Apple vs. Logbooks

Dan208B

Dan208B

Well-Known Member
Looking for some advice. I've read through quite a few threads on electronic logbooks but I'm not finding good advice on my specific situation. I fly for a legacy and also fly GA. I probably wouldn't log at all anymore but it's useful for GA insurance purposes and also just interesting to keep track of how much time I have. I use Logbook Pro and have for a long time. It was extremely helpful in airline applications over the years. I had it on a PC obviously. I now have a Macbook and am looking to completely do away with my PC. I'm familiar with LogTen and don't really like it because of the pricing as well as the concern about the company being in business in 30 years and what happens to my logs. Optimally I'd like to find a way to convert my Logbook pro files into an excel spreadsheet on a mac. Or worst case I could keep a desktop PC just for logbook pro but I imagine I wouldn't use it as much if it was a hassle. Any thoughts on this, or other potential solutions I haven't thought of? Thanks for any input!
 
Dan208B said:
Looking for some advice. I've read through quite a few threads on electronic logbooks but I'm not finding good advice on my specific situation. I fly for a legacy and also fly GA. I probably wouldn't log at all anymore but it's useful for GA insurance purposes and also just interesting to keep track of how much time I have. I use Logbook Pro and have for a long time. It was extremely helpful in airline applications over the years. I had it on a PC obviously. I now have a Macbook and am looking to completely do away with my PC. I'm familiar with LogTen and don't really like it because of the pricing as well as the concern about the company being in business in 30 years and what happens to my logs. Optimally I'd like to find a way to convert my Logbook pro files into an excel spreadsheet on a mac. Or worst case I could keep a desktop PC just for logbook pro but I imagine I wouldn't use it as much if it was a hassle. Any thoughts on this, or other potential solutions I haven't thought of? Thanks for any input!
Click to expand...
VMware fusion in unity mode is lot more convenient than keeping a separate computer just for LBP... I use LogTen, but only because they backed away from subscription pricing for desktop users who already owned the app.

I share your concerns about them.

-Fox
 
I’m in a similar boat...the free site I’ve been using is shutting down in a couple months. Use Apple phone/tablet, windows laptop. Leaning towards using an excel spreadsheet unless there’s a ringing endorsement for one of the commercial apps.
 
Roger Roger said:
I’m in a similar boat...the free site I’ve been using is shutting down in a couple months. Use Apple phone/tablet, windows laptop. Leaning towards using an excel spreadsheet unless there’s a ringing endorsement for one of the commercial apps.
Click to expand...
Logbook Pro FTW! I use it, and love it. I use the app on the company iPad, then sync it to logbook pro at home. One of my favorite features is being able to import flight times after a trip.
 
Roger Roger said:
I’m in a similar boat...the free site I’ve been using is shutting down in a couple months. Use Apple phone/tablet, windows laptop. Leaning towards using an excel spreadsheet unless there’s a ringing endorsement for one of the commercial apps.
Click to expand...
I've used a generic excel sheet for years. I'm able to customize it to build separate sheets, such as 8710 and mil requirements.
I'm not able to suck in the information from another source, so it's all manual entry. IF you want it I can send it your way.
 
Nark said:
I've used a generic excel sheet for years. I'm able to customize it to build separate sheets, such as 8710 and mil requirements.
I'm not able to suck in the information from another source, so it's all manual entry. IF you want it I can send it your way.
Click to expand...

Nerd...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Nark said:
I've used a generic excel sheet for years. I'm able to customize it to build separate sheets, such as 8710 and mil requirements.
I'm not able to suck in the information from another source, so it's all manual entry. IF you want it I can send it your way.
Click to expand...
Yeah, i figure flying 70 flights a year manual entry isn’t a big deal right now.
 
Nark said:
I've used a generic excel sheet for years. I'm able to customize it to build separate sheets, such as 8710 and mil requirements.
I'm not able to suck in the information from another source, so it's all manual entry. IF you want it I can send it your way.
Click to expand...

Nerd...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Nark said:
I learned how to do this while on med duty waiting for you to call.
You can do all sorts of nerdy things, connect different documents and fancy graphs.

I’ll put it in a PowerPoint for you.
Click to expand...

I hate computers. I really do need to transition from paper to electronics and combine all my logbooks some time though. It only got more convoluted this year since I can’t right left seat/right seat in a column I labeled front/back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@Lawman does your community differentiate between left and right seat? I always ask the PI the last seat they flew in and switch.

I did my last paper logbook entry before deployment. 100% electronic now.


Plus CAFRS...Always been 100% accurate... ULLSA has never crashed either (or failed to pull)...
 
They don’t seem to care here, but I’m not sure if that’s universal across the 47 or later in the company.

There is a definite “when you sit here you do the following jobs” though so to me I feel it’s worth tracking. I don’t think it matters at the phase I’m in now because you alternate daily, but for progression down the road it’s probably tracked somewhere for progression.

Apache it mattered. It’s written into the minimums of both sim and aircraft and usually on the CTL they go a level deeper and say stuff lile “x number of goggles total, y min each seat.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Dan208B said:
Optimally I'd like to find a way to convert my Logbook pro files into an excel spreadsheet on a mac. Any thoughts on this, or other potential solutions I haven't thought of? Thanks for any input!
Click to expand...

You should be able to export all of your logbook pro data to a .csv file that you can import into Microsoft Excel or even Google Sheets

Otherwise if you don’t mind paying a subscription fee for APDL (made by Logbook Pro) use that to log your times and then APDL will export it to Logbook Pro or any logbook program or spreadsheet that reads a .csv file.

For running Logbook Pro on your Mac you’ll need a Windows 10 key but you can run Windows 10 natively on a MacBook in a boot camp partition. The only drawback is that you’ll need to sacrifice at least 100GB for a windows partition. If you only have 256GB on your MacBook that’s almost 1/2 of your total storage.
 
Roger Roger said:
I’m in a similar boat...the free site I’ve been using is shutting down in a couple months. Use Apple phone/tablet, windows laptop. Leaning towards using an excel spreadsheet unless there’s a ringing endorsement for one of the commercial apps.
Click to expand...
Which one is that?
 
Dan208B said:
Looking for some advice. I've read through quite a few threads on electronic logbooks but I'm not finding good advice on my specific situation. I fly for a legacy and also fly GA. I probably wouldn't log at all anymore but it's useful for GA insurance purposes and also just interesting to keep track of how much time I have. I use Logbook Pro and have for a long time. It was extremely helpful in airline applications over the years. I had it on a PC obviously. I now have a Macbook and am looking to completely do away with my PC. I'm familiar with LogTen and don't really like it because of the pricing as well as the concern about the company being in business in 30 years and what happens to my logs. Optimally I'd like to find a way to convert my Logbook pro files into an excel spreadsheet on a mac. Or worst case I could keep a desktop PC just for logbook pro but I imagine I wouldn't use it as much if it was a hassle. Any thoughts on this, or other potential solutions I haven't thought of? Thanks for any input!
Click to expand...
I think the logbook in ForeFlight will become the new standard. It's still in its infancy, but give it a few years and it will likely do everything Log Ten does and more. Log Ten is a pretty great log book. I'm afraid, however, it's too niche-y to generate sufficient revenue to sustain its advancement as a stand-alone product.
 
I second making your own spreadsheet. It automatically saves between my phone and IPad. You can put whatever columns you want and auto adds them. Plus it saves you $$$.
 
Are any of these programs that have a good not gonna go anywhere status but are not cloud/online hosted?

Like I want to enter data but given the nature of operations it’s not something that should be in place that can be tracked by a 3rd party.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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