Log book/documentation apps
- Thread starter IFlyHi
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I used HealthyDrones.com for flight logs and some maintenance tracking. It is awesome for the flight logs. More info than you can imagine. I have traded some emails with the Devs. They are supposed to be upgrading the maintenance capabilities and may include a checklist feature.
I have searched the web over for a good checklist app. The closest I have found is DJI Checklist. I have traded some communication with that Dev for some upgrades to save and edit checklists. He has a "Pro" version that still needed a little tweaking last time I looked. I just sent him a message on that subject
I have searched the web over for a good checklist app. The closest I have found is DJI Checklist. I have traded some communication with that Dev for some upgrades to save and edit checklists. He has a "Pro" version that still needed a little tweaking last time I looked. I just sent him a message on that subject
A bit behind the curve, but I'll add a little to this topic.
Airdata (healthy drones) cannot be matched for logging. It'll log flights out of litchi, autopilot, and dronedeploy automatically. Yes, fully automated. And it'll log out of DJI with a couple clicks.
I use kittyhawk (the free version) for checklists and maintenance logging. It'll log checklist completions which is killer.
This combo is about as good as it gets, until Airdata gets us logging and maintenance functions.
Airdata (healthy drones) cannot be matched for logging. It'll log flights out of litchi, autopilot, and dronedeploy automatically. Yes, fully automated. And it'll log out of DJI with a couple clicks.
I use kittyhawk (the free version) for checklists and maintenance logging. It'll log checklist completions which is killer.
This combo is about as good as it gets, until Airdata gets us logging and maintenance functions.
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++ for Airdata + Kittyhawk combo here too.
After trying a bunch of apps this is where I landed. I paid for Kittyhawk for a month or two but I just didn't find the added features worthwhile at this time. I respect where they are going, and they have been very responsive, but it just didn't fit my needs enough, and some of the features like auto logging were too restrictive b/c of needing to use their app to fly or manually upload. I know myself well enough to know I simply won't do that.
Airdata is totally killer for logging. Almost fully automagic, I'm paying for the Gold plan, 1,200 flights, battery tracking. The Maint recs are great too b/c I'll forget otherwise. I'm finding that on the P4P the battery logs out of DJI are pretty good, too, on the Mavic it only captures battery serial # about half the time ... so I have three named serial number batteries and one "generic" battery that the flights get averaged out over.
Really the only things I wish that I could do with Airdata are:
- Checklists, but Kittyhawk does that well enough for now, though that may eventually go away as a free feature if they don't get the subscription base
- Some sort of compliance reporting option, I know they have the reporting on the top tier plan but when I looked it didn't look to quite be what say DroneComplier does.
- Somehow have some logic to combine flights that are actually the same flight. Sometimes I switch apps mid flight, or Go/AP/Litchi can still crash, and that generates a separate and distinct "flight" in Airdata. This also throws out maintenance recommendations based on # of flights, which can be annoying if I jump into Go to change gimbal settings then back to AutoPilot and it generates a 30 second Go flight.
++ for Airdata + Kittyhawk combo here too.
After trying a bunch of apps this is where I landed. I paid for Kittyhawk for a month or two but I just didn't find the added features worthwhile at this time. I respect where they are going, and they have been very responsive, but it just didn't fit my needs enough, and some of the features like auto logging were too restrictive b/c of needing to use their app to fly or manually upload. I know myself well enough to know I simply won't do that.
Airdata is totally killer for logging. Almost fully automagic, I'm paying for the Gold plan, 1,200 flights, battery tracking. The Maint recs are great too b/c I'll forget otherwise. I'm finding that on the P4P the battery logs out of DJI are pretty good, too, on the Mavic it only captures battery serial # about half the time ... so I have three named serial number batteries and one "generic" battery that the flights get averaged out over.
Really the only things I wish that I could do with Airdata are:
- Checklists, but Kittyhawk does that well enough for now, though that may eventually go away as a free feature if they don't get the subscription base
- Some sort of compliance reporting option, I know they have the reporting on the top tier plan but when I looked it didn't look to quite be what say DroneComplier does.
- Somehow have some logic to combine flights that are actually the same flight. Sometimes I switch apps mid flight, or Go/AP/Litchi can still crash, and that generates a separate and distinct "flight" in Airdata. This also throws out maintenance recommendations based on # of flights, which can be annoying if I jump into Go to change gimbal settings then back to AutoPilot and it generates a 30 second Go flight.
As to the Mavic battery topic, you can re-assign the "generic battery" flight to one of your numbered batteries. I just jot down a note on which mavic batteries I flew in which order so I remember which goes to which flight. This is a great little feature!!
If I wind up with a little 30 second flight like you mentioned above, I typically just delete the flight. I don't need to keep track of something so short.
I'd say if Airdata hits the checklist bit they will likely have the industry locked up. Kittyhawk still has a useful dashboard, but Hover and a couple others handle that just as well.
