Five days in a DOM's year. Each one settled by the logbooks.

Monday, October 26, 07:40

Seven days on the due list.

The owner flies out Thursday morning and comes home Monday. The DOM opens the due list and narrows it to the next seven days.

One line is near due: the altimeter, static system and transponder checks, due October 31. There is also one open squawk the crew wrote up Friday: the 2R reading light is out.

Monday, October 26, 07:44

Check the last one.

The line opens the signed entry it was built from, and the page that entry was read from. The last checks were done in October 2024. Twenty-four calendar months runs to the end of October this year.

Due mid-tripMonday, October 26, 07:50

The trip crosses the date.

The airplane leaves Thursday and is due home Monday, November 2. The checks run out on Saturday. After that the airplane cannot fly IFR in controlled airspace until they are done again.

Left alone, the owner is stuck on the West Coast. The work has to happen before Thursday.

Monday, October 26, 08:05

Look further ahead.

The DOM widens the range to 90 days. The fire extinguisher weight check comes due in December. The airplane will be down anyway, so it goes in this package.

Doing it early costs nothing on the due list. The next due moves from the day the work is signed.

Monday, October 26, 08:20

Package the downtime.

The DOM groups the three items into a work plan for the avionics shop on the field, with a downtime window of Tuesday 08:00 to Wednesday 17:00. The reading light goes to the in-house tech.

Tuesday, October 27, 16:20

The cards come back signed.

The in-house tech replaces the lamp and weighs the bottle. The tech records the work on each card and the inspector signs. The avionics shop finishes its checks and its signature goes on the card for the vendor.

The shop still owes its test report. Radar keeps that on the card until it arrives.

Release heldWednesday, October 28, 09:10

The release check finds two holds.

Before the airplane goes back into service, the DOM runs the release check. It holds the release and names the card each problem is on.

Wednesday, October 28, 11:30

Clear the holds and release.

The shop's test report arrives as a PDF and goes on the card. The DOM resolves the squawk against the card that fixed it. The check runs clean.

The DOM signs the release with name, certificate number and the release statement.

Wednesday, October 28, 11:45

The signed work becomes the logbook entry.

Radar writes the logbook entries from the signed cards, one for each shop that did the work. Nobody types the work up a second time for the logbook or a third time for the tracker.

Wednesday, October 28, 11:46

The due list resets.

The checks now run to October 31, 2028. The extinguisher check moves to a year from Tuesday. No squawks are open.

Thursday, October 29, 06:15

Wheels up.

The owner leaves on time and comes home legal. The DOM spent the week on the airplane and very little of it in the binders.

Monday, November 9, 08:00

Nine boxes on the hangar floor.

The company closed on the airplane Friday. The records came with it: nine boxes of binders, and a thumb drive of PDFs the seller's records clerk made years ago.

The DOM needs a due list built from those books before the airplane flies a trip. Nobody on the team has time to rescan anything.

“Never ask for a scan again.”

Ty, Director of Maintenance, Craft

Monday, November 9, 09:30

Upload what is already scanned.

The thumb drive holds the airframe logbooks from 2012 to 2019. The DOM uploads those PDFs as they are. Radar reads them the same way it reads paper.

Monday, November 9, 10:15

Ship the rest.

Everything after 2019, the engine and APU logbooks and the binder of 8130-3 tags were never scanned. The DOM requests prepaid shipping labels in Radar, tapes up the boxes and drops them at FedEx on the way home.

The records are ready in about two weeks.

Monday, November 23

Back to birth.

Radar has read every page, typed and handwritten, from delivery in 2012 to last month. Each entry is data now: the date, work order and repair station, total time and landings, each task, the parts removed and installed by part and serial number, the ADs and SBs, who signed and their certificate number.

Every value opens the spot on the page it came from.

Monday, November 23, 09:00

Build the due list from the books.

The DOM applies the G550 maintenance program. Each task takes its last compliance from the signed entry, with the page behind it. The seller ran Traxxall, so the DOM imports its status report too and runs both side by side.

Records gapMonday, November 23, 09:20

One line has nothing behind it.

One line comes up Not baselined: the overhaul on the left main gear shock strut. There is no signed entry for its last overhaul in the books. The seller's tracker shows a date, with nothing to back it.

The DOM will not fly on a date with no paper behind it.

Monday, November 23, 09:25

Search the serial.

The DOM searches the strut serial number across every entry. Two come back. The second one says where the missing pages live.

Monday, November 23, 10:00

Ask the shop for the work order.

The 8130-3 binder has no tag for S/N B-2217. The entry names the shop and the work order, so the DOM knows exactly what to ask for. One email to the gear shop asks for the work order 20-0457 package: the 8130-3 and the overhaul record.

Thursday, December 3

The pages arrive.

The shop sends the package as a PDF. The DOM uploads it. Radar reads the 8130-3 and links it to S/N B-2217.

The DOM baselines the strut line on the overhaul record: last overhaul March 2020, with the page behind it.

Monday, December 7

One record, from birth.

Every line on the due list has a signed entry behind it. The DOM keeps Traxxall running alongside until the two agree, then switches when ready.

The strut would have come up at the next pre-buy or the next audit. It came up in week three, with a page number and a shop to call.

Friday, November 13, 16:00

The shop calls. It is ready.

The Phenom has been at the service center all week for its phase inspection and two squawks. The service writer says it can go Monday morning.

The DOM has fourteen cards on the work plan. Before anyone signs a return to service, the DOM wants to know the package is complete.

Release heldFriday, November 13, 16:10

Run the release check.

The release check reads every card on the plan. Anything open, unsigned, undocumented or unresolved holds the release and names the card it is on.

