For a job that runs on iPads, a surprising amount of it still gets proven with a biro.
I still keep a paper logbook. Obviously. It’s the one with the signatures in it, and it’s the one I’d rescue first if the house was on fire.
But paper is very good at being a record and not much good at answering questions. Ask it how many hours of night PIC I’ve got and the honest answer is “give me ten minutes and a calculator”.
So a digital logbook runs alongside it. Not instead of it.
What I was actually after
The list was short. Quick to enter a flight. Totals I can trust without checking them twice. And an export that looks like a proper FCL.050 logbook page, not a spreadsheet wearing a tie.
That last one turned out to be the awkward one.
Starting with Logbook.aero
I started with Logbook.aero. It’s very well built, sensibly priced, and it did almost everything I wanted.
It’s £4.99 a month or £47.99 a year, after a 14-day free trial.
The gap was the export. I wanted a proper FCL.050 format out the other end, and it never quite got there for me.
It looks like there’s more active development going into it now, though, so I’m not writing it off. I’ll be watching to see which direction it goes.
Moving to Logger
Then I moved to Logger.
It reminds me a lot of LogTen. The difference is that it’s built and maintained by a European airline pilot, so it’s a lot better suited to how I log.
He’s also very responsive. Questions get answered, feature requests get taken seriously, and the amount that’s been added to the app in a short space of time has been great to see.
It turns out the feature I’d undervalued was a developer who replies.
The first 50 flights are free. After that, Pro is £3.99 a month or £29.99 a year.
Worth knowing before you get attached: it’s iPhone, iPad and Mac only.
Still looking
I don’t think the perfect digital logbook exists yet. Logger is the closest I’ve found, and Logbook.aero might well close the gap.
In the meantime the paper one stays in the flight bag, quietly not needing an update.
Fly High,
Reef Salter