Can you judge a notebook by its cover? Perhaps! I was very excited to get these samples from Halaby Aero. The first time I saw these notebooks at Paper Presentation in NYC, I immediately thought they were cool. I have no day to day use for any of the airplane-related info on the covers, but I’d like to think that someday I will, as I’ve always wanted to learn to fly. I was interested to see on the company’s website that “The inspiration for FLIGHTBOOK comes from the 1956 edition of “The Observer’s Book of Aircraft” – a clear, concise book that was published as international commercial jet travel was developing.” I’ve collected the Observer’s series since I was a kid, and I have a couple of editions of the Aircraft book, if not the exact 1956 one. (The old Observer’s books were small jacketed hardcovers, very similar to the size of pocket notebook I like, and they are full of details and data and cool illustrations and photos on a variety of topics.)

The first notebooks I received were the pocket size staple bound ones. They are similarly sized to Field Notes (shown below next to a pocket Moleskine for comparison.)

The A4 size spiral bound notebook is a new addition to the product line, just introduced in August 2014. It’s a rather flexible and soft notebook, as the covers are made of the same stock as the pocket covers, as far as I can tell. I love the crisp design of the covers, especially the commercial aircraft on the back cover. Inside, the paper has nice sharp blue squares. There is nice attention to detail here, in having the brass staples match the metallic ink. The notebooks are available with red, black, and blue cardboard covers, with silver or gold metallic ink options for each. Same for the large spiral notebook– the spiral matches the silver or gold ink, which is a really nice touch. The printing and lines are all nicely aligned and square.

As for function, these are pretty comparable to any other notebook with graph paper. The are quite similar to Field Notes, with paper that feels great to write on even with very fine point pens. Showthrough is about average. The paper feels a bit thirsty, and bleed-through is slightly worse than average. The paper is 50lb stock according to their website.

A 2-pack of the 52-page 3.5 x 5.5″ notebooks is $10.99. Given that Field Notes are $9.95 for a 3-pack of 48 page notebooks, that is a bit of a price premium, but these are a bit more of a specialized, niche product due to the design. The A4 spiral notebook is $16.99– given that an A4 wire-bound Clairefontaine notebook is $7.50 and an A4 Rhodia wire-bound notebook is $9.00, this pricing does seem pretty high. But again, it’s hard to compare pricing to something produced in massive quantities like Clairefontaine or Rhodia. If you know anyone who is an air travel enthusiast, a Halaby Aero notebook makes a unique gift that is sure to be appreciated.

You can buy directly from Halaby Aero’s online store, or at select retailers. And you can take a shot at winning our giveaway of the large spiral notebook and one small stapled notebook. One random winner will be selected from entries received in the following ways:

On Twitter, tweet something containing “@halabyaero Flightbook @NotebookStories”, and follow @NotebookStories and @halabyaero.

On Facebook, “like” the Notebook Stories page and post something containing the words “Halaby Aero Flightbook” on the Notebook Stories page.

On your blog, post something containing the words “Halaby Aero Flightbook” and “Notebook Stories” and link back to this post.

The deadline for entry is Friday September 5, 2014 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!

And please remember to check my posts on Facebook and Twitter for an announcement of the winner. Please allow a couple of weeks for me to check all the entries and determine the winners.