Serious question, why are we still using the old paper logbooks for everything?

I just finished a heavy check on a 737 at our hangar in Tampa, and the paper trail was a nightmare. We had three separate binders for the same aircraft, one with pages from 1998 that were literally falling apart. I compared that mess to a job I helped with last month where the operator had fully switched to a digital system. The difference was night and day. Finding an AD note took 2 minutes on a tablet instead of 45 minutes of flipping through crumbling paper. One specific example: tracking a repetitive inspection for a flap actuator. On paper, you're hoping someone wrote it in the right column. Digitally, it flags you automatically. The paper system isn't just slow, it's a genuine risk for missing something. Has anyone else's shop made the full switch, and did you run into pushback from the older guys?

2 comments

2 Comments

thea_chen9d ago

Our old foreman still prints his emails to file them.

grace_hunt849d ago

Actually, that's a solid system. Paper doesn't crash or get hacked.