Request for "Log Flight" option

[TRCsmith]

It was talked about awhile ago to have a "Log Flight " option something like anywhere map has. To save a flight with date and flight time would be great. Any progress on that? 

 

[Eric_Greenwell]

It was talked about awhile ago to have a "Log Flight " option something like anywhere map has. To save a flight with date and flight time would be great. Any progress on that? 

We already have the function (mostly) in the data logs. What I'd REALLY like is a Flight Display program! Savvy Analysis does a good job of displaying engine parameters, but there is no program to display flight parameters or flight path. It would be so much easier to glean data from the log file if we could select which parameters to graph and connect them with the flight path.

Using Excel or similar is a very tedious exercise and prone to error, as I discovered a while ago when trying to trace the sequence of events during an overheating spike on the engine. I have several choices to display my glider data log, the Cirrus pilots have good one for their data, but Dynon data logs are not displayed by any program.

Perhaps Dynon could get the owners of the existing programs for other aircraft to add the Dynon log format to the files they accept.

 

[swatson999]

I second this...some sort of tool *other than Excel* designed to select/display one or more parameters in a nice format would be great. It's a pain to have to scroll through Excel to find any particular area of interest and then make a graph for it...

 

[Garrett]

A log book for the flights would be a great finishing touch on this product. Garmin has had it in the portables for years.

 

[mmarien]

Savvy Analysis does a good job of displaying engine parameters, but there is no program to display flight parameters or flight path.

Savvy Analysis does display the flight path of the flight and flight data including IAS/TAS/PALT/DALT/GALT/LAT/LONG and Vertical Speed all over time in graph form. Not a flight log but still useful information. Flight path shown here:

https://www.savvyanalysis.com/flight_map/666455/cbf074ae-c1f4-405e-bfee-58786bfe77e0

 

[swatson999]

Yes, but not a whole host of others...roll angle, pitch angle, lateral and vertical acceleration, etc.

The flight map is just a 2-d top-down view of the course flown.

SA is primarily for engine stuff...I think we're talking about a different application/end-use.

 

[dynonsupport]

Any suggestions for programs that you would like to see us support?

 

[GalinHdz]

Any suggestions for programs that you would like to see us support?

FltPlan GO. It is a free app that many of us use. Maybe even have the data sent wirelessly to Ithingy or Android.

 

[dynonsupport]

I think you are thinking of a different feature. I don't think FltPlanGo takes datalog from EFIS files and graphs them.

 

[mmarien]

I put together a quick log file parser to extract the flight logs from the USER LOG DATA. You can edit and save the flight logs. Importing multiple LOG files appends the flights to the current log. It also creates a Google Earth KML file that you can load in Google Earth to see your 3D flight path. It's very BETA. I'm looking for ideas as to what other data to extract and how to display it.

It can be installed from here: http://www.digitalmapping.sk.ca/FlightLogParser.htm

Sample of Google Earth flight path created by the program from a USER LOG DATA file.

 

[Wal_Thompson]

Nice work. Are you willing to provide the source code? I might be able to work it into a linux/open-source/multiplatform version if that's OK with you

 

[TRCsmith]

Just would like something simple. Where to where and flight time,..but nooooo.   That's to simple; let's show everything including date of birth  . I'll try what ever you come up with..

 

[dynonsupport]

In this case, "simple" is harder than what looks hard. Figuring out when the plane is stopped, and what airport it's near requires databases, location math, and processing logic that looks sample to sample. Just graphing location is just data formatting.

Not that what you are asking about can't be done, but it isn't just a few lines of code.

 

[mmarien]

Nice work. Are you willing to provide the source code? I might be able to work it into a linux/open-source/multiplatform version if that's OK with you

Sure. PM me and we can exchange email addresses. I used Visual C# Express so there is not a lot of code.

 

[mmarien]

Something I noticed when I started looking at my flight logs in Google Earth is that when I take off the altitude is out by up to a hundred metres. But when I land the altitude is correct. I consider takeoff to be 60 kts. It also seems to be Ok when I do circuits. See below:

 

[mmarien]

I updated the log parsing program to a more stable version. I added options to add the TAXI path to the Google file and a way to determine when the aircraft is airborne. I also changed to GPS altitude for the Google earth file. It eliminates the problems mentioned above.

http://www.digitalmapping.sk.ca/FlightLogParser.htm

 

[swatson999]

Not too familiar with Google Earth...is there a way to have it "fly" the kml file's "path"?

 

[mmarien]

Interesting idea. I can record and save a tour with Google Earth which looks like flying. I'll have to see what the kml file looks like for a tour and see if I can convert the user logs to a tour. Thanks for the idea.

 

[mmarien]

I created a different version of the USER LOG file parser to output a "tour" of the log so that it looks like Google Earth is flying the flight path. There are a couple of limitations. The program only extracts the first flight from the file. I think it's a Google Earth limitation as it can only have one tour per file. I'll work on a solution. For now the output KML file overwrites any KML files with the same name so if you created a flight path with the previous program this one will overwrite it and vise versa.

The biggest limitation is that Google Map has no way to roll. Pitch does follow the pitch angle in the log file.

To make a flight a reasonable length I divided the IAS by 1000 to create a time interval between points.

You can install the program here.

http://www.digitalmapping.sk.ca/FlightLogTourParser.htm

if you don't want to install the program here are a couple demo files to see what it looks like. You need Google Earth installed for them to work.

FlightPath
FlightTour

 

[Janekom]

Hi Mmarien,
Do I have to use the User Log from SV or will the Black Box data also work?
Thanks. Jan.