Launch point logging software flight accounting

On Nov 28, 9:27*am, bildan wrote:
On Nov 28, 10:10*am, Andy wrote:

Wireless tech would make a nifty system but it isn't absolutely
needed. *If the GPS loggers recorded on SD cards, just bring them to
the club office for the software to read. *You'd still have to
manually log who flew which glider but the altitudes and flight
durations would be perfectly accurate.

Here's a logger with SD capability and Bluetooth:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=8823

I still see a few potential problems:

- I you relieve the ops/launch director and tow pilots from recording
times and altitudes you are making the day's operations subject to the
reliability of the technology. Since tow pilots wouldn't be using the
logger for anything related to their duties they would have no idea
whether it is functioning properly until the end of day data
collection exercise - at which point it's really too late to recover.
If you keep written logs as a backup you are giving up most of the
benefit as I don't see much operational benefit to the end of day
accounting - in one case you have to download a bunch of logs and
manually sync them up with the aircraft bring towed versus simply
putting in the altitudes and registration numbers off the tow pilots'
sheets.

- There are similar issues for logging club glider flights. Managing
SD cards, making sure they are in and that the logger battery is
charged before each flight are a couple of the operational issues I
can imagine.

- Wireless would be a way for the ops director to sync up after each
flight and ensure that everything is working properly - but then you'd
have to have a process to acquire the signal from the towplane each
time. Bluetooth isn't great at this and the loggers may not be smart
enough to automatically download.

- At $150 a pop this becomes expensive, particularly if you want to
include gliders in addition to just towplanes. You might rather have
igc loggers in gliders, but that is even more expensive.

- Even with all of this you still have to sync up each flight/tow with
a customer. Some people just aren't good at doing this on a computer
versus pen and paper.

Not that it couldn't be done - eventually it will be I expect. But you
need to get the infrastructure in place - I expect pure record keeping
isn't enough justification for most clubs. A first step would be
allowing off-the-shelf commercial loggers to be used for badge
flights. If you already had a logger in every aircraft it would open
up their use for other purposes.

For the flight line I expect a touchscreen e-paper tablet would be a
good solution.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/03/h...n-pc-at-cebit/

Still needs development...

9B

We (Valley Soaring club) considered a few options but stuck with paper
logging at the launch point. Easy to log flights, no batteries
required, no sunlight readability problems, no 'computer training'
required for loggers and our launch point is open to the elements and
has no power.

What I did was build a MS Access program into which the logsheet can
be keyed (columns on paper logsheets match exactly data entry columns
in the program). This makes it pretty easy and fast to key in the
logsheet at the end of the day. The MS Access program uses QOBC (ODBC
driver for quickbooks) and turns each flight into multiple
transactions which get pushed automatically into quickbooks. Each one
line flight record entered in Access feeds separate Tow and rental or
lesson charges to quickbooks together with credits for the instructors
and tow-pilots or commerical pilots flying rides. So basically we key
in the logsheet once and at the end of the month members get emailed
statements from quickbooks with all their charges detailed out. The
Access program also serves as a log-book for all the clubs members and
gliders (including reminders of when 100hrs are due etc). The flight
logs are also ftp'd weekly from our Access database to our website (in
Excel format) so that any members can check the logsheet detail if
they have a question when they get their statement or even simply if
they need info to fill in their logbook. It's not launch point but it
works pretty well.

Alasdair Crawford
www.valleysoaring.org