Logbooks for plane based in two places

[DesertNomad]

I live in Reno and keep my Dakota here. We are planning to buy a summer home in Michigan and be there for 4-5 months each year. I'll have a permanent hangar in Nevada and a temporary one in Michigan. I plan to do annuals in Nevada.

What is the best way to handle the logbooks. I don't really want to bring them with me each year, but if I need any maintenance in Michigan, I will not have the logbooks. This is no problem for something small, but looking for advise on how others handle this.

 

[murphey]

I keep all the logbooks onCD/DVD. Takes a bit of time to scan/take a photo with your phone or a scanner, but it's worth it. One set with the paper logbooks is in the safe deposit box, the other set is in the airplane with the W&B and other rqd paperwork. Every shop I deal with is happy to use the CDs and give me a sticker for all the work to put into the physical books. I update the physical books when I get around to it, but meanwhile I have photos of everything. When I finish my taxes, I burn tax details and returns and create a new set of CDs for airplane.

 

[James331]

For one, they should already be backed up into the cloud and your local network.

As for leaving them with a AP, not sure what plane you have, but would you trust enough to take $20,000 out of your saving account, in crisp 100s, put them in a brown bag and leave them in that mechanics shop for a few years?

 

[mtnflyr]

take pictures of your logbook with your phone, upload pictures to your computer from your phone, upload pictures to a email that you send to yourself, access your logbook from anywhere

Or just take pictures with your phone and upload to your cloud. Pretty much every carrier gives you a few gigs which is plenty

 

[flyingron]

I agree. My logbooks live at my house. It's rare that I ever have them out even for the annual. I've been pasting stickers in my books for years.

The only time I physically carried them in the plane was ten years ago when I was doing my instrument rating checkride.

 

[Fearless Tower]

I'd leave the logbooks at home or with your regular A&P/maintenance shop. If you need to have anything done at the summer location they'll print the entries on a sticker that you can place in the actual logbooks when you get back home.

 

[mondtster]

I'm not a huge fan of leaving the logbooks with your primary mechanic, but in this case if you can trust him it might be the most convenient option. That way, if you have major problems while at your summer home you can have him mail or email copies of the important parts of the logs.

But, I think you're overcomplicating this. Why invite trouble? Odds are good that nothing major is going to happen and you won't need access to the books while you're away. If you have work performed, just have the shop doing the work provide a log entry on a sticker or piece of paper and glue it in the logbook when you get back to Nevada.

 

[ZeroPapaGolf]

Leaving your logs with the mechanic is a bad idea. If he loses or damages them, that's a huge impact on your resale value. Just as bad, if you have a disagreement with him he has your logs as ransom.

 

[N747JB]

I'd leave the logbooks at home or with your regular A&P/maintenance shop. If you need to have anything done at the summer location they'll print the entries on a sticker that you can place in the actual logbooks when you get back home.

That's what I've done since the 80's, if I don't trust him to take care of my log books, why am I trusting him with my life? My former shop was the FBO that I am based at now, 25 years, so I wasn't worried about them and my current shop, of 10 years, is a family run operation and we all get along fine.