Which digital flight logbook to use?

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  • Switzerlanding
    Participant

    Hello, we’re logging the flights of our little one (21 month old) manually at the moment and think it’s time to go digital as he’s already reached 50. Any suggestions on the best website/App to use? Thanks in advance – Rob


    first_class_please
    Participant

    I use http://www.flightmemory.com find it very good and have used for many years.

    Used in conjunction with http://www.flightstats.com and http://www.flightradar24.com to get the actual flight times and aircraft registrations, if you want to go that far!

    There is also an option to get a map printed showing all the flights / routes taken. Could be a good 18th birthday present or such..

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    Swissdiver
    Participant

    [quote quote=887674]I use http://www.flightmemory.com find it very good and have used for many years.

    Used in conjunction with http://www.flightstats.com and http://www.flightradar24.com to get the actual flight times and aircraft registrations, if you want to go that far!

    There is also an option to get a map printed showing all the flights / routes taken. Could be a good 18th birthday present or such..[/quote]

    Wanted to quote. Reported instead (button is adjacent). Terribly sorry…

    I also use http://www.flightmemory.com and have about 1000 flights logged. Works well although they milk the cow. So no update for years and no app.

    I was using http://www.flightstats.com for the actual flight time. But I moved to http://www.flightradar24.com as is easier to use and not restricted (occasionally http://www.flightstats.com is). I pay a nominal annual fee for both services.

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    travelsforfun
    Participant

    I would strongly recommend: https://openflights.org/

    The main difference compared to sites like flightmemory is that it isn’t commercially focused – so for example it allows easy exporting of data (csv format – easily read by Excel) – should you ever want to use the data somewhere else.

    It also allows easy importing of csv data – so if you have been recording the information in Excel, it should be easy enough to switch, with minimal renaming/formatting of fields. But equally, it allows entry of information directly on the site.

    I’ve been using Openflights for some time and find it works really well, including a few different map backgrounds – and fully zoomable – and very comprehensive stats by number of flights or distance (for airline, aircraft, airport, class…).

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    FFlyerTJW1
    Participant

    I highly recommend Flightdiary.net – it’s now part of Flightradar 24 so a lot of the data syncs automatically across. Also, they have an excellent visual display of all your information (including printable map) and a support service that allows you to request new airports/airlines to be added. It even has some of the dirt airstrips in Kenya included!

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    Inthesandpit
    Participant

    As many others I used a manual log from back in 1975, from Ian Allan books if I remember (first flight recorded VC8 LHR MME on British midland), although I had flown before that as a child (BOAC Junior Jet club logbook) and youth I could not recall flight numbers so did not log them, similarly a lot of my cabin crew days in the 80s are not included as I misplaced my logbooks.

    Over a course of many weekends I uploaded the lot onto my flight diary which is now my.flightradar24.com, I find it works really well for what I need.

    This next trip will see my 1100th trip logged, it is interesting sometimes to look at the map and go through the log to see where I have been and on what frightening types of aircraft / airlines.

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    Swissdiver
    Participant

    [quote quote=887751]I would strongly recommend: https://openflights.org/

    The main difference compared to sites like flightmemory is that it isn’t commercially focused – so for example it allows easy exporting of data (csv format – easily read by Excel) – should you ever want to use the data somewhere else.[/quote]

    This is my main issue with FLightmemory.com. But it also means I am stuck unless I hire someone to manually input all my flight on another platform from the pdf I can generate. Not quite a priority…


    travelsforfun
    Participant

    Swissdiver, not necessarily! Openflights has a special feature for importing from flightmemory – I’ve not used it, but my understanding is that it basically does a screen scrape. It probably requires a bit of checking/fine-tuning but should be fairly accurate – and then you’ll be able to export it in CSV format too.

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    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Electronic flight logs are all well and good, but I’d go for a good old fashioned pen and book. I’ve had mine since 1979 and it’s a mine of information, from date, to aircraft, seat, reg. no, route, additional notes and more. I tried an electronic online version but the trouble is I cannot recall the name so am unable to retrieve the data, but luckily I have it all backed up in my hard copy logbook.

