Logbooks, minutes or decimals?

[stiknruda]

Picked up a friend's logbook at the w/e and couldn't help but notice that he logs flight time in hours and minutes (5 minute increments).

Since about 1990, and I can't remember what brought about this revelation, I have only logged hours and decimals (6 minute increments.

Net result is that adding up time is faster and mistakes are fewer. The calculations can even be done on a calculator or spread sheet.

I also keep an annual summary of type/single or multi/tailwheel and retrac/turbo/pressurised.

This and the decimalisation makes supplying up to date info for insurance and other purposes fairly pain free.

The CAA have seen my logbook and have not adversely commented - just wonder how widespread this practice is?

[Justappl]

Here in New Zealand, I have always used decimals.

[DB6]

Hmmm, well after having used minutes for years I was somewhat miffed recently when my girlfriend totted up my logbooks on computer and discovered I was a couple of hours out, so perhaps decimals are the way I should have been doing it.

[captain206]

1.1+ 2.6+ 1.9 = easy
1hr6min+ 2hrs36min+ 1hr54min = why

[New Bloke]

Just to make it really easy I do both, or rather when I was doing my IMC in the U.S, they took away my logbook and gave it back with decimals.

I may change over soon, I will probably get to a new page and just start doing decimals.
Makes sense

[matelot]

Just had a flight in Clearwater. The school logged flight and ground instruction in decimals.

Granted in response to being asked the time we don't say .7 past 3. But for calculating time decimal has to be infinitely easier :-)

Edited for minor typo - about .1!

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Me, sweat? I'm that cool, it's condensation.

[This message has been edited by matelot (edited 18 October 2000).]

[STP]

Did a PPL and the flight school logged my flight time in decimals. Then did an IMC down the road and they logged it in minutes. I had to convert the minutes to the decimals and after many alterations in the log bbok, managed to get the total hours to match!

[fallen eagle]

Hi S&R Dont spose it matters too much though I wish I had known about decimals when I was first taught cos it has to be more practical.What is realy good is the person who includes each minute! thats making life difficult. bye bye .

[SteveR]

Ha! All of this is easy-peasy, lemon-quesy if you use my site http://www.e-logbooks.co.uk to back up your logbook.

You can choose to enter in minutes or decimals, and it'll do all your sums for you.

I believe the practice of logging in decimals is basically a US thing - all the UK logbooks I've seen so far are in 5 minute increments.

[TrueNorth]

Hello all,

I`ve always used decimals - just seems a lot easier because that`s how it`s displayed on the Hobbes meter! Or is that just a North American thing?

[LowNSlow]

My first instructor filled in my first few lessons in minutes and I have just continued this in true sheep like fashion! It really is a pain in the bum when you check and find a mistake and have to redo it. The first feew pages of my log look like they've been artexed. I'll be checking out SteveR's site for the suggested backup. Sounds good.

[RFCC]

When adding hours and minutes in Excel, can anyone tell me how to make it display greater than 23:59 without rolling over to zero. I've formatted the cells to 'hh:mm'. At present I'm using the format 'dd:hh:mm', so it displays one day for every 24 hrs.

[Courtman]

I've always logged in decimal, but rounded to the nearest .1 (i.e. 5mins 0.1, 10mins 0.2, 15mins 0.3 20mins 0.4 25mins 0.4 30mins 0.5). This system is marked at the front of my logbook and has been the same through the entire time I've been flying. The rounding may cause some inacuracy either plus or minus, but a pal at the CAA said if the same method was used and clearly marked in the logbook it was fine!!

[Shanwick Shanwick]

RFCC

I've always used hours and mins and have never found a problem. To add hrs/mins in excess of 24h using excel, format the cells using "Custom and [h]mm" works fine for me and I'm up to 6300.

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hhhiiisssssccrrrraaaacckkkllesssshhhhhh

[SteveR]

I've recently joined a French mailing list much like the UK flyer list. As a result of my little plugs for http://www.e-logbooks.co.uk some French pilots have set up profiles and they're using 5 minute increments like we do. This from the country that wanted to have 10 month years......

Steve R

ps Why does my username appear with "PPRuNe Line Training" underneath - is it because of my few (3 so far) posts?

[Whirlybird*]

SteveR,

Yes. You become "PPRuNe Flight Deck qualified" after a certain number of posts; I think it's 20 but I'm not sure.

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To fly is human, to hover, divine.

[RFCC]

Shanwick Shanwick

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try.