hi Chris,
The problem with this is that Excel gets quite cumbersome with a lot of rows of data. I created my own Excel spreadsheet based on the Jepp pro pilot logbook layout. There are a few additions I.e. it calculates great circle distance between places purely for my amusement. It also auto calculates night time and night takeoff/landing based on location of takeoff and landing, but this requires new destinations to be added with coordinates and that list sorted. I find my solution easy to keep tidy, but I could see how it would come apart for someone else. Really, some form of database, such as in FileMaker Pro might be a better open source solution.
Originally Posted by
chrisk96
After reading these 9 pages of agony of what is good or bad, who is evil etc... I conclude that LogTen Pro is the safest way to go if you want to safely keep track of your logbook with all the bells and whistles. Downside, it cost 130,- a year if you want to take full option (Mac/iphone/ipad). roughly 11,- a month. And you are hooked to Coradine (even sounds like a kind of drug).
Guess all the apps have an O'leary factor build in. Hook people and charge them after when they are really hooked.
Talking about bells and whistles.... Do we need all these extras?? Wind information, WX, runway info, connecting to colleagues.... we are talking about a logbook here.... There are enough apps that will show the same. Even my airline now provides good apps for that. It's just another way to stand out to competitor apps.
I saw a couple of interesting replies stating "what is wrong with a spreadsheet"?!
Years ago I've been flying with a captain who took out his mini laptop (probably still with windows 98 installed) on every sector typing in the the crucial logbook info in Excel. It took him 30 seconds to do that.
So in 2019 with Excel and Numbers still around, wouldn't it be nice to take out your smartphone/tablet and enter your crucial logbook entries in a spreadsheet (Excel/Pages) and having it synced thru iCloud or whatsoever when you land. Having 100% ownership. Totally FREE!! for life guaranteed. Takes a couple of seconds.
The only thing that has to be done is to build a nice working template by some spreadsheet gurus among us. Maybe this template will be even a standard in the future and by wish can be imported by Logten or MCC. Of course I realise you cannot store photos of collegues, signatures and live WX info in the sheet.... but again I personally am not looking for that in a logbook.
I hope there are some fellow pilots around who share the same idea and want to look together into this.
Regards!
ChrisK