Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

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Rescue901
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by Rescue901 »

Safelog
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by Adam Oke »

MCCPIlot Log. One time payment, and a great product. My recommendation is to look at the logbooks that will auto fill using the software the company uses to spit out schedules.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by AirFrame »

Use the search function?
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totalflyer
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by totalflyer »

I’m with Adam Oke... I used to use LogTenPro but it’s just become ridiculously expensive... I switched to MCCPilotLog just a little while ago and it’s been great.

I miss some of the features from LogTenPro but not enough to keep forming over the mind of money they are asking for...
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complexintentions
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by complexintentions »

I'm still using LT Pro, but the version that still supports wi-fi syncing (6.5.1 on my Mac and iOS). Still works fine, which makes their current bs versions even harder to swallow. However it's the end of the line finally, as the 32-bit apps are biting the dust in iOS 11. I'm in no hurry to upgrade that either, but eventually. There's no way in hell I'm going to pay Cordadine their ridiculous subscription fees just to sync my devices. I could care less about most of their features, I just want the filtering and printability of a digital format.

The most likely replacement candidate will be MCCPilotlog. So my question is, how was the transition from LT Pro for anyone who's made this specific change? And what features of LT Pro do you miss?
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TG
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by TG »

MCCpilotlog has a pretty extensive list of electronic logbook's programs they can import data from.
If yours is not listed you can make a request and they will eventually work on it to make it happen.
http://www.mccpilotlog.net/import-wizard/

That's the main reason I went with them as they were the only one (at the time?) who could transfer my old electronic log.
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complexintentions
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by complexintentions »

Yeah, I saw the list but I was wondering if anyone had first-hand advice from migrating from LT Pro specifically.

I do use one of the LT Pro Jeppesen templates (modified with my signature so I don't have to sign hundreds of pages) to print out the whole logbook from time to time. I'm hoping not to lose that function.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by BE20 Driver »

I know your suggestion is to use the search function on here. Apps change all the time and a quick search on my phone showed a ton of new apps that didn't exist last time I looked.

ZuluLog (online and been around for a long time)
LogTen (gold standard that also requires a few gold bars to pay for these days)
Pilot Logbook International (seems like one of the nicest presentations for non LT apps)
SafeLog (looks like an early 2000's app)
APDL (also looks like a good presentation)
MCCPilotLog (looks ok to me)

There are probably a few others that didn't catch my eye or didn't look like big supported apps.

I don't auto-load my schedule from my airline's portal. I use my logbook to double check my numbers at the end of the month. It's a bit more work but I have managed to catch more than a few errors this way. The errors that I have caught along the way have paid for a LogTen Pro subscription for a year over.

Pilots are cheap though and I'm still thinking of changing to one of the above when my subscription runs out.
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HiFlyChick
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by HiFlyChick »

Wow - guess I'm more of a cheapskate than you guys - I just put my stuff in an Excel spreadsheet....
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by Broken Slinky »

HiFlyChick wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2017 5:55 pm Wow - guess I'm more of a cheapskate than you guys - I just put my stuff in an Excel spreadsheet....
I'm using an Excel spreadsheet too. I have the file in a Dropbox folder so it automatically syncs to my other devices. As long as I can get an internet connection, I'm golden.
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ReliefTube
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by ReliefTube »

complexintentions wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2017 3:29 pm Yeah, I saw the list but I was wondering if anyone had first-hand advice from migrating from LT Pro specifically.

I do use one of the LT Pro Jeppesen templates (modified with my signature so I don't have to sign hundreds of pages) to print out the whole logbook from time to time. I'm hoping not to lose that function.
Not trying to sway the topic in this thread, but how the heck did you get that to work? That'd save a sore wrist after printing it all out.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by xchox »

MCCPilotLog... Start on that and your golden. It syncs to most airline systems so when you get to the big leagues you pretty much just hit sync and double check the entries.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by FltLvl190 »

MCC hands down.
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complexintentions
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by complexintentions »

ReliefTube wrote: Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:56 am
complexintentions wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2017 3:29 pm Yeah, I saw the list but I was wondering if anyone had first-hand advice from migrating from LT Pro specifically.

