By Tim Dawson - 8/7/2017 10:45:30 AM
SkyDemon logs your flights automatically by detecting your takeoff and landing. You can start the logging earlier though, and finish it manually, if you'd like to log more than just the flight time (e.g. engine time).
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By Tim Dawson - 9/4/2017 10:52:31 AM
SkyDemon will already do that. It automatically starts logging when you take off but you can start logging earlier, if you like, at a moment of your choice. Just use the option from the in-flight menu.
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By spaltchr - 9/4/2017 11:27:58 AM
dear tim
as i mentioned many of us need the off- and on-block times. so why don't log that time automatically, too? technically it is possible. i would really appreciate that and i'm sure there will be lots of others, too.
you have such a cool layout for the pilot log witch all those fields to fill in on top. wouldn't it be great to have like a red line through those logs, maybe fill in those fields automatically during the process of the flight and get the same handy layout for the log and debriefing pack?
best regards
chris
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By Tim Dawson - 9/4/2017 12:28:41 PM
It isn't possible to automatically log the on and off block times. You cannot simply detect movement because people frequently move around (walking out to their aircraft etc) in flying mode.
I'm afraid I have no idea what you're referring to in your second paragraph; if you have a suggestion for a new feature the Suggestions forum is a good place to try it.
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By spaltchr - 9/4/2017 2:17:47 PM
+xIt isn't possible to automatically log the on and off block times. You cannot simply detect movement because people frequently move around (walking out to their aircraft etc) in flying mode. I'm afraid I have no idea what you're referring to in your second paragraph; if you have a suggestion for a new feature the Suggestions forum is a good place to try it. Hmm ok... It's a pity because others realised that function:  Me personally never had the problem of walking around in flight mode. And i really don't want to go back to that other solution. SD is so much more innovative, user friendly, much richer in functions and listens to the community! Would you consider to ask other users about that or are you just saying "no"? Maybe a poll: "What time do you need to be logged for your Logbook: 1. Flighttime 2. Blocktime?" could be something, isn't it? My second paragraph should have been a compliment first of all for the feature "Pilot log". And then my suggestion was to rearrange to information on top of the Debriefing pack in a similar way to make the time-related informations easier to read:   I brought that here, because it is related to my first point. It only makes sense when realising an automatic block-time-feature, maybe even accessible already when in flight mode... Best regards Chris |
By jfw - 9/5/2017 6:28:53 AM
Hello,
Regarding the logging of the blocktime, I just manually start the logging of SD when starting the motor and stop it manually when stopping the motor.
SD has thus all the info as it detects the take-off and landing and records it separately....
Not sure how you want to detect the blocktime either.
Hope this helps.
Br,
J
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By spaltchr - 9/5/2017 6:37:58 AM
+xHello, Regarding the logging of the blocktime, I just manually start the logging of SD when starting the motor and stop it manually when stopping the motor. SD has thus all the info as it detects the take-off and landing and records it separately.... Not sure how you want to detect the blocktime either. Hope this helps. Br, J Blocktime is not equal to engine-time. It is the time from your first movement with own power to the last own powered stop. That is easily trackable by movement on the GPS-Sensor and exactly what SD does already. They only do that for the time being to track flighttime, where they most probably use a specified groundspeed as tracking-trigger. I know my wish resembles a luxury-problem. I wear a watch, i have two clocks in my cockpit and so on... But it is a really handy feature to have everyting together without having to think about that when starting to taxi... Best regards Chris |
By ckurz7000 - 9/5/2017 7:41:08 AM
I understand where you are coming from, Chris.But isn't it possible to start logging by simply pressing the "Go Flying" button? That would correspond to Off Block. Tapping "Stop Flying" would be On Block again. And the take-off and landing events are detected autmatically by SD anyway.
Detecting Off- and ON-Block automatically can lead to problems win some situation such as when one taxis to the fuel station.
Greetings, -- Chris.