    My boys also had one from Lufthansa, and the Captain would sign it for them so they have a very nice record of their flights. I don’t think they do it for adults though!
    And my final point, it’s such a shame to lose the art of writing as we go all electronic. I still send handwritten thank you’s and invitations, and I still make paper notes in meetings.

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    alainboy56
    Participant

    @inthesandpit — good to hear of another fellow junior Jet Club member. I still have my details – 1st flight was on a BOAC DH Comet 4 in May 1959 from LHR to Tokyo, with stops in Beirut, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangkok and Hong Kong a near 24 hour journey. As a child, I always used to get the Captains to diligently fill in my logbook and on many, many occasions sat with the three (in those days) monkeys in the nosecone.
    then for my logbook, I acquired a ‘Passenger Flight Log Book’ from Airline Publications & Sales Ltd who used to have a shop on the corner of the Gt. West Rd in Hounslow, right under final app to LHR 28R (Yes that is no mistake – in those days the runways were 28L&R and 10L&R – The earth turned).
    Now as that is long since full, I have made my own EXCEL log on the laptop and fill in the details by using FLIGHTAWARE which, date by date, gives actual miles flown for each flight, it’s quite accurate and very useful.


    Swissdiver
    Participant

    [quote quote=887840]Swissdiver, not necessarily! Openflights has a special feature for importing from flightmemory – I’ve not used it, but my understanding is that it basically does a screen scrape. It probably requires a bit of checking/fine-tuning but should be fairly accurate – and then you’ll be able to export it in CSV format too.[/quote]

    Thanks! But the importing function doesn’t seem to work unfortunately. I twitted the guy and hope he will reply. But for now, it is not an option.


    first_class_please
    Participant

    Swissdiver, I looked at my.flightradar24 and it seems very good.

    I followed travelsforfun info and was able to import from flight memory to open flights, then export as csv file.

    Took a bit of work to then upload in my flight radar as not all info was read. It also doesn’t move between pages well, has a “fetch more” but when you update something on say page 5 it goes back to the top and have to go through all the pages again.

    Took me quite a while, but I got everything done, probably 5 hours ish over the week for 500 flights.

    Let’s see if it was worth it for new flight updates. Have 4 flights next week so shall see.


    Swissdiver
    Participant

    FCP,
    Thanks. But the data transfer needs to be automatised for me as I record not only the flights origin, destination and number, but also aircraft registration number, actual time, class of travel, seat, …


    mkcol74
    Participant

    Interesting suggestions above.

    Have you tried Jet Lovers Flight Club yet?

    Using social media check-ins they will automate some of the process which does make it easier. Then you can select your flight from the list which pre-populates the aircraft reg & you can also define purpose of the trip eg: leisure, business, crew, what cabin type you flew in & even input your seat number.

    It then can give you interesting stats eg: most popular airport used, cabin type, longest route etc. They also have a good glove visualisation of your travels. Their site works well on a computer as well as being mobile friendly. I’ve not spotted an app yet.


    Inthesandpit
    Participant

    @alainboy56, yup it would seem we are from the same era. My first BOAC trip was on a Standard VC10 from LHR to JNB, via ROM, CAI, DAR, JNB. My father had got a job with the SAAF outside of Pretoria, we were on our way to look at what was there and accommodation. Sadly the emigration never happened but that’s another story. I too had the same ‘Passenger Flight Log Book’ I remember completing the first time at an airport, first flight in type and reckoning up the hours sections. Unfortunately my book got filled up and so I resorted to the electronic versions. I like my.flightradar24.com as I can add seats etc. and yes as a young Air trafficker in SEJAO at West Drayton it was still 10/28 for LHR with the occasional 23/05 operation.


    @LuganoPirate
    I still use a fountain pen at meetings whilst all around me are clicking on laptops and ipads. I have kept all my A5 notebooks of meeting notes, but sadly it shows my experiments with different coloured inks over the years :-).I still use my trusty dark green ink to this day. My regular Yard-o-Led silver fountain pen must be over 30 years old and is still going strong, being left handed the nib is used to me. I have numerous others that are more modern and ‘names’ but still in boxes. That’s my indulgence at times – watches and pens 🙂

    Apologies for wandering of topic – having a senior moment.

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