Excel formula for logbook

In article m,
Wizard of Draws wrote:
On 8/26/04 8:25 PM, in article jcvXc.239753$eM2.90248@attbi_s51, "Ben
Jackson" wrote:
I'd make a cell somewhere with the cutoff date for approaches, which is:

=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY())-6, 1)

Then add a column like =IF(A1 = CUTOFF, B1, 0) where A is the column
with the date of the flight and B1 is the number of approaches. Then
the sum of this column is the number of approaches after the cutoff.

Thanks Ben, but I'm not quite sure that's what I'm looking for. Part of my
confusion could be how I'm interpreting the calculation of "last 6 months"

I assume from my reading that as long as I have 6 approaches within the last
6 months, I'm IFR legal.

...no person may act as pilot in command under IFR or in weather
conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR, unless
within the preceding 6 calendar months

The key phrase is 'calendar months'. This month is not a 'preceding'
month, so you always get this month free. Then you get to count
approaches the 6 preceding months. That's why the formula above goes
back to the 1st of the month, and then back 6 months.

So... I'm looking for the Excel logbook to tell me if I'm IFR current every
time I open it, by looking back 6 months from *that day* and counting the
number of approaches.

Exactly. The 'looking back' part is the column with the IF stmt. If you
had a logbook like:

Date Approaches IF...
8/04/2003 4 0
1/15/2004 1 0
5/19/2004 3 3
6/21/2004 1 1
9 total, 4 count toward currency today

Once you generate the IF column you can hide it and just use the total
to do something else.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/