Electronic Logbook?

[scarpozzi]

I misplaced my original logbook (not a whole lot in it, but some flight training), so I started using Google Sheets to backup everything. I've got it on my phone and iPad Mini 6 adjacent to Foreflight.

Sheets is relatively free and you can export it from Google to Excel even if you want to keep a backup of your backup.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I use Google Sheets at a deeply automated level, back it up on paper, oh and let the paper carry the signatures.

With Google Sheets it's on my computer, tablet, and phone just about anywhere I need it to be. Track my medical, billing on plane rentals, hours for everything and types of aircraft. I have automated reports with graphs. Actually contemplated selling it for others to use... Hey, here's a thought, would anyone here pay for a sheets template to input logs and if so, how much?

I have a good idea what you put into it. I was doing stuff like that with Lotus 123 (office accounting) and Paradox (my first eLog) 30 years ago. I even had a flight planner with a national database in QuattroPro.

I figure you might have had a decent shot at selling it about 15 years ago. But now, with most every EFB having logbook features - including digital signatures, plus free full-featured offerings like MFB, I suspect your market would be very limited.

 

[FastEddieB]

I use Google Sheets at a deeply automated level, back it up on paper, oh and let the paper carry the signatures.

With Google Sheets it's on my computer, tablet, and phone just about anywhere I need it to be...

Same concept, but I use Dropbox. Only use paper for endorsements.

Screenshot of mine about 10 years ago:

 

[midlifeflyer]

Same concept, but I use Dropbox. Only use paper for endorsements.

Screenshot of mine about 10 years ago:

As long as we're trading screenshots, these are from the last MSAccess version (the original was in Paradox for DOS) before I moved permanently to MFB. Last entry in it was May, 2010 Most of it doesn't work anymore because code I used is no longer supported. The two I can still get to are the data entry form and the "Standard Logbook" report.

 

[Walboy]

Paper. No benefit to change for me.

 

[Pinecone]

Stipulated it may take a couple clicks more, but in Excel it’s pretty easy to do a sort by any of those criteria and do a quick SUM of the appropriate cells.

Just realize that Excel is not a database, and this is what a database is for.

When you get LOTS of entries, Excel gets unwieldy.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Just realize that Excel is not a database, and this is what a database is for.

When you get LOTS of entries, Excel gets unwieldy.

You are right, but Excel has had a lot of database type capabilities. This was my Excel flight planner back in the day. I had "Performance" lookup tables for the 11 types of airplanes I switched among. The main form pulled the TAS from those. "Fixes" was a lookup table with all the public airports, VORs, NDBs and the user waypoints I created based on radial/distance in the "New WPT tab. Had about 7600 entries last count. I just put in the airports, enroute fixes, altitudes, and forecast winds in the NavLog form. Everything else was calculated. (Not the frequencies in the upper portion).

 

[sarangan]

Who uses one? Anyone use MyFlightBook? Looks like most of them require a subscription, but MFB appears to be free. I want to use a reputable one so I minimize the risk of losing my account if the company goes tits up one day. Opinions?

Also, how do I get instructor signatures into old entries? Just keep the physical logbook handy as verification?

I use an excel spreadsheet. Everything I found online was not to my taste. I can format and print it using standard logbook format on paper as a backup in case google and my home evaporate in a nuclear explosion.

I use a physical logbook to attach endorsement stickers.

 

[Ryan F.]

I use ZuluLog.

Have given thought to transitioning over to FF Logbook... the annual cost of ZuluLog isn't enough to warrant much concern.

Like the product a lot, don't necessarily love it. Went with it prior to the advent of FF Logbook.

Highly recommend any aspiring professional aviator start with an electronic logbook or transition in the early stage of their career. I still recall the daily efforts required in 2015 to place transition 10,000 hours worth of paper entries into ZuluLog... required me to wake up each day, and spend an hour doing logbook entries before breakfast for many months.

