Personal Flight Tracking

[onezuludelta]

Since my checkride, I feel like I want to memorialize every flight I take as a private pilot. (Yes, I'm still very, very excited). Inspired by the little maps some people have in their PoA sigs, showing what states they've flown to, I wondered if anyone has tracked it with more detail, and how. Does anyone keep track of all the airports they've been to, and mapped it out somehow? If so, how did you do it?

I figure there's probably 3 levels of detail I could go into:

1) A map simply marking every airport I've flown to. This would be easy, like a custom Google Map.
2) A map showing a straight-line flight path (not the actual path) for every airport-to-airport flight I take.
3) Layering every actual precise flight track I've flown onto a map (using Foreflight's Track Log feature, or the track log on my Dual GPS).

Does anyone else do this? What do you use?

 

[deyoung]

It's all in my log book (and I keep an electronic version of my log book, so exporting it into some kind of parseable list would be fairly straightforward) but I haven't tried to do any visualization type things with it.

Mapping out the precise track (help from FlightAware?) seems like the most interesting, albeit also the most work. Mapping it into a 3D visualization that you could pan around in 3 dimensions would be quite cool, and a lot of work I'm sure.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I save the GPX files from whatever GPS I'm using...Garmin III, then Garmin V, now a Bad Elf. I can view individual tracks, but I don't have a way to load many tracks.

 

[Hank S]

I've seen a way to track all the flights. But don't remember where . . . A map thing with lots of thin red lines. Seems it was for sale somewhere, maybe Sportys?

I just keep the state map but haven't added it here. Being a spreadsheet addict, I keep a list of every airport I've been to, along with date of first visit, city & state, runway length and anything else relevant. Pushing 100 now. Then there's the page for every plane I've flown, every state visited (with columns for work, family, pleasure, driving, piloting, airlines, etc), countries visited, etc.

This spreadsheet continues to grow and morph over time, and is a much more comprehensive record than my logbook. And it's more fun, too!

 

[iamtheari]

ForeFlight can save KML files of your 3D track log. Google Earth can open and display them. That’s probably the path of least resistance.

 

[Lindberg]

If you log your flights with MyFlightbook, it will give you a map of all the airports you've visited.

 

[Jim_R]

+1 for MyFlightbook. It also records your flight track if you use it on a device with built-in GPS, like your phone.

 

[exncsurfer]

If you use android your phone may be recording your paths already, If you click on google maps, then click on 'your timeline', I stumbled on this one day and initially thought yikes, then, thats pretty cool, i left it on. It even detects when I'm flying vs. driving, here is a recent one(that I didn't even record intentionally and hadn't seen before I read this thread):

It attaches any pictures you take to this timeline/trip as well. Pretty neat if you're not paranoid of big brother.

(FYI, I was dodging clouds! I don't fly that bad!)

another flight I found in there and some photos that popped up with it:

 

[bluesideup]

For around $50-70.00 you can get and Android tablet and use the free Avare app., Track On/Off.
It generates a .kml file that can be viewed on Google Earth, and in Windows OS using Free trackmaker app .
Very useful if you have students also, to view and analyze their flights.

Since my checkride, I feel like I want to memorialize every flight I take as a private pilot.
If so, how did you do it?
Does anyone else do this? What do you use?

 

[JustinD]

If you don't keep an electronic logbook you should! Most will do such things for you.

On mine I can go in and basically click make a map and it will show me a google earth image of either all the airports I've flown too, or a google earth image with lines connecting the airports of each flight in my logbook

 

[alanbreck]

Non-electronic method ....

I decided I liked the of documenting my GA flying adventures via a large map-bulletin board and push pins. And I wanted to frame it to hang in my office or the hangar. But then I discovered that large frames cost a fortune, and cork board (in large sizes/quantities) is expensive too. So I decided to go the cheap route ….

Large map = $15
Polystyrene Foam Board Insulation = $12
Wood for frame (fence slats): $10
Screws, hanging hardware, glue, wood stain, paint brush, push pins, string …. Already had all this lying about.

Less than $40 sure beats the hundreds of $$$ it would have cost me for a purchased frame and lots of cork board.

 

[Lindberg]

Non-electronic method ....

I decided I liked the of documenting my GA flying adventures via a large map-bulletin board and push pins. And I wanted to frame it to hang in my office or the hangar. But then I discovered that large frames cost a fortune, and cork board (in large sizes/quantities) is expensive too. So I decided to go the cheap route ….

Large map = $15
Polystyrene Foam Board Insulation = $12
Wood for frame (fence slats): $10
Screws, hanging hardware, glue, wood stain, paint brush, push pins, string …. Already had all this lying about.

Less than $40 sure beats the hundreds of $$$ it would have cost me for a purchased frame and lots of cork board.

That is very cool.

 

[onezuludelta]

If you log your flights with MyFlightbook, it will give you a map of all the airports you've visited.

I do, and I never knew that! Thanks!