Photo Documentation Of Maintenance

jnmeade

jnmeade

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Jim Meade
I'm going to be doing some extensive maintenance on my airplane this summer and would like to do use a lot of photos to help me be sure I remember where everything goes.

My question is if there is any app or program or protocol or procedure that is useful for photo documentation? A good way to number or mark them? A good way to create file folders or other ways to organize them? Any way to annotate them or put in quick notes to explain a photo?

Any tablets/devices that work well? I have a Surface Pro, a Go)ro, a digital camera (old) and a smartphone. I can get something else if it is really good.

The photos will need to be readily available for reference. I don't want to print them if I can help it.

And, I don't want it to be harder than the work I'm doing. I can always make written notes if the photo approach is not worth it.
 
masking tape, sharpie (labels) and bags or bins

Photos are a good idea but don't get too fanatical. Label everything before you take it apart, snap a pic or two and then take the stuff apart.

I only use photos as a last resort. Like after everything is back together and I have a bag of leftover parts :goofy:
 
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Start with the service manual.

Find nomenclature including exploded drawings. Everything is on the innerwebz.

The above two will allow you to know what's important from which you can deduce best camera angle. Study those reference materials BEFORE you do any work.

Zooming in for detailed close-ups is good but do NOT ignore zooming out to get the whole thing in one pic.

Time stamp or other means to identify each photograph. Keep a written log which coordinates with each pic. The best way to organize is to keep pics, logs, notes in one place. Dedication to organization is important but KISS.

It sounds like you are creating a documentation project which in size may compete with the actual mx.

Oh yeah, I've rebuilt about 7 auto engines and who knows how many small gas engines. Each time I've had 'left over' parts. With the larger engines it was a bucket o' bolts. Kid you not.
 
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I appreciate the good suggestions on organizing and will use them. Again, any hints on how to use organize or structure the photos themselves? That's the part I'm most uncertain of. TIA
 
Look for apps that do home inventories of your personal possessions for insurance purposes.
 
The biggest problem with organization is you end up spending more time trying to organize stuff than you do getting stuff done. It's kind of a chase your tail kind of thing. See, right now you are sitting at the computer looking for apps when you could be doing the maintenance :rolleyes:

The best tip I can give you is that, whenever possible, put the bolts, nuts, washers, spacers and whatnot back onto the assembly finger-tight where they came off rather than tossing them all into a box.

As far as taking digital pictures goes, they can help but just take a bunch from various angles at various stages and don't bother indexing or categorizing them because when you need to use them you aren't going to look them up from an index you are just going to very quickly click through them until you find one that shows what you are looking for. Just having them in a single directory and viewing the large thumbnails will help you zero in on what you're looking for.
 
One way to organize photos is to use "keywords".

As you download the photos, take a moment to assign keywords. "Wheels", "Brakes", "Fuel Injection" - something like that. You can assign multiple keywords to the some photo.

If you end up with thousands of photo, being able to see all the one relating to "Wheels" with one click can save a lot of time.

I use iPhoto on a Mac to do this. I'm sure there are Windows programs which do the same thing. Or, it can be as simple as giving the photos distinctive names and searching for them that way.
 
Depending what you're doing, ziplock bags with descriptions for the small parts, and put a number on each bag in the order they came off. Then stack them in a bin for each area you're working on. That way when it goes back together you have a numerical countdown so you don't miss a step. I did this when I rebuilt a car and it worked great, a big storage tote for whatever I was working on (say, all the guts out of a door for example), then baggies with a short description and a number on them.
 
I saw a demo of Google Glass today. I'm definitely interested.
 
Take lots of pictures and LOTS of notes. Label everything. I'm still chasing down things I thought I'd obviously remember and don't.....
Photos of wiring is very useful. Don't worry about organization, just have the shots if you need them. You'll find them easy enough for the few you actually need.
During my overhaul the best thing was to package everything in simple bags or refer containers and label them.
Good luck.
 
In A&P school, we were penalized if we spent time running nuts back on studs to remember where they came from. According to the instructor it was too much handling, not cost effective, not how a pro does it.

At the wings of man I learned to use fabric draw-string parts bags. Pull a panel, put all the hardware in a bag and thread the drawstring through a fastener hole and pass the bag through the loop, then stack the panel on the rack for that airplane. That's pretty much how I roll now. It works great for me.
 
kontiki said:
In A&P school, we were penalized if we spent time running nuts back on studs to remember where they came from. According to the instructor it was too much handling, not cost effective, not how a pro does it.

At the wings of man I learned to use fabric draw-string parts bags. Pull a panel, put all the hardware in a bag and thread the drawstring through a fastener hole and pass the bag through the loop, then stack the panel on the rack for that airplane. That's pretty much how I roll now. It works great for me.
Click to expand...


As an addendum to above, if installing something with a lot of blind fasteners of different length, get cardboard and make a full size sketch of installation so you can punch removed fasteners through in relative locations.

This is how sane people install airliner windshields.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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