I do use one of the LT Pro Jeppesen templates (modified with my signature so I don't have to sign hundreds of pages) to print out the whole logbook from time to time. I'm hoping not to lose that function.
Not trying to sway the topic in this thread, but how the heck did you get that to work? That'd save a sore wrist after printing it all out.
The different logbook templates in LT Pro (i.e. US, Canada, UK etc) are basically HTML/CSS documents that can be edited and customized. I just took the "Jeppesen Pro Pilot Log 27" report and modified it to add a scanned image of my signature at the signature line. My logbook is presently a 216 page pdf file (double-spread layout, like a Jeppesen logbook) so I'd have to sign over a 100 times. Not a chance. I print it out on US letter paper drilled with two holes to fit a nice leather binding and have the whole career signed sealed delivered. Just print the last couple pages to update.

An Excel file is fine, but a hardcopy will be...a printout of an Excel file. A couple of the licensing authorities I've dealt with have specified submitting logbooks in a legal logbook format. One thing I do like about LogTen is that it will output to pretty much every authorities logbook format. Not an issue if one never leaves Canada, of course.

LogTen Pro How to Create a Custom Report

I was actually gifted lifetime licenses of the latest LT Pro on Mac and iOS by Noah (Coradine CEO) as goodwill for supporting him from the start, but I refuse to pay the subscription just to sync devices. It isn't about being "cheap", it's about value. So I've been using the old version which syncs over wi-fi, and will probably switch to just using the Mac version exclusively when I upgrade iOS to 11. Just means I won't be using the iOS app to log flights anymore, which is a shame and why I'm at least looking around for alternatives.

Which brings us full circle - anyone have actual experiences good/bad migrating significant flight time from LT Pro to MCCPilot? Yes, I know it's possible. :roll:
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by AuxBatOn »

complex,

Can you define "legal logbook format"?
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by AirFrame »

AuxBatOn wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:12 pmCan you define "legal logbook format"?
Given the variety of formats i've seen between books within a single store, I would find it hard to believe that copying any one of them wouldn't be "legal" enough.

My Excel spreadsheet has all the columns in most of the common paper books, maybe not in the same order. I can print it out with a footer with space for a signature on each page, and i'm sure Excel would even do page by page totals if I wanted to... Although I haven't bothered trying.
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complexintentions
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by complexintentions »

Perhaps the term “legal” should be left to lawyers. One case I referred to specified that the submission must be a personal logbook, not company records. A "printout of an electronic logbook was acceptable". I guess Excel could be considered an electronic logbook? I suppose one would find out.

Of course any set of printed hours recording the required items and certified to be true could be a “legal logbook”, much like a will scribbled on the back of a napkin could also be completely legal and binding. You still might have some challenges getting either one recognized as a legal document. Desk-bound bureaucrats tend to be lovers of boring uniformity, not innovative thinkers with nifty new ideas. A foreign licensing officer isn't interested in interpreting someone's clever spreadsheet into their own format. Would it result in a job or license application being rejected? Probably not. But it may result in unnecessary delay. Much of my life has been spent dealing with this box-ticking rubber-stamping mindset - the trick is to feed such apparatus with exactly the documents they want, presented exactly the way they want them, no more, no less. It soothes their unimaginative minds to see exactly the same thing they've always seen and speeds the process across their desk. Whether your organizational system is "better" than theirs (it probably is) is totally, utterly irrelevant.

The point is, whether or not to accept what you submit as your logbook is entirely at the discretion of the authority involved. If one is confident that their preferred method is sufficient, carry on. But I'm not usually keen to be the guinea pig when it comes to playing "is this what they want or isn't it?".

Just keep in mind that presentation matters. And some regulators are much pickier than others. Transport Canada and the FAA are pretty sensible however, so my caveat doesn't apply to the majority.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by AuxBatOn »

I don't think, in Canada, that there is a "legal logbook format". There is a minimum of information that has to be logged but there is nothing on format in the CARs. Perhaps the use of the word "legal" is a bit strong.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by complexintentions »

Yeah, I already said that.

But it's semantics.

Use "legal", "recognized", "accepted", whatever word you want, the goal is to have it to have it be any of these things with the least amount of resistance.
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Last edited by complexintentions on Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Electronic Pilot Logbook!!! Any Suggestions?

Post by AirFrame »

Of course, the other thing to consider is that with an Excel spreadsheet, anyone with enough wits to use Excel in the first place can figure out how to re-order the data to match any desired format. So it shouldn't be too hard to make it match anything someone else wants when you're 20 years down the road and want to show your history.
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