ink argument

[cyyz]

I've seen journey logs in black and blue, don't think it matters.

It doesn't. Don't think(pretty sure, unless you're Cat or Hedley) you'll get ramped and get your OC pulled for having it in multi colours...

But some people, are, well, anal.

[oldtimer]

As I, and others have indicated, for the most part it does not matter shit what colour ink is used in log books as long as it is permanent. If someone got violated for using pencil TC must have thought it was because the culprit was altering the books. The same for some legal documents where a blue pen is required to differentiate between an original and a copy.
Anal retentives can always come up with all sorts of conspiracy theroies or plots. If you write in a legal document in red ink, someone will claim it is written in the blood of some poor helpless sap that just wanted to go to the store to buy some milk and was attacked by vampires. If it is written in green, it is a secret signal to Al Quida to begin attacks on America. If it is written with a blue rollerball, someone has developed a paper that will react with the special ink and when you come to work Monday morning, the ventilation system is contaminated with anthrax virus and girls will be turned into boys with overgrown chin whiskers and their boobs will shrink to an A cup. All very nast stuff. Better be safe and not sign anything at all. Let the government create a new department to run tests on the ink and paper to see if it is safe to use. Sort of like the gun registry department. That is my humble opinion anyways.
Cheers and don't chew on you pen, you may have a violent sex change or something.

[taff]

When doing my apprenticeship, I was told to use only black ink when signing all aircraft documents. The reason being, that black ink is the only colour ink that doesn't run when immersed in water (unlike blue). Therefore, black ink is the only ink that can be classed as permanent. We did a little experiment and proved this to be so. So to comply with the Car's the ink must be black on all aircraft documents.

[Heliian]

So to comply with the Car's the ink must be black on all aircraft documents.

That is not correct.

The marks have to be permanent. The colour is irrelevant. It's essentially folk lore at this point. I stick to blue or black, whatever is handy. Eraseable pens, even black, are not allowed. I saw an inspector rub a page with an eraser just to make sure, everything was on paper back then though.

[helicopterray]

Before CARS, we had the Air Nav Orders and the Air Regulations Manual. The Air Regs used to state the use of black or blue pens only.
This was deleted with the introduction of CARS.

[co-joe]

I had the same gentle argument with one TC inspector in mid 90's.
It was up to us but he recommended to fill the aircraf's logbook with "blue" ink.
And when I asked why, his only answer was:

"You can see the difference between entries and black lines of the logbook"

I guess he was reffering the possiblility of having someone writting too wide and overlapping lines.

You laugh but as someone who frequently does paperwork while flying I sometimes find it difficult to stay within the lines perfectly. And I do find that since the lines are black, blue ink is easier to read.

[tohellnback]

i did a entry in red once and QA came down on me like a ton of bricks
i responded to him and said it was the only pen i could find after a 16 hour shift fixing a airplane that was dispatched at 6 am
and the worse thing about it was someone switched the black pen to to a red insert
nowa days i have a red outer pen with a black insert it keeps assholes from stealing my pens

[FADEC]

Back in the 1970's, a certain large Canadian airline had a Captain who was "interesting".

He would only sign the Logbook and Flight Plan after flights, and only in Pencil.

I personally witnessed this (and other) quirks.

One theory was that he was deathly afraid of flying and making errors, and thought that in the event of an investigation, he could erase the signatures and claim he was not on that aeroplane!

Said company had to alter the relevant operations manual to specify that Flight Plans and Logbooks had to be signed prior to the flight and in Pen!

At that time and at that airline, the only acceptable colour of ink was Black; for reasons of photocopying clarity.

[Addicted4life]

My understanding is that in Canada black ink is preferred but not dictated by CARS. The FAA on the other hand is completely different. The FARs actually states BLACK ink and a specific date sequence (been a while I don't remember the sequence). If you do not do it as per the FARs you get your paperwork returned as invalid. They might have changed the FARs since I did my A&P exams but I doubt it.

[Sidebar]

Wow! How did this get dredged up? All the things in aviation to be concerned about and people are wondering about the colour of ink in a logbook?

I examine all kinds of logbooks as part of my job, and I appreciate the "clear and legible" guidance. I can't recall ever even thinking about what colour the ink was.

When I make copies of the logbooks, the colour copier reproduces everything, red stamps, even yellow and pink stickies.

[B208]

Black Pens Matter.

[lownslow]

The FARs actually states...a specific date sequence (been a while I don't remember the sequence).

Probably YYYY/MM/DD, the ICAO standard. Actually now that I think about it the FAA probably does anything BUT that, decades after insisting ICAO standardize to what they use now.

Wow! How did this get dredged up? All the things in aviation to be concerned about and people are wondering about the colour of ink in a logbook?

This is a good sign. Aviation has become easy and routine to the point where we need to find subjects like these to satisfy the traditional bitchy nature of the average pilot. Gotta be unhappy about something, right?

Black Pens Matter.

I had to read that one twice. It's way past my coffee time.

[NotDirty!]

Black Pens Matter.

I had to read that one twice. It's way past my coffee time.

I believe the better response is:
The Black Pen is Mightier!

So who searches through 11-year-old threads to make these arguments?

[confusedalot]

From 1976 to 1995, I used blue. Then I got an expat job. Then I was told that black was some sort of international standard!

It was not worth getting into a pissing contest. So I have used black ever since.

Then, I was asked why I used black....

Do what the big boss tells you to do and yer cool....

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.