The Airline Crew Organizer came about because, as an airline pilot, I could not find a log book which served my needs to be able to maintain a record of my time, keep track of crew names and irregular events, and organize my monthly schedule with a preprinted calendar. The traditional pilot log books had too many extraneous columns and lacked any sort of calendar. The small red log books required writing in tiny boxes and having to create my own calendars each month. I decided to embark on a mission to create something better - for my own use.

I created a prototype of what I thought would work for me and showed it to other pilots as well as some flight attendants for their comments. It soon became apparent that I wasn't the only one looking for something better. I continued to refine the "organizer" with input from many who saw the prototypes and gave ideas. It was a steep learning curve. I did not own a computer back in 1988 and I had absolutely no idea how to publish anything nor how to bring any sort of product to market. I haunted the library for resource material on where to find manufacturers of the materials I would need to produce it. I made many phone calls to printers, die cutters, foil stampers, and binders to find out if it was even possible for me to put together such a product and if it could be done at a reasonable price.

As the idea unfolded, it seemed that there was more interest among the flight attendant ranks than among the pilot group for what I envisioned. So, I decided that the "log" pages would be done with lightly shaded columns rather than with distinct columns with labels in order that the pages could also be used as "note" pages. The decision to incorporate plastic sleeves created what has become the most popular feature of the Organizer.

After creating many prototypes and with a great deal of trepidation, we produced the first edition for the calendar year 1989. It was a success from the beginning. We even had to do a second printing to meet demand that first year.