The fleet tech log.
Tech log
From the FlyPack CAMO manual
The record of flights. Each entry adds its block time to the aircraft's airframe hours and its landings to the landing count, which is how the totals advance between corrections.
Tech log in the rail for the whole fleet; Aircraft → Tech log for one aeroplane's entries.
Filing an entry
Record flight on an aircraft's Tech log tab takes you to the fleet tech log rather than opening a dialog on the tab. Filing an entry needs the aircraft's live counters and the preview of what the entry will do to them, and a second implementation of the one write that must not go wrong is worse than a screen change.
The form asks for:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Aircraft | Chosen per entry — two aeroplanes in one fleet are easy to confuse, and this is the commonest cause of hours landing on the wrong record |
| Date | The day it flew |
| From / To | Departure and arrival aerodromes |
| Off blocks / On blocks | The times. Block time is computed from them, and recomputed whenever either changes |
| Block time (hours) | Chocks to chocks, one flight. Filled in from the two times above; override it where they were not recorded. Written the way your organisation writes an hour figure — 1.5 or 1:30 — and both forms are accepted whichever is set. See How hours are written |
| Landings | |
| Nature | What the flight was for — training, private, ferry, maintenance check |
| Fuel (L) and Oil (L) | Uplifts. The oil figure is what feeds fleet oil consumption in Reliability |
Underneath, a defect can be raised against the same flight, without leaving the form: What was found, a severity, and — where it is deferrable — a MEL category. The placeholder says what is wanted: describe it as observed, not the suspected cause. See Defects and MEL for what each severity and category then does.
Sign & file entry commits it. The panel shows the consequence before you sign: the block time, the landings, and where the totals will stand afterwards.
"Block time over 24 hours is not a single flight"
Block time is one flight, so the field will not accept more than 24 hours. The refusal almost always means one of two things:
- A typo —
12.5typed as125. - Somebody is trying to enter the aircraft's total hours here. That is the common one. Doing it would not set the total; it would record a flight that never happened, in the permanent record, with somebody's name against it. The totals are corrected on the aircraft instead — see Aircraft records.
Signing, and fixing a mistake
A signed flight is a record, not a draft. It advances the counters, moves every forecast that depends on them, and cannot be quietly edited afterwards.
A mistake is fixed by amending the flight, which keeps the original, records the correction beside it and requires a reason. The audit trail shows both. Nothing in FlyPack CAMO deletes a flight — a log that can be tidied is not evidence of anything. An amended entry is marked superseded rather than removed.
What the tiles say
Entries shown, block time, landings total, hours over the last thirty entries, defects reported, and how many aircraft are grounded.
Why the hours still look wrong after entering flights
Three usual causes, in order of likelihood:
- The starting total was never stated. Flights add to the total; they do not establish it. Set it once on the aircraft.
- Flights are missing. Check the dates on the tech log against the aircraft's as at date.
- The flight was entered against another aircraft. Check the other registrations for an entry that does not belong.
Defects and MEL
From the FlyPack CAMO manual
Defects & MEL in the rail for the fleet; Aircraft → Defects for one aeroplane. A defect can also be raised on a tech log entry, against the flight it was found on.
Raising one
Raise defect asks for:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Aircraft | |
| Severity | See below — this is the field that changes what the rest of the application does |
| ATA chapter | Optional, but it is what recurrence is grouped by |
| Defect | Described as observed, not as the suspected cause |
| Raised by |
Severity
Three, and the words on screen are the definitions:
| Severity | On screen |
|---|---|
| Grounding | "the aircraft does not fly" |
| Deferrable | "may be carried under the MEL" |
| Advisory | "no operational effect" |
Grounding is the one that changes behaviour elsewhere: it stops the aircraft, appears wherever the aircraft is listed in place of what is due next, and any estimate including its rectification marks that line MANDATORY.
A grounding defect cannot be deferred:
"A grounding defect cannot be carried under the MEL. Either it is deferrable or it stops the aircraft."
Deferring
Defer records the deferral against the minimum equipment list:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| MEL reference | |
| Category | The MEL category, which sets how long it may run |
| Operational limitation | What the aircraft may not do while it stands |
The four categories, and what each allows
| Category | Rectification interval |
|---|---|
| A | As stated in the MEL entry — no fixed number of days |
| B | 3 consecutive days |
| C | 10 consecutive days |
| D | 120 consecutive days |
Category A carries no number because the MEL entry itself states the condition. Guessing one here would be inventing a limit.
The interval is counted in whole calendar days, excluding the day it was raised — a category B raised at any hour on the 1st runs to the end of the 4th. The limit is computed at midnight rather than by adding hours to "now", because the alternative turns a ten-day interval into nine days and a few hours.
The same table is used in three places — the tech log when a defect is raised against a flight, this screen when one is deferred on the ground, and the forecast when a deferral runs out — so they cannot disagree.
A deferral is a decision with an expiry, not a way of hiding a defect. Its deadline is forecast like any other due date and goes overdue in the same place. A deferral that runs out becomes a grounding defect by itself, with the limitation "Deferral limit expired — no flight until rectified".
Days left are rounded up, not to nearest. The limit is a calendar date and the obligation runs to the end of it — rounding made a category C defect deferred today read "9 d left" against a limit ten days away, which is the kind of off-by-one somebody plans a flight around.
An expired deferral is still shown as deferred in the table until the forecast next runs, so it is flagged as expired explicitly rather than being allowed to read as in-date.
Withdraw
A defect raised in error is withdrawn with a reason, never deleted. It stays visible in the aircraft's history, marked as cancelled.
Rectifying
A defect put on a work pack is rectified when that item is signed off — you do not close it separately. Signing it marks the defect rectified and records which pack did it.
The same thing going wrong again
The screen groups recent defects by aircraft and ATA chapter and reports repeats. That is the coarsest grouping that still means something: three unrelated radio faults in ninety days is a radio problem, whatever the wording on each entry said. A defect with no ATA chapter is skipped rather than guessed at, which is the reason to fill the field in.