Build logs

[Guest Redair]

Greetings each, just a quick question or two, to see if anyone has used one of these fancy CD Rom build-log programs, and if so, was it worth the money? Were there any problems with using it? Any advice gratefully received.

 

Regards, Redair.

 

 

[Seal]

Hi Redair,

 

I have just begun my build and I'm not using a commercial build log program. I had a look and couldn't see the value for me. My thinking process was roughly as follows;

 

Why do I want to keep a build log? The answers were basically:

 

1. For interest. To keep track of how much time and money I spend

 

2. To have a record to show that I have actually done the work

 

3. Because the powers that be say I have to, which is much the same as 2.

 

Next question. What do I need to do this? Answer, not much really.

 

I chose to use a simple spreadsheet with four columns; date, aircraft system, description of task, time spent. The "aircraft system" column is so I can classify work by airframe, engine, electrical etc. Not necessary but it keeps me happy. I have another page to record expenditure with date, description and amount. A third page is a summary of hours and dollars. Using a few simple spreadsheet functions this keeps running time and money totals, broken down by system if that is your bag.

 

The other part of my record keeping is digital photos kept in a directory for the project. These can be related to the work diary via date. A refinement would be to put links to the photos in the spreadsheet but that's bells and whistles rather than basic functionality.

 

Cost of all that? Fifteen minutes setup and zero dollars. I'm using the Open Office spreadsheet so its really zero dollars. If you have another spreadsheet then that probably cost money but the marginal cost is still zero.

 

Some of the commercial products provide a path to web publish your build log. I believe there is additional cost for this but it might be a simple solution if you want to publicise your trials and tribulations ;). Me, I'm putting mine in a blog on this site and that's not much more than cut and paste for text and adding some of the pictures I have already taken. Pretty simple really and actually helps enforce a bit of discipline in writing up the log and organising the pictures.

 

Cheers, Selwyn

 

 

[Flash]

Large day-to-page diary is working for us