30. 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 fuel consumption and other values are measured between takeoff and landing, as it is not possible to reliably determine the beginning and end of a flight.

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

Little Navmap remembers a takeoff across restarts and completes the logbook entry accordingly when landing.

An incomplete takeoff only entry with the same aircraft is required for this to work.

A coordinate in degrees/minutes format like N44124W122451 is used if the flight is recorded by an off-airport takeoff or landing .

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

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

Tip

See Important Files to Backup for more information about backing up the logbook and other information of Little Navmap.

30.1. Create Logbook Entries

Little Navmap creates logbook entries for each flight automatically if this menu item Create Logbook entries is checked. A logbook entry containing only departure is created on takeoff and finalized with destination, track and more information on landing.

The content of the field Simulator in the logbook entries is determined by the selected scenery library and not by the connected simulator.

Note

Always use Reset all for a new Flight before doing a flight.

30.2. 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 break if the files are moved or renamed. Update them manually if needed.

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.

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

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

The flight plan file contains all plan information like procedures or remarks just as the loaded LNMPLN file.

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.

30.4. Add Logbook Entry

This dialog window is used 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.

30.5. 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.

30.5.1. 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 takeoff or touchdown. Always UTC.

  • Real local Time: Real world time on takeoff 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. Update manually if needed.

30.5.2. Tab Fuel and Weight

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

Used fuel is the fuel consumption between takeoff and touchdown.

30.5.3. 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.

30.5.4. Edit a single Logbook Entry

_images/logbook_edit.jpg

Editing a logbook entry. Click image to enlarge.

30.5.5. 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. Deselected 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 for more than one entry.

_images/logbook_bulk_edit.jpg

Editing more than one logbook entry. Three fields are to be changed for the selected entries. Click image to enlarge.

30.6. 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.

You can click on the top table header to sort the related column in ascending or descending order.

Scroll down in the table to load more values.

_images/logbook_stats.jpg

Overview tab of logbook statistics dialog. Click image to enlarge.

30.7. 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.

30.8. 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

30.9. 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 Files - Logbook Database for information about database backup files.

30.10. 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 ident

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