 

[Pinecone]

You are right, but Excel has had a lot of database type capabilities. This was my Excel flight planner back in the day. I had "Performance" lookup tables for the 11 types of airplanes I switched among. The main form pulled the TAS from those. "Fixes" was a lookup table with all the public airports, VORs, NDBs and the user waypoints I created based on radial/distance in the "New WPT tab. Had about 7600 entries last count. I just put in the airports, enroute fixes, altitudes, and forecast winds in the NavLog form. Everything else was calculated. (Not the frequencies in the upper portion).

Yes, and the way the MS presents them, there appears to be little difference between using Excel and Access. I used to a teach a one day course on Access at our professional conference. REALLY opened some eyes on using a database for things that are suited to a database.

Using Excel for database applications is like using hammer to drive screws because you have it.

 

[FastEddieB]

As an aside, I used a database program for Macs called Helix to run my gym back in the 1990’s. It had an easy-to-learn graphical interface, and I set up a logbook program in it as well. By 1996 I think it was no longer supported, but for whatever reason it was pretty easy to export the file to Excel.

Like I said, I’ll stipulate that using Excel as a logbook is less elegant than a database, and undoubtedly even less so than a custom built aviation logbook program. Still, I have yet to find a query, such as “hours in type in the last year”, whereby I couldn’t come up with an answer in about a minute.

 

[frfly172]

I use my flight book .com .have been using it for years,if you give a donation they offer some benefits.

 

[Pinecone]

As an aside, I used a database program for Macs called Helix to run my gym back in the 1990’s. It had an easy-to-learn graphical interface, and I set up a logbook program in it as well. By 1996 I think it was no longer supported, but for whatever reason it was pretty easy to export the file to Excel.

Like I said, I’ll stipulate that using Excel as a logbook is less elegant than a database, and undoubtedly even less so than a custom built aviation logbook program. Still, I have yet to find a query, such as “hours in type in the last year”, whereby I couldn’t come up with an answer in about a minute.

The big difference is whether a casual user of Excel can do so.

The data is there, it is just how easy to get to.

And relational databases help you minimize data duplication.

 

[EricBe]

Who uses one? Anyone use MyFlightBook? Looks like most of them require a subscription, but MFB appears to be free. I want to use a reputable one so I minimize the risk of losing my account if the company goes tits up one day. Opinions?

Also, how do I get instructor signatures into old entries? Just keep the physical logbook handy as verification?

MyFlightbook is free - and open source - and doesn't try to make money so it can't go under. You could even run your own instance if you were so inclined. It also can back up to a spreadsheet, either on your computer or in the cloud. (Disclaimer - I'm the author).

 

[David Loftus]

Did you transfer your log entries into FF or do you keep an excel copy of the old flights?

I'm thinking of switching to FF from Zulu and am trying to decide how I want to save legacy information.

Zululog exported to csv, which I reformatted for import to FF

 

[RyanShort1]

MyFlightbook is free - and open source - and doesn't try to make money so it can't go under. You could even run your own instance if you were so inclined. It also can back up to a spreadsheet, either on your computer or in the cloud. (Disclaimer - I'm the author).

You have a good product, sir. I just finished entering about 3700 lines and 158 tail numbers in your system.

 

[iamtheari]

MyFlightBook is my choice for logbooks. I started out with a paper logbook, then started entering time in MFB and later transferring it into the paper "official" logbook, and then stopped doing that and just treat MFB as my official logbook.

There are only three reasons to keep anything on paper: (1) Flight instructors who are unwilling to jump through the hoops to be able to endorse your electronic logbook. (2) Examiners who feel the need to thumb through a paper logbook. (3) Your descendants might enjoy thumbing through your paper logbook.

Of those, only #3 is a long-term question. I read through my dad's logbook and I keep it in a safe place. His handwritten notes include things I don't log at all, like the time he took my sister for a short flight and then taught her to ride a bike on the airport ramp. I think it's easier to share a more vivid story with future generations when it's written freeform, by hand, rather than filling in boxes in a database.

But the other concerns are short-term if they're not already obsolete. Flight instructors insisting on paper sectionals are rare and those insisting on paper approach plates are probably completely out of the picture. Examiners insisting on paper charts are probably going away even faster than that breed of instructors are. There's no reason to think they won't follow suit with digital logbooks, leaving paper logbooks in the dustbin of history.