Friday, November 13, 16:30

Hold one: the card nobody signed.

Card 7 has the work recorded, and the inspector never signed it. An unsigned card cannot go into the logbook, so it cannot go into a release either. The shop's inspector signs it before leaving for the night.

Friday, November 13, 16:50

Hold two: the 8130-3 still owed.

The shop replaced the left main wheel and signed card 11. The 8130-3 for the wheel is still on the parts clerk's desk. Radar keeps the card on hold until the tag is attached.

Saturday, November 14, 08:30

Hold three: the finding the shop filed.

During the inspection a tech found light corrosion on the LH inboard flap bracket and filed it from card 4. A finding filed from the work holds the release until someone dispositions it.

The DOM adds it to the plan as its own card. The shop removes the corrosion and treats the bracket per the structural repair manual, and the tech and inspector sign the new card. The DOM resolves the finding against it.

Saturday, November 14, 09:50

Close out the squawks.

The door seal and the landing light cards are signed. The DOM resolves each squawk against the card that fixed it. Nothing is left open.

Saturday, November 14, 10:20

Release.

The check runs clean. The DOM signs the release with name, certificate number and the release statement.

Release invalidatedSaturday, November 14, 13:05

A signature comes back out.

After lunch the inspector calls. He signed card 9 for the wrong landing gear position. He revokes the sign-off.

The release does not stand on a card that is no longer signed. Radar invalidates it the moment the sign-off is revoked. The inspector signs the right card and the DOM releases again.

Saturday, November 14, 13:45

The logbook entries.

Radar writes the logbook entries from the signed cards, one for each shop, with each part removed and installed by serial number. It will not print an unsigned card into the logbook.

Monday, November 16, 07:00

It flies Monday.

The phase inspection resets on the due list from the day it was signed. The owner leaves on time, and the logbook already has the entry.

Tuesday, December 8, 08:30

The FSDO calls.

The principal maintenance inspector wants to review the records for N873RD on Thursday. The list: the last required inspection, the open deferred items, the recurring engine AD, who signed the work, and how the records are kept.

The last time, the DOM carried six binders into a conference room and spent the day flipping pages.

Tuesday, December 8, 09:00

Start from the status.

The status report lists every task in the program with its last compliance, its next due and the signed entry behind it. The DOM walks it once before Thursday. Nothing is overdue. One squawk is deferred.

Thursday, December 10, 09:00

Question one: the last inspection.

The inspector asks for the last phase inspection and its return to service. The DOM opens the line. It opens the signed entry and the page it was read from.

Thursday, December 10, 09:15

Question two: what is deferred.

The inspector asks what is open. One squawk: the No. 2 cabin temperature sensor, deferred under the MEL. The deferral carries its MEL basis, its category and its hard limit, so the answer is on the screen.

Thursday, December 10, 09:30

Question three: the recurring AD.

The inspector picks the recurring engine AD and asks for the last three compliances. Every AD in the record opens the signed entry and the page it was read from.

Thursday, December 10, 09:45

Question four: who signed.

Radar reads who signed each entry, with their certificate number and role. The inspector spot-checks three signatures against the certificate numbers on the page.

Thursday, December 10, 10:00

Question five: are these the records?

The inspector asks how the records are kept. The originals are the legal record, and they never left the office. Every answer on the screen points to its page in them.

The operator is working toward OpSpec A025 to keep records and signatures electronically. Radar supplies the manual language and walks the DOM through the application with this FSDO. The OpSpec A025 guide covers what the FAA asks for.

Thursday, December 10, 10:10

One more question.

On the way out the inspector asks when the pitot-static checks were last done. The DOM asks Radar. The answer cites the entry and opens its page.

Thursday, December 10, 10:15

Done by a quarter past ten.

Five questions, each answered from the record with its page. The binders stayed on the shelf.

Monday, January 11, 08:00

The buyer's list.

The Falcon is at the pre-buy shop. The buyer's technical rep sends the records requests: back-to-birth trace on the life-limited parts, the damage history, and AD status.

In the past this list meant shipping the binders to the shop and waiting for questions.

Monday, January 11, 08:30

The life-limited parts.

The due list carries every life-limited part with its limit and what is left, in hours or cycles. The DOM puts the list on screen for the rep.

Monday, January 11, 09:10

Back to birth, one serial.

The rep picks the LH engine HP turbine disk and asks for its trace. The DOM searches its serial number across every logbook. Every entry that names it comes back, each with its page.

Monday, January 11, 09:40

Each line checks against its page.

The rep does not have to take the summary on trust. Each entry opens the page it was read from, and the 8130-3 from the hot section sits with the part it covers. The DOM repeats the search for each part on the rep's list.

Monday, January 11, 13:00

The damage question.

Next the rep asks for any damage or structural repairs. The DOM asks Radar. Two entries come back, each cited to its page.

Repair on recordMonday, January 11, 13:10

Disclose it with the page.

The 2018 flap repair is real damage history, and buyers price it. The DOM raises it first and shows the rep the page.

Tuesday, January 12

The inspector checks it on the airplane.

The pre-buy inspector looks at the flap with the entry in hand. The repair matches the page. It goes in the report as a documented repair, and the buyer's rep has no records questions left.

Wednesday, January 13

AD status, from the record.

The last request is AD status. Every AD in the record opens the signed entry and its page. The DOM answers the list from the record, and nobody asks for a binder.

Friday, January 22

Closing on schedule.

The pre-buy closes with no records exceptions holding the sale. The history of every life-limited part, and the one repair, were on the table from the first day.

“Cradle to grave, in your pocket.”

Ty, Director of Maintenance, Craft