The Data Format.
One of the most important things about your master log is data consistency. That is the way that the data is recorded by you, so being consistent is important. You can enter the data any way that you want, but when it comes to looking for something later on. Well if you havent been consistent, you will find things awkward even difficult which can tead to lost time and frustration.
You can for example input the registration a number of ways, depending on the country for example. The registration G-ZEAB could be input with or without the hyphen, or you could use EGPK in place of Prestwick. Or you could enter the ICAO code for the Model, where you want. All I would say is pick a method and remain true to it, don’t worry too much at this point – I will show you how to quickly correct errors in one of the future posts.
Excel and its limitations.
While Excel is a great tool for creating a master log, it does have limitations. It is highly unlikely that you would reach the data limits, with over One Million rows and over Sixteen Thousand rows you can store Seventeen Billion pieces of information. My data set exceeded the row count, just because of the data that I collect – as an example a change of ownership would generate a new row. The last time I actually checked the data set, the United States Data was nearly One and a Half Million rows.
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Post Author – Dave Munro