Adding Time

[Maxflyer]

I don't like to admit it, but I'm absolutely useless at adding time. When I come to totalling up the log book it takes me ages to get it right. Does anyone know of any software (cheap or free if poss) that can do this? maybe even a macro for excel?

Many thanks

Thicko

[J.A.F.O.]

Wish that I had enough money to need a calculator to add up the time that I do.

However, either search the Military Aircrew forum with the words - hours calculator - or send me a PM and I'll email you a couple of different ones.

[S-Works]

I have one of those ASA flight computers that does all trhe wind and W&B etc and also adds time. good investment for £50

[Genghis the Engineer]

Casio Fx-83 scientific calculator, about £8 from office world will do it (or their more expensive ones, but this does most things).

If you are using MS Excel, use two separate columns for hours and minutes, and a bit of judicious arithmetic in the totals column - easily done.

G

[dublinpilot]

I find the simplist way is to add everything on my calculator in minutes.

ie. Take whole number of hours brought forward onto the page (ignore the minutes), and to it the whole number of hours flown on that page (ignore the minutes), then multiply that answer by 60, to convert that to minutes.

Then go back and add to that sum, the minutes brought forward to that page, and add the minutes flown on that page.

You now have your total time in minutes. So just divide that by 60, to get the hours. This gives you the whole hours flown to date. Subtract the whole hours, and you will be left with everything after the decimal point. Multiply this by 60, to get the minutes part of the total.

No special calculator needed, and simple and easy to do :)

Hope that helps!

dp

[J.A.F.O.]

Or download one of the FREE ones from the "Logbook Calculator" thread on the Military Aircrew Forum.

[Fly Stimulator]

If you are using MS Excel, use two separate columns for hours and minutes, and a bit of judicious arithmetic in the totals column - easily done.

Or one column with times entered with hours and minutes separated by a colon eg. 1:30, 0:50, 2:25 etc.

In order to make sure it deals with totals exceeding 24 hours you need to set the cell format to [hh]:mm using Format Cells/Custom.





Or try this (http://www.theflyingschool.co.uk/FlyingLogbook.zip) Excel spreadsheet.

Right-click on that link and save it to your machine. It adds up your hours, keeps track of what you\'ve done in the last 90 days etc.

[Tinstaafl]

Or log using decimal time & forget about f%^*ing around with base 60 addition. Can also use a calculator with ease.

[Whirlybird]

Well, and there was I all innocently thinking that we ALL use decimal time...because like Tinstaafl, that's what I've always done. Makes life a lot easier, and saves buying fancy calculators. :ok:

[wbryce]

Or if your good with Exel, just make your own logbook, and make some formulas to do the calculating for you! :)

[Fly Stimulator]

Well, and there was I all innocently thinking that we ALL use decimal time...

Nope - I've always used hours and minutes.

It seems to me that the mathematical challenges of both methods are roughly equivalent anyway. Converting minutes into fractions of an hour so you can enter them that way taxes the brain as much (or indeed as little) as adding hours and minutes together.

Six of one and half-a-dozen of the other! ;)



wbryce - see the link above!

[TheKentishFledgling]

I know a guy who puts his watch to midnight, and then winds on the hours and minutes to add time up.

tKF

[ACW 335]

Any scientific calculator with the button with commas on it

type in hours first press the comma button, then the minutes followed by the comma button and the + and continue putting in time using the comma button.

If its something like 30 mins input 0'30' etc.

[Charlie Zulu]

The tried and tested method I use is the same as someone else above...

I add all of my times up in minutes and then divide by sixty. Take away the whole number (hours) and then muliple the remainder by 60 to give me minutes.

I usually enter my times the the nearest 5 minutes (give or take) so it works out pretty well.

Takes a bit of time, especially with all of the columns being used now!!!

Best wishes,

Charlie Zulu.

[GARDENER]

I did one on Excel which was really straightforward even for a complete incompetent which I am! I would email it to you but my desktop which it is on is poorly. Always remember to back those files up....doh!

[englishal]

Blimey........

Well, here's a trick. Take time, and turn it into a decimal. 1hr = 1.0, 6 minutes = 0.1 etc (you get my drift). Do the maths, then if you feel the urge, convert it back to "normal" time. I just log it as decimal time, as I like an easy life, and the CAA / FAA don't have a problem with me doing it.....
;)

[LowNSlow]

What's the big deal? Ignore the hours, add up the minutes and divide by 60 you get hours and minutes. Add up the hours and add to the hours total from the previous calculation. Surely it's only a pain if you haven;t bothered to add up the pages for a while. I make a point of adding up each page as I fill it in now after spending a boring hour playing catch-up once.

[Trislander]

Am I the only one that just adds up normally?:confused:

I write down all of the times in a column as if I were adding any ordinary set of numbers. I start by adding the minutes. Every time I get to 10, I add 1 to the ten's of minutes column.

In the ten's of minutes column, every time I get to 6 I add 1 to the hours column. Takes no time at all.

Hardly rocket science!!!

Crikey :rolleyes:

[BEagle]

DMS:DD function on the calculator which I bought 18 years ago!

Decimal time? Nope, never used that. The Army used to, I gather, but have come round to using duodecimal now.

Alternatively, use Trislander's method!

[Lasiorhinus]

I started logging using hours and minutes, as that was how my first flying school logged.
Changing schools, they used hours and tenths of hours, which just made more sense to me to use.
It surely adds up easier, and because you round, you are rounding UP, which actually squeezes a little bit more time out of the aircraft. It works out that I might gain an extra three or four minutes out of a flight at times.
Also, the Aviation Theory Centre logbooks have a table inside the front cover to convert minutes to tenths of a hour; saves brainwork after landing. If your logbook doesnt have this, spend five minutes one rainy day writing one up inside your own logbook's cover.
Every six minutes you get another point one of an hour.