Pilots Logbook in Excel Spread Sheet....I am sharing mine

maduro

maduro

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Maduro
Hey guys,

I thought I'd give an early Christmas present for all you new fliers. Here is an Excel sheet so you can easily calculate your flight hours. It created it after fat fingering on the calculator too many times. It's simple but does the job. It is based on the Jeppeson Logbook. It continually tallies all your hours automatically. There are 20 pages. If you need more, simply copy an entire page and paste below the last and the formulas stay with the new pages.

http://home.earthlink.net/~madur0/logbook/My.Log.Book.Template.xlsx

Maduro
 
Thank you. Someday, take a look at MyFlightBook.com. A free cloud based logbook that runs on the popular mobile platforms and has a feature rich website for review, editing, determining currencies, and more.
 
Thanks Maduro, I second the MyFlightbook.com reference as well. You can download and import flights directly to it. It's also good for auditing how far along you are towards a rating. I used it for a progress check on my instrument rating and am still using it as I get closer to commercial.

I've heard other people use Zulu Log which is a paid service and I think there are a few others.

Appreciate the share though!
 
Why do it this way versus a continuous sheet? Pros/ cons?
 
Jaybird180 said:
Why do it this way versus a continuous sheet? Pros/ cons?
Click to expand...

For me, I sometimes get lazy and don't routinely transfer my hours from my logbook to the spreadsheet. The pages will tell me how many flight I forgot to enter.
 
For me it's the opposite. I usually log them online right after a flight and then spend time at home or during a lunch break at the office copying them from online to the actual logbook heh...unless they are dual which of course get logged right away.
 
I have been using a similar excel logbook since about 1995, also based on the Jeppesen logbook. Looks very similar to yours, except no division of pages. I can see where having your logbook add up the times for each page automatically would be nice. (I highlight the appropriate entries and look at the total it calculates at the bottom of the screen. I do have a "dividing line/border" every 13 entries though, like the logbook pages.)

I still keep that logbook up, in addition to myflightbook.com, and also in addition to a paper log. Yes, I keep three logbooks.

If you do plan to ever upload your logbook to one of the online versions, this can be relatively easily done by saving it as a .csv file. However, I can see a potential problem with your implementation. If you export it as a CSV, it's going to get very confused with your repeated headers, and will not upload cleanly. I learned this the hard way with mine, for example where you have "Aircraft Type" in C5, I had "Aircraft" in C4 and "Type" in C5. This may or may not have been a limitation of Excel back in 1995, I have no idea why I did it that way. But even THAT caused a problem with uploading.

I then went on every couple of years or so to add some new kind of chart or graph or other analysis. All of this is now done routinely by the online logbooks, but it was fun to experiment and I learned a lot more about Excel by doing this. Fun!
 
AggieMike88 said:
Thank you. Someday, take a look at MyFlightBook.com. A free cloud based logbook that runs on the popular mobile platforms and has a feature rich website for review, editing, determining currencies, and more.
Click to expand...

I like it so much I donated money!
 
Caramon13 said:
Thanks Maduro, I second the MyFlightbook.com reference as well. You can download and import flights directly to it. It's also good for auditing how far along you are towards a rating. I used it for a progress check on my instrument rating and am still using it as I get closer to commercial.

I've heard other people use Zulu Log which is a paid service and I think there are a few others.

Appreciate the share though!
Click to expand...
Zululog has a free component as well. I started entering my data then got busy with something else and didn't finish. I've been meaning to come back to it but forget to bring my logbook with me on boring work days (like today).
 
maduro said:
Hey guys,

I thought I'd give an early Christmas present for all you new fliers. Here is an Excel sheet so you can easily calculate your flight hours. It created it after fat fingering on the calculator too many times. It's simple but does the job. It is based on the Jeppeson Logbook. It continually tallies all your hours automatically. There are 20 pages. If you need more, simply copy an entire page and paste below the last and the formulas stay with the new pages.

http://home.earthlink.net/~madur0/logbook/My.Log.Book.Template.xlsx

Maduro
Click to expand...

My paper logbook is a different brand, but I do exactly this, running the paginated spread sheet that is saved in the cloud in parallel with the book. Easy peasy.
 
Nice.


I've been using excel in google docs as my logbook for ages, love it.

Mines somewhat different, I have a different sheet for each month titled as current employer/month/year, makes looking things up easy, also tons of apps which interface and backup local copies from google drive.
 
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Caramon13 said:
I've heard other people use Zulu Log which is a paid service and I think there are a few others.
Click to expand...

ZuluLog has a free version, though I did eventually upgrade to the $9/mo version. Best logbook software out there IMO.

Don't use Excel. You'll regret it in the future. Start using an online hosted service while it's easy.
 
I took a look at ZuluLog. Web version looks nice and has all the features you might want. Better interface and presentation of totals is some of what you get as a pay for tool.

Then I looked at their iPad offering via the Apple App Store. Shows last update was 18 months ago, and only improvement was "Better support for iOS7. Various issue fixes".

