab. BetterPlane keeps redundant copies of all of it in the cloud.
I set alerts for everything that comes due. BetterPlane has templates for more than a dozen common items, from the annual and the transponder and pitot-static checks to the ELT battery, oil changes, and mag inspections. I get a text message, an email, and a push notification as each one gets close, and a spreadsheet won’t do that.
I don’t have to hand over the logbooks when my mechanic needs to look something up. They can join my BetterPlane hangar as a member and see the same pages and entries I do, and I can remove that access anytime. If a buyer asks for the history, I can export a logbook as a PDF.
If you want to try BetterPlane, use it for step 4 this week. Take the logbooks off the shelf one evening and add your airplane first. You look it up by its N-number, and setup takes a few minutes. Then scan the pages from your last annual and the oldest handwritten page you can find, and see how BetterPlane reads them.
Start a one-month free trial with a new yearly single-aircraft plan. After that, it’s $119 per year. Download BetterPlane for iOS or Android at betterplane.com/piperowner.
Jason Gould is a private pilot, EAA lifetime member, and caretaker of a 1955 Piper Tri-Pacer. He founded BetterPlane to make aircraft history easier to use and help owners keep important maintenance from being missed.