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By spaltchr - 9/5/2017 8:00:25 AM
+xI understand where you are coming from, Chris.But isn't it possible to start logging by simply pressing the "Go Flying" button? That would correspond to Off Block. Tapping "Stop Flying" would be On Block again. And the take-off and landing events are detected autmatically by SD anyway. Detecting Off- and ON-Block automatically can lead to problems win some situation such as when one taxis to the fuel station. Greetings, -- Chris. I'm stubborn, I know :-) For the short taxi to the fuel station I don't have my iPad on... So that short phase would nod be mixed up with blocktime. Do you press the go flying button the moment you start taxiing? I press that button when I'm preparing for the actual flight in the cockpit well before taxi. This would result in a blocktime which is too long... And my goal would be an automatic detection without any buttons to press. Because if I need to press a button i could have a quick look on my watch as well and write that time on my kneeboard... I'm repeating myself: It is actually possible to integrate such a feature. Other apps (Jeppesen Flight Deck VFR and others) did that. But I don't want these apps anymore for several reasons and I would love to see SD getting more and more a complete solution for a VFR pilot. Best regards Chris |
By Tim Dawson - 9/5/2017 11:02:27 AM
We don't integrate features just because other software does, we integrate them because lots of our users will find them valuable. I recognise the value of a block-time feature but I also know that doing it automatically will not work in a foolproof way. Just because other apps are showing you something doesn't mean it's right.
SkyDemon can log block time if you start logging when you start moving and stop logging when you stop moving. The flight time will be logged automatically as a subset of that.
I can't see us complicating the product by adding a flawed block time logging function unless a large number of people wanted it and a much better algorithm than "am I moving" was decided upon.
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By spaltchr - 9/5/2017 1:39:02 PM
Ok, I see... At least I tried to ask for it based on my experiences with almost every available product on the market. Thank you anyway. Maybe one day there will be enough (visible) demand for such a feature.
Best regards
Chris
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By jfw - 9/5/2017 2:08:01 PM
+x+xHello, Regarding the logging of the blocktime, I just manually start the logging of SD when starting the motor and stop it manually when stopping the motor. SD has thus all the info as it detects the take-off and landing and records it separately.... Not sure how you want to detect the blocktime either. Hope this helps. Br, J Blocktime is not equal to engine-time. It is the time from your first movement with own power to the last own powered stop. That is easily trackable by movement on the GPS-Sensor and exactly what SD does already. They only do that for the time being to track flighttime, where they most probably use a specified groundspeed as tracking-trigger. I know my wish resembles a luxury-problem. I wear a watch, i have two clocks in my cockpit and so on... But it is a really handy feature to have everyting together without having to think about that when starting to taxi... Best regards Chris
But you got my idea :-)
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By Tim Dawson - 4/9/2018 1:57:27 PM
Thank you for that valuable contribution. As I'm sure you remember, taxiing should be at a fast walking speed, so your idea of a 10mph threshold wouldn't cut it for an automatic detection of off-block time.
You are very welcome to continue to use another product; we only ever expect people to use SkyDemon if they find it fits their needs.
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By DMOIN - 4/13/2018 2:04:44 PM
Hi Tim,
you are welcome....
The threshold must support real conditions. 10mph was just an example and If it is 25mph it is fine for me. I hope your are not that short minded as your answer makes me feel. If so, than it is more than doubtful if you understand Pilot's needs. Fact is, taxiing speed must be below the speed this plane will lift.....and high enough not to detect fast movements. In ANP, a fast moving is recognized and if the plane has not lifted after a while, this "flight" simply is "not closed" and will be deleted automatically. Only the entire flight form taxiing, lift of, flying, landing taxiing and "no movement", generates the logbook entry....Air Navigation pro is capable to manage this since years. Their issues currently are different.
Is there someone from Skydemon, beside you, who is professional enough to have a conversation on a certain level about his?
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By Sky Painter - 4/13/2018 4:15:25 PM
+xHi Tim, you are welcome.... The threshold must support real conditions. 10mph was just an example and If it is 25mph it is fine for me. I hope your are not that short minded as your answer makes me feel. If so, than it is more than doubtful if you understand Pilot's needs. Fact is, taxiing speed must be below the speed this plane will lift.....and high enough not to detect fast movements. In ANP, a fast moving is recognized and if the plane has not lifted after a while, this "flight" simply is "not closed" and will be deleted automatically. Only the entire flight form taxiing, lift of, flying, landing taxiing and "no movement", generates the logbook entry....Air Navigation pro is capable to manage this since years. Their issues currently are different.
Is there someone from Skydemon, beside you, who is professional enough to have a conversation on a certain level about his?
