23. Logbook

Little Navmap creates logbook entries for each flight automatically when detecting a takeoff or landing. A logbook entry containing only departure is created on takeoff and finalized with destination and more information on landing.

Create Logbook entries has to be checked to enable this functionality.

Note that all times, fuel consumption and other values are measured between takeoff and landing since it is not reliably possible to detect the start and end of a flight.

You can speed up the flight or to warp to another position without breaking the logbook record.

Editing functionality in the logbook is similar to the userpoints editing ( Userpoint).

Note

Use Reset all for a new Flight to be sure that the logbook flight detection is set up for a new flight.

The logbook entries will not be recorded between different sessions. Update the logbook entry manually if you have to exit the flight simulator or Little Navmap.

23.1. Logbook Files

Each logbook entry has a reference using the full path to the used flight plan and aircraft performance files. Keep in mind that these references naturally break if the files are moved or renamed.

Additionally, the flight plan file, the aircraft performance file and the flown track are directly inserted into logbook entry. These attachments can be saved as LNMPLN, LNMPERF or GPX files. The GPX attachment is also used to show the trail and flight plan preview when selecting logbook entries in the search result table.

See Little Navmap LNMPLN Format for information about the LNMPLN format.

The GPX trail contains coordinates, flown altitude and time as well as the flight plan with airport and navaid idents, coordinates and calculated altitude.

The flight plan file contains all plan information like procedures or remarks.

You can access and modify the referenced and attached files in the context menu of the search result table and edit dialog.

Note

Unfinished flights will not have trail information and show only the departure airport.

23.3. Add Logbook Entry

Allows to create a new log entry manually. The dialog layout and functionality is the same as for editing logbook entries. The button Reset clears all fields.

23.4. Edit Logbook Entry

The dialogs for editing and adding are equal and contain three tabs.

Most fields have a tooltip explaining the meaning, are optional and can be freely edited.

The button Reset undoes all manual changes and reverts all fields back to the original state.

23.4.1. Tab Logbook Entry

Additional notes about some fields on this page:

  • Departure and Destination: These are automatically resolved to an airport. Coordinates (not shown and not editable) are assigned to the departure or destination airport if found. The dialog will show the airport name and elevation if the airport ident can be resolved. Otherwise an error message is shown.
  • Date and Time in Simulator UTC: Time set in the simulator on liftoff or touchdown. Always UTC.
  • Real local Time: Real world time on liftoff or touchdown. Stored in your local time.
  • Route Description: Flight Plan Route Description extracted from the flight plan.
  • Flight plan file and Aircraft performance file: Used flight plan and performance files. These are only references which will turn invalid if the files are moved or renamed.

23.4.2. Tab Fuel and Weight

Block fuel and trip fuel are extracted from Tab Fuel Report.

Used fuel is the fuel consumption between liftoff and touchdown.

23.4.3. Tab Remarks

Free text input field which is also shown in the tooltip and the information window on tab Logbook.

See Remarks for more information about using web links in this field.

23.4.4. Edit a single Logbook Entry

_images/logbook_edit.jpg

Editing a logbook entry.

23.4.5. Edit multiple Logbook Entries

If more than one logbook entry was selected for editing, the edit dialog shows a column of checkboxes on the right side of available fields. Not all fields are available for bulk edit.

If checked, the field to the left is unlocked and any text entered will be assigned to the respective field in all selected logbook entry. Unchecked fields will not be altered for any of the selected entries.

In combination with the search function, this allows for bulk changes like fixing an invalid aircraft type.

_images/logbook_bulk_edit.jpg

Editing more than on logbook entry. Three fields are to be changed for the selected entries.

23.5. Logbook Statistics

This dialog shows two tabs:

  1. Overview contains a general report which can be copied as formatted text to the clipboard.
  2. Grouped Queries has a button on top which shows different reports in the table below. The content of the table can be copied as CSV to the clipboard.

Some simulators report a wrong departure and arrival time in rare cases which can result in negative flying time for some flights.

The logbook statistics ignore these invalid simulator time intervals.

Correct the simulator departure or arrival time manually if you find such cases.

_images/logbook_stats.jpg

Overview tab of logbook statistics dialog.

23.6. Import and Export

The full logbook or selected logbook entries can be imported and exported to a CSV (comma separated value) text file which can be loaded in LibreOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel. All data can be exported and imported which allows to use this function for backup purposes.