 

[Gilbert Buettner]

I fly a lot of different airplanes, so MyFlightBook makes logging easy, as well as updating hours for insurance company pilot history. But I also use a traditional logbook. I am well into my fifth large format logbook, plus the computer printout of my Air Force hours. That one has a column you never see in the logbooks we all use: "Combat hours." My total in that column is 303.6 hours. My first civilian instructor was impressed.

 

[iamtheari]

I fly a lot of different airplanes, so MyFlightBook makes logging easy, as well as updating hours for insurance company pilot history. But I also use a traditional logbook. I am well into my fifth large format logbook, plus the computer printout of my Air Force hours. That one has a column you never see in the logbooks we all use: "Combat hours." My total in that column is 303.6 hours. My first civilian instructor was impressed.

I don't think that one is addressed in our official Logging PIC thread. What are the requirements to log combat flight time? Incidentally, MyFlightBook has a column for combat time.

 

[Gilbert Buettner]

I don't think that one is addressed in our official Logging PIC thread. What are the requirements to log combat flight time? Incidentally, MyFlightBook has a column for combat time.

The requirement was flying a mission in a combat zone. I flew 70 combat missions in Vietnam. A mission, for my crew, would typically include five to seven sorties in a day.

I started using MyFlightBook about 12 years ago or so, but I did not transfer any of my previous hours. Not anticipating adding any more combat hours.

 

[midlifeflyer]

There are only three reasons to keep anything on paper: (1) Flight instructors who are unwilling to jump through the hoops to be able to endorse your electronic logbook. (2) Examiners who feel the need to thumb through a paper logbook. (3) Your descendants might enjoy thumbing through your paper logbook.

***

But the other concerns are short-term if they're not already obsolete. Flight instructors insisting on paper sectionals are rare and those insisting on paper approach plates are probably completely out of the picture. Examiners insisting on paper charts are probably going away even faster than that breed of instructors are. There's no reason to think they won't follow suit with digital logbooks, leaving paper logbooks in the dustbin of history.

I had someone go to a private checkride yesterday. Not a piece of paper in sight (well, I think the pilot has a paper notepad). Logbook, endorsements, charts. All digital. And before anyone thinks the DPE must be new, the DPE has been one for more than 25 years.

One of our DPEs can tell us, but I suspect the word is out that digital logs are A-OK.

 

[RyanB]

When I was tallying up my paper logbook for the 8710, I realized just how nice an electronic logbook is…

 

[Gilbert Buettner]

I had someone go to a private checkride yesterday. Not a piece of paper in sight (well, I think the pilot has a paper notepad). Logbook, endorsements, charts. All digital. And before anyone thinks the DPE must be new, the DPE has been one for more than 25 years.

One of our DPEs can tell us, but I suspect the word is out that digital logs are A-OK.

About two years ago, we had a DPE refuse to accept a cross-country plan on ForeFlight. He made the applicant redo the plan on paper. He said he was supposed to evaluate the applicant's ability to plan a flight and that ForeFlight just showed the applicant could put numbers in a computer.

We never used that DPE again.

 

[midlifeflyer]

About two years ago, we had a DPE refuse to accept a cross-country plan on ForeFlight. He made the applicant redo the plan on paper. He said he was supposed to evaluate the applicant's ability to plan a flight and that ForeFlight just showed the applicant could put numbers in a computer.

We never used that DPE again.

I took my instrument checkride in 1992. DUAT was still fairly new (and I was probably using a 9600 baud dial-up modem ). I did my flight plan on it and came in with the dot matrix printout. Didn't take more than a few good questions for my DPE to determine whether I understood the flight planning process.

If a private applicant does direct with no intervening waypoints to track position from the air, I can see a problem. But if the applicant is selecting checkpoints, etc, all Foreflight is doing is calculations - acting as a plotter and E6B. Sounds like the DPE had some creative weaknesses if "do it over" was the only option they could think of.