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Yeah I've deleted a few, but it's not just 30 second flights - with increasing battery lives on the drones it is not uncommon for me to end up flying two apps for 10-14 minutes off a single battery. And sadly it isn't unheard of to have Go4 or Litchi in particular hang up or have odd control issues (since upgrading to the new iPad 2017 AutoPilot hasn't crashed once yet - knock on wood).
re: the battery, I have them physically numbered as well but despite best intentions I'm not perfect at always flying them in order. For the generic battery I basically just assume an even split - so if I'm at 15/15/15 on batteries 1-3, and 15 on "generic battery" i just treat it as all three are at 20 flights. I've reassigned a few flights but I decided it wasn't worth the additional effort to remember those. For some reason, too, the Phantom 4 Pro has only missed the battery serial five times in 84 logged flights over the past two weeks vs 61 times over 138 flights for the Mavic!
I hit the flight minutes usually well before the # of flights recommended, anyways. I suspect at least for the Phantom I'm going to eventually break down at get the Venom charger which has a refresh cycle and storage modes - automation is the key for me! And letting four+ batteries slow drain is just too much of a PITA - esp. when at the pace I'm flying currently I'm hitting the recommended refresh cycles every week or so.
I'd be curious how you use Hover. I never really found any use with the app - I've downloaded it a few times b/c others talk about it, but I never see anything about it that is better than or even as good as any of the other apps. Is it just that it was a first mover that there are people still using it? Or am I missing something?
I mostly just use Hover to give the weather a quick peek. Kitty hawk can do the same thing. Although now kitty hawk has VFR charts as well which sorta makes me want to delete hover. I'm pretty into my automation as well. I want to get into a job, fly it and get out quickly with as little extra work as possible. A bit of my work is mapping and I need to get home to get images processing in order to get them delivered fast. Most of the jobs are 24 hours from phone call to image delivery and I still work a full time job, lol.
With where airdata is now, I could only imagine them getting better.... and even just a little bit better puts every other service on the market fully out of contention in my eyes. They aren't perfect, but they are the closest to it at this point. I can't wait for their app!!!!
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Okay, yeah, I use UAV Forecast for flight weather mostly, jumping to Kittyhawk for winds @ altitude sometimes if I'm going to be going up high. I live in a hilly area so it isn't uncommon for me to take off and within 1,000' see a 200-300' change in ground level. The winds at 700' can be pretty different than the winds at 100'! For winds I actually have found the app Windy to be the most useful, reliable, and accurate. I don't bother with it on a calm day, but I find most of the other weather apps tend to under-estimate wind speeds - Windy has been much more accurate esp. at projecting max gusts.
I saw Kittyhawk added the VFR maps which is great. For VFR I am a long time Gaia GPS Pro user, one of the great features is layering multiple maps on top of each other, and they have VFR maps as a source. With the multiple layers I can drop a VFR map over top of satellite, topo, or street maps (or one of dozens of other sources) with a transparency slider so its super slick to go back and forth. They have decent folder organization, too, so I have pretty much moved exclusively to using Gaia as my "mission planner" - with the addition of popping out to Google Earth for the 3d rendered view to scout sightlines, etc. I've manually added colored "area" overlays that I can toggle on/off for the local class A-E to sfc airspaces in my area. I'll pop to kittyhawk or airmap to get precision, but for scouting I just need the rough locations.
I saw Kittyhawk added the VFR maps which is great. For VFR I am a long time Gaia GPS Pro user, one of the great features is layering multiple maps on top of each other, and they have VFR maps as a source. With the multiple layers I can drop a VFR map over top of satellite, topo, or street maps (or one of dozens of other sources) with a transparency slider so its super slick to go back and forth. They have decent folder organization, too, so I have pretty much moved exclusively to using Gaia as my "mission planner" - with the addition of popping out to Google Earth for the 3d rendered view to scout sightlines, etc. I've manually added colored "area" overlays that I can toggle on/off for the local class A-E to sfc airspaces in my area. I'll pop to kittyhawk or airmap to get precision, but for scouting I just need the rough locations.
This has been a great thread that's been really helpful. It's been a couple of months (almost) since there have been any additions or updates so I'm just wondering if anyone else has experiences with any of these programs or apps or if you use and have comments on any of the ones already noted? I've got too many aircraft to keep doing this on paper and it's time to go digital.
Thanks
Andrew
Thanks
Andrew
I'm looking at getting Canada Drone Pilot.
(Android version also available.)
Displays Canadian airspace restrictions (which I need) and allows manual logging (which will be handy as I don't want to run two apps at once on my iPad).
Haven't used it yet so can't vouch for it in action.
Drone Pilot Canada
The Drone Pilot Canada app allows Canadian drone pilots to easily meet Transport Canada’s procedural requirements under the 2019 Canadian RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) regulations. Drone Pilot Canada provides a simple map interface to help identify safe flying locations. It offers...
itunes.apple.com
(Android version also available.)
Displays Canadian airspace restrictions (which I need) and allows manual logging (which will be handy as I don't want to run two apps at once on my iPad).
Haven't used it yet so can't vouch for it in action.
I have been using Airdata and even the lowest paid plan gives lots of great information. I love being able to see all of my flight information with just a few clicks of the mouse.
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