It happens every year. A few weeks out from your annual inspection, you start mentally running through everything your A&P is going to ask for. ADs — when was the last compliance entry? That STC you had installed two years ago, where's the paperwork? You know you wrote down that squawk about the fuel cap somewhere.
For most aircraft owners, annual prep means digging through a logbook binder, hunting for loose paperwork, and hoping nothing important got lost in the shuffle.
It doesn't have to be that way.
If you've been keeping your records in Aircraft Logs, you're already ready. Here's what annual prep looks like when your records are organized in one place.
Print Your AD Compliance Report
Your IA is going to go through every applicable Airworthiness Directive for your airframe, engine, and avionics. The faster they can verify compliance, the less time you're paying for.
Aircraft Logs tracks your AD compliance entries alongside your logbook. Before your annual, pull up your aircraft and print your AD summary — last compliance date, times, and notes for every applicable directive. Hand it to your IA on day one.
No hunting. No cross-referencing a paper logbook against an FAA database. It's already done.
Your Squawks Are Already Written Down
Every time something felt off — the door seal, the landing light, the fuel cap — you logged it. Your squawk list in Aircraft Logs is a running record of everything that's been nagging at you since the last annual.
Print it out and bring it to the shop. Your mechanic sees the full picture from the start, not just what you can remember off the top of your head on the morning of drop-off.
Store Your STC and Manufacturer Documents
STCs come with their own maintenance requirements. So do avionics, engine modifications, and prop overhauls. That paperwork needs to be accessible — not buried in a filing cabinet at home.
Aircraft Logs gives you a place to store STC approvals, manufacturer maintenance manuals, 337s, and any other documents that belong with your aircraft record. When your IA asks for the STC data sheet on your WAAS upgrade, you pull it up on your phone and send it over. Done.
Know What's Coming Due
End-of-life items have a way of sneaking up on you. ELT battery, transponder inspection, pitot-static check, vacuum pump TBO — if you're tracking these in Aircraft Logs, you'll see what's approaching before your IA tells you about it.
Better yet, you can order parts in advance. Nothing adds cost to an annual like waiting three days for a part while the plane sits in the hangar.
Walk In Confident
The aircraft owners who have the smoothest annuals aren't the ones who scramble the hardest the week before. They're the ones who've kept their records current all year.
Aircraft Logs is built for exactly this — a single place for your logbook entries, AD compliance, squawks, documents, and time-limited items. So when your annual rolls around, prep is a print job, not a project.
Once you're in the shop, make sure the logbook entry your IA writes is complete and correct. Here's what a proper annual inspection logbook entry should actually say.