Any knowledge that they are continuing to develop/support the app version? I haven't downloaded it yet, so no comments from me on usage.

But still curious to know if the app is considered a current project.
 
AggieMike88 said:
I took a look at ZuluLog. Web version looks nice and has all the features you might want. Better interface and presentation of totals is some of what you get as a pay for tool.

Then I looked at their iPad offering via the Apple App Store. Shows last update was 18 months ago, and only improvement was "Better support for iOS7. Various issue fixes".

Any knowledge that they are continuing to develop/support the app version? I haven't downloaded it yet, so no comments from me on usage.

But still curious to know if the app is considered a current project.
Click to expand...


Mmmm...good point. I had forgotten about the app because I don't use it much.

Frankly, it's terrible. There was one minor update (must be the one you see) but otherwise it's a shadow of the actual web software.

If you absolutely need a mobile app, ZuluLog isn't for you, unfortunately.
 
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The mobile part of MyFlightBook is one of the best selling points. Easy to start it up, and it will detect takeoffs, landings, locations, and even keep track of time for night items. Then when done for that leg, just save the flight and the entry is made to the main database. Later, I'll review the entry via the website and fine tune if needed.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The mobile part of MyFlightBook is one of the best selling points. Easy to start it up, and it will detect takeoffs, landings, locations, and even keep track of time for night items. Then when done for that leg, just save the flight and the entry is made to the main database. Later, I'll review the entry via the website and fine tune if needed.
Click to expand...
And if you log everything correctly, the built in 8710 generator could save you a lot of time later. The training progress pages are also nifty.
 
I have a mantra that I use: "The flight isn't over until the paperwork is done."
 
mkosmo said:
And if you log everything correctly, the built in 8710 generator could save you a lot of time later. The training progress pages are also nifty.
Click to expand...

Correctly being the operative word.

That reminds me, I need to send a request to the dev asking for a preference to round time to tents of an hour, not hundredths.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Why do it this way versus a continuous sheet? Pros/ cons?
Click to expand...

A single sheet becomes rather cumbersome for Excel to load up after a point...I divided mine into 5-year increments (3000-3500 hours or so) to get it to load up in a timely manner.
 
MauleSkinner said:
A single sheet becomes rather cumbersome for Excel to load up after a point...
Click to expand...

Mine, started in 1996 has about 800 entries now and loads in about one second on my Mac Mini.

Here's a screenshot - I also used "Freeze Panes" to keep the headings in view at all times:

23374460685_b14673a8e8_c.jpg


You might notice I have several columns hidden - for the most part those that do not apply to me now as a Sport Pilot.

It's pretty easy to come up with various sub-totals by doing sorts on the relevant field and then totalling the pertinent entries.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Correctly being the operative word.

That reminds me, I need to send a request to the dev asking for a preference to round time to tents of an hour, not hundredths.
Click to expand...
It's already there in settings on the app. I was excited when I found it!
 
I am a happy user of myflightbook,great free app. However I did send them a donation.
 
mkosmo said:
It's already there in settings on the app. I was excited when I found it!
Click to expand...

For the iPhone app, where are you finding the setting for tenths of an hour?

I looked under "Profile >> Settings" and didn't see that. There is the setting on the website to "Record flight times using decimal". But my experience so far when you let the app "auto enter" the time in the TT and PIC slots, it will use a hundredths of an hour.
 
I use a log book. Snapshot the new pages with my android now and then, email them to myself. Any greater effort is way beyond a committment I want to make to logging time. Sometimes what's possible to do isn't worth doing. Unless it's just fun to play with.

Maybe give some thought to backup and recovery, if electrons are your primary storage means. Especially if they aren't under your personal control, like the cloud or a phone app.
 
AggieMike88 said:
For the iPhone app, where are you finding the setting for tenths of an hour?

I looked under "Profile >> Settings" and didn't see that. There is the setting on the website to "Record flight times using decimal". But my experience so far when you let the app "auto enter" the time in the TT and PIC slots, it will use a hundredths of an hour.
Click to expand...
Ah crap, you're right. I can only find it in the Android version. I thought it was in both.
0961957a30e01ddfd9f80de22589d69e.jpg
 
AggieMike88 said:
For the iPhone app, where are you finding the setting for tenths of an hour?

I looked under "Profile >> Settings" and didn't see that. There is the setting on the website to "Record flight times using decimal". But my experience so far when you let the app "auto enter" the time in the TT and PIC slots, it will use a hundredths of an hour.
Click to expand...
It's not in the app itself, it's in the Settings app. Go to the Settings app (from the iPhone/iPad home screen) and scroll down to MyFlightbook; it's in there. Sorry that it's a bit buried, it was a last minute feature addition a few versions back so I didn't want to touch the main settings screen, and then I forgot to go back for subsequent versions and pull it into the main app.
 
Thanks Eric! Keep up the awesome work on this killer system!
 
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