You obviously have no idea who you are dealing with! Tim is not only the Managing Director and chief software architect at SD but he is also a pilot, having gained his PPL in 2006. Edited to add:- I have no affiliation with SD, other than as a very satisfied user, and the above information is readily available on SD's website if you bothered to check for yourself. |
By Tim Dawson - 4/16/2018 4:27:49 PM
DMOIN, I think further discussion on this topic isn't likely to yield results. We like to do things right or not at all, and our threshold for implementing features is not likely to be the same as that of other companies. If another company's product does things better overall for your personal usage, I suggest you use that product instead of SkyDemon.
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By Sebastian S. - 8/5/2017 9:53:36 AM
Hi,
I am a new user of SD, formerly JeppFD MFD and I want to know if it is enough to start the flight with the relating button and the the logbook is active with counting the Off Block time, flight time and so on, like in other Apps or do I have to go to the menu " start loggging"?
Thanks,
Sebastian
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By alexis.hellen@gmail.com - 8/29/2017 12:06:43 PM
+xSkyDemon logs your flights automatically by detecting your takeoff and landing. You can start the logging earlier though, and finish it manually, if you'd like to log more than just the flight time (e.g. engine time).
Cheers, Alexis
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By spaltchr - 8/30/2017 7:28:36 PM
it would be really great if the output would be more than just flight time. i guess many of us if not even a majority logs block time. so getting the times as follows would be really helpful:
off block
takeoff
landing
on block
flighttime
total time
what do you think about that? an integration on top of the flightlog would be great.
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By spaltchr - 9/5/2017 2:27:21 PM
I need to warmup my oil first ;-)
Best regards
Chris
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By alexis.hellen@gmail.com - 9/6/2017 4:58:39 AM
I am also all for having an automatic block time on SD. This would allow people who monitor engine time to use the start / stop flying button for that, then block an take-off time would be automatic.
Further up, I asked if it would be possible to export all flight data in a ,CSV or similar format to input in a digital pilot logbook: is it at all possible yet? Or is this an option you have planned? And what about an integrated pilot logbook?
Cheers, Alexis.
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By Tim Dawson - 9/6/2017 3:50:23 PM
We have the Log Summary feature which exports into an HTML table. Nothing more planned at this stage, and we don't currently plan to put a Pilot Logbook feature into SkyDemon.
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By DMOIN - 4/5/2018 7:31:46 PM
+xSorry to say, but this is nonsens. If you are reading the GPS Signal you can detect speed by calculating the movement. I think we can agree that by using thresholds, it is quite simple to detect that the plane is movin on ground (below 40Mph and above 10mph, or flying over 50mph) What I read in you answers and sorry to be blunt but I got the same ignorant answer a while ago from you, is that you personally don't want it. The issue here is that you are not representing "the" Pilots using your software. If you would start a survey by asking you current users or potential ones, if they would like to have a editable automatic logbook aboard, I am sure >80% would appreciate this. I am still using ANP because this. I am lazy and do not want to manually calculate all my flight times, off block and onblock times. I have around 500 hours logged into ANP, so basically my full flying records. I several times controlled the automatic logged ones with my regular checkflights logged by my instructor and there wer in worst case 2 minutes discrepancy between ANP automatic logged times and manually logged time. So what you are saing is basically that your programmers tim is not capable to implement such a feature because they cannot use the GPS SDK's?? This would make me a bit afraid as these are essential for all calculated flight times of SD..... Bottom line is, by all your innovative GUI setups. AS long you are delivering only a crippled logbook functionality I will stay with the crippled support of ANP...... Both software packages basically do fulfill my personal requirements but ANP is capable to have the "bonus" of a fully functional logbook with editable records so that, even a automatic logging failed, I can edit the times and correct them.... A bit more customer orientation in this case would suit SD, Warm regards, Andreas We don't integrate features just because other software does, we integrate them because lots of our users will find them valuable. I recognise the value of a block-time feature but I also know that doing it automatically will not work in a foolproof way. Just because other apps are showing you something doesn't mean it's right. SkyDemon can log block time if you start logging when you start moving and stop logging when you stop moving. The flight time will be logged automatically as a subset of that. I can't see us complicating the product by adding a flawed block time logging function unless a large number of people wanted it and a much better algorithm than "am I moving" was decided upon. |