As I’ve said before, logging sightings of aircraft is down to personal preferences. There are probably 50 or 60 things that you can log, but in reality only two of those don’t change during the life of an aircraft. The Manufacturer and the Construction Number also sometimes referred to as the MSN (Manufacturers Serial Number), every other aspect of the data you record can change.
In the UK, for the main part these changes are known as a paint scrape – usually signifying a change of ownership and colours. However they can encompass a number of other changes, like register or variant – but the manufacturer and serial don’t normally change. No doubt someone will point out the exceptions to this, there are I’m sure a few of them.
A Little Thought
So some thought at the begining of the process is worth while, there are a number of situations where going back and trying to fix a log that is missing information can be a problem. For instance, there are a number of manufacturers that use a small pool of registrations for delivery or pre-delivery testing purposes. So the underlying aircraft changes, bigger manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing occasionally do this as well – however the data is better recorded and can be easier to find.
There are a number of resources on the web that can assist in tracking this information down, but it can be a time consuming task when you have to go looking for the MSN, especially if it is years later – so this is something to bear in mind.
What do I Log?
I log all the normal stuff, usually adding the MSN to the mix. This usually comprises the date, location, registration, manufacturer, model and operator or owner. It may not be possible to collect all the data at the time, so usually the MSN and possibly the owner or operator are added later. I do have a number of databases that help with this.
A suitable log!
If like me you use a notebook and pen for your logging, then you can pare things down to the bare minimum. At it’s simplest you can simply keep a note of where, when, what and registration or serial – filling the rest in later. If you use some kind of technology, then whatever is your preference is the way to go – it just has to be fit for purpose.