Export and import can be done by using the menu items Import CSV and Export CSV.

See chapter CSV Data Format below for more information on the format.

23.7. X-Plane Import

Imports the X-Plane logbook file .../X-Plane 11/Output/logbooks/X-Plane Pilot.txt into the Little Navmap logbook database. Note that the X-Plane logbook format is limited and does not provide enough information to fill all Little Navmap logbook fields.

The imported logbook entries get remarks containing Imported from X-Plane logbook X-Plane Pilot.txt which allows to search for the imported entries. Use a pattern like *Imported from X-Plane logbook X-Plane Pilot.txt* in the description search field to look for all imported entries.

Available information in the X-Plane logbook:

  1. Date of flight
  2. Departure airport
  3. Destination airport
  4. Number of landings - added to description.
  5. Duration of flight
  6. Time spent flying cross-country, in IFR conditions and at night - added to description.
  7. Aircraft tail number
  8. Aircraft type

X-Plane logbook example:

I
1 Version
2 190917    EDDN    ESNZ   4   0.8   0.0   0.0   0.0  C-STUB  727-100
2 190917    ESNZ    ESNZ   0   0.1   0.0   0.0   0.0  C-STUB  727-100
2 190920    LSZR    LSZR   0   0.2   0.0   0.0   0.0    SF34

23.8. Conversion

Automatically converts all legacy log entries that were collected as userpoints having type Logbook. The conversion copies them to the new logbook after showing an information dialog.

The conversion works best if field Remarks in the userpoints was not modified and if no entries were inserted manually.

The converted logbook entries are appended to the current logbook. The original userpoint of type Logbook are not deleted or modified.

The converted logbook entries get a description containing Converted from userdata which allows to search for the imported entries. Use a pattern like *Converted from userdata* in the description search field to search for all entries.

Not all values can be recovered but the original description from the userpoint is stored in the description of the new logbook entry.

A warning dialog is displayed after the conversion which shows any issues during conversion.

_images/logbook_conversion.jpg

Warnings shown after converting userpoints to logbook entries.

23.9. Database Backup Files

Little Navmap creates a full database backup on every start since undo functionality is not available for logbook entries.

You can also use the CSV export to create backups manually since CSV allows to export the full dataset.

See Logbook for information about database backup files.

23.10. CSV Data Format

English number format (dot . as decimal separator) is used in import and export to allow exchange of files on computers with different language and locale settings.

Little Navmap uses UTF-8 encoding when reading and writing files. This is only relevant if you use special characters like umlauts, accents or others. Otherwise encoding does not matter.

If an application fails to load a CSV file exported by Little Navmap, use LibreOffice Calc, Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet software capable of reading and writing CSV files to adapt the exported file to the format expected by that application.

See Comma-separated values in the Wikipedia for detailed information on the format.

Altitudes are always feet and distances are always nautical miles in the exported CSV.

The first line of the CSV contains the field names if chosen for export.

Field name Description
Aircraft Name Free name like Cessna 172
Aircraft Type ICAO type descriptor like B732
Aircraft Registration e.g. N12345
Flightplan Number Flight number if available
Flightplan Cruise Altitude Flight plan cruise altitude in feet
Flightplan File Full path to flight plan file
Performance File Full path to performance file
Block Fuel From aircraft performance - lbs
Trip Fuel As above
Used Fuel As above
Is Jetfuel Calculated from aircraft fuel, 1 is jet fuel
Grossweight Weight at takeoff, lbs
Distance Flight plan distance in NM
Distance Flown Actual flown distance in NM
Departure Ident Airport ICAO code
Departure Name Airport name
Departure Runway Runway if available
Departure Lonx Coordinates if available and airport resolves
Departure Laty As above
Departure Alt Elevation in ft
Departure Time Real world departure time in local time
Departure Time Sim Simulator departure time in UTC
Destination Ident Same as above for destination
Destination Name As departure
Destination Runway As departure
Destination Lonx As departure
Destination Laty As departure
Destination Alt As departure
Destination Time As departure
Destination Time Sim As departure
Route string ICAO route description
Simulator X-Plane 11, Prepar3D v4, etc.
Description Free text by user
Flightplan The flight plan in LNMPLN XML format
Aircraft Perf The aircraft performance in LNMPERF XML format
Aircraft Trail The flown trail and flight plan preview in GPX format