Flight Log Book

edonovanl · Mar 18, 2015

My hand written log book is a narrative of what I practiced and what I did new, mods (non yet), so it's really a diary of my experiences. I even comment about when my drone makes me pee in my pants (Hypothetical)...I wonder if some day, after I can fly accurate figure 8s in manual, if I'll read back through this experience and chuckle at some of the stuff I've written...

nhoover · Mar 18, 2015

I log in Google Drive:

Date, Which Copter, Flight number, battery number, battery flight number, battery start/end %, location, conditions, time of day, any special HW or SW, interesting filming or other notes, link to Flytrex mission

This is really useful to go back to sometimes. Glad I started from the beginning - over 325 flights now.

edonovanl · Mar 19, 2015

nhoover, I've been meaning to ask someone - do you count the number of flights by the number of batteries you use in an outing, or is each outing considered a flight? Is there a standard that everyone uses?

Jetlagged787 · Mar 21, 2015

I came across a system of logging using an Excel spreadsheet recently.

I cannot recall which forum it was on but it can be found on the guy's website here:

http://jatobservatory.org/misc/UAV/webp ... t_Log.xlsx

As he says, it is easily editable to fulfill your own needs.

Narrator · Mar 21, 2015

hychewright said:
Hello pilots, I sure have been educated on some good ideas about flight logs and I am glad to see that a lot of UAV pilots (professional and for flight enjoyment) use flight log books just like private pilot would. Thank you all so much for your info on how and why you log your flights..........

As for my Phantom that I ordered from DSLRPROS, I knew up front it would be a month to 6 weeks before it would be delivered. You see, my purpose to use the Phantom is for film making. I make short film for travel agency's and I will be adding aerial video for the first time...........

What DSLRPROS does is a complete overhaul , if you will, of the Phantom and set it up for the best aerial video platform at a reasonable cost and that includes FPV, long range, ground station, special futaba transmitter, special video receivers ect. They keep me informed on the build and right now they are waiting on OSD's. This business is growing at such a rapid pace that parts run out fast and have to ordered...

After the build is complete and all firmware is updated and ready to ship the Phantom goes through a flight test several times to make sure all systems work as suppose too. All I have to add is my video cameras...

Their website is DSLRPros.com if you would like to see their products and what they do..............

Best Regards

Lamar Wright.......... PS I live in Alabama USA

I checked out the DSLRPros website. It looks like an excellent place to go for a purpose built custom drone. Please keep us informed about it. I'll be keen to see how you go with it. I plan to fly commercially, starting with the Phantom. But to increase my capabilities I plan to upgrade eventually to an S1000+ with a Canon D60 and dual operator, or similar setup. DSLRPros may have a suitable custom job.

edonovanl · Mar 22, 2015

I think I would consider an Inspire1 before a phantom upgrade by FPVLR - wouldn't it be better to start from a better platform and upgrade it? I admit that I don't know too much about the Inspire, and maybe the stuff to upgrade it's video platform may not be available...

Porktoaster · Mar 22, 2015

I only log the date and number of flights.

nhoover · Mar 22, 2015

edonovanl said:
nhoover, I've been meaning to ask someone - do you count the number of flights by the number of batteries you use in an outing, or is each outing considered a flight? Is there a standard that everyone uses?

I keep count of the number of times each battery has been used. I don't make distinction between a flight to 20% and a flight to 50% though, but mine average to 30% I'd say. So I record: Flight 145+: Battery 5-23, 99%->23%

which translates as: 145th flight of my P2V+ using battery 5, its 23rd flight, starting from 99% ending at 23%.

One outing might be one flight, or several - right now I have 4 batteries that are all working great, and 4 that I've retired after 40-60 or so flights each.

I don't think there's any standard; I just like to do it this way.

edonovanl · Mar 23, 2015

nhoover, I like your approach - while I don't record battery condition after each flight, every few days I document the condition of each battery by plugging it into the Phantom and reviewing and documenting it's condition. Then I fly the less-often used batteries to try and keep them all at a similar number of cycles.

kirk2579 · Mar 26, 2015

In all honesty I just fly to have fun,

I watch my battery and land when low,

repeat as needed

have 2 phantoms now and have had 3 at 1 time, I have no idea how many flights , when or where unless I check videos.

I track battery use via assistant and other than that no log or written record,

I keep records for works and hate that so for fun I sure aint going to do IRS caliber records, but thats just my lazy butt