If you've been flying for 50 years you probably don't want to enter your entire flying career into WentFlying.

Now in the admin you can enter the hours that you're up to when you start using WentFlying.

Currently this is only for basic flying time, we may add the options for aircraft, engine or gear type time, depending on demand.

Enjoy!

We've added a couple of new features this evening.

Duplicate Flights

First up, the ability to duplicate flights. This should make life a lot easier if you're adding multiple identical or near identical flights. Everything about the flight will be duplicated, except for an attached file. Here's what to do:

• From the flights page, click on the flight you want to duplicate.
• There is a new "duplicate flight" button. Click it, and the flight will be duplicated immediately.
• You can then edit the new duplicated flight if needed.

Back Seat Option for Glider Pilots

For gliding it can be useful to know how much time you've had flying from the back seat, so we've added a tickbox for this on the edit flight page.

The stats page now shows the time and number of flights for this under the 'Types of Flight' menu.

I guess this might also be useful for jet fighter pilots :)

We've just added the entire United States aircraft database to our existing database of Australian and New Zealand aircraft. That takes us to over 300,000 aircraft!

The reason for this big database is to make it easy for you to add an aircraft into your logbook. If the registration matches an aircraft we've loaded, most of the details are added for you automatically.

It is however quite easy to add/edit aircraft manually, incase your country hasn't been added yet, or if there is some missing information.

Unfortunately the UK database isn't available for download, so we won't be adding that anytime soon. If you want us to try and load your country let us know.

For those flying VFR in New Zealand, I've put together a Garmin GPX file of all the VFR reporting points. These points can be viewed in Garmin MapSource (or RoadTrip), or on any Garmin mapping device.

They've been made to have a red and white navigation icon, so they really stand out clearly on the screen, and look different to other waypoints you may have.

This file was created from the VFR reporting points PDF file available on the CAA website, available from this page.

If you have any questions or comments about this file please use the comments section or contact Tim here.

Warnings

• The points in this file have not been checked for accuracy.
• The file was generated automatically from the text extracted from the PDF file from CAA on the 16th April 2009.
• As CAA states in the PDF file, "pilots must be careful not to rely on GPS or other GNSS derived positioning to reach visual reporting points due to the elevated risk of encountering other aircraft due to the extreme accuracy of such navigation systems. When approaching visual reporting points, the primary navigation means by VFR pilots should always be by visual reference."
• Do not use this file or these points while flying, always refer to an official Visual Navigation Chart, available for purchase here.

 

How to use

• Download the GPX file above, and save it somewhere on your hard drive eg. your desktop
• In MapSource on Windows, choose "File"->"Open" from the main menu. If you're on a Mac choose "File" -> "Import" from the menubar.
• On Windows Ensure "Files of Type" is set to "GPS eXchange Format (*.gpx)" or "All Files (*.*)"
• Find and select the file.
• If you're on a Mac check the Road Trip preferences that the "transfer" tab will send waypoints.
• Upload the waypoints to your GPS.

 

It was a tough choice choosing a suitable GPS for gliding. During a competition here's what is essential:

• Track recording at 2-3 second intervals
• Built in Altimeter
• Map to see airspace boundaries
• Screen visible in sunlight and shadow 
• Battery life for at least 6 hours or so
• Final glide computer (not essential, but rather handy)
• Routes and ability to see how far away from waypoints we are.

There are heaps of options, unfortunately very few are designed for glider pilots in particular. Options include:

• Specialised gliding computers
• PDAs with gliding software on them
• Garmin GPS devices
• iPhone with built in GPS
• Car GPS systems (aka PNA or Personal Navigation Assistant)

In the end I purchased a Garmin 60CSx. There are 2 other Garmin GPS's with almost exactly the same features, but different form factors. The 76CSx, and the eTrex Vista HCx which are also worth a look. These models are over 2 years old. There are newer replacement models available, with bigger screens. So why are these still the best?

Cost

At around $550 New Zealand dollars, the Garmin 60CSx was not anywhere near as expensive as dedicated gliding computers. It's not the cheapest Garmin either, but is definitely one of the best and has almost all the features I needed.

Reliability

The Garmin is rock solid. The software never crashes, and once it picks up satellite reception it never looses it while flying. Track recording is also reliable. Even if it runs out of space in the Garmin device, it keeps recording the track onto the micro SD card.

Battery life

If you're flying in a competition the last thing you need to worry about is running out of batteries. Thanks to the small screen, and the fact you don't need the backlight on, the batteries last for up to 18 hours, maybe a little less with NIMH rechargeables. I always carry spare batteries, however I've never needed to use them yet.

Because they last so long you don't need cables connected to the glider battery, which saves clutter in the cockpit, and is safer - if an emergency exit is required, cables won't get in the way. All in all it's a lot less hassle.

Screen in sunlight

While there are more recent Garmin devices with bigger screens, such as the Oregon and Colorado, none are as easy to view in direct sunlight and shade as the 60CSx. From what I've read on the Internet, the Vista HCx is brighter with the backlight on, but I haven't tested this.

What's wacky is the brighter the sunlight, the easier the screen is to see which is the opposite of most colour screens. The backlight doesn't make any difference in sunlight and isn't super bright at night, but it's bright enough.

Maps

In New Zealand there are free turn-by-turn directional road maps available for the Garmin. The area I fly is rather flat so road maps work quite well.

New Zealand airspace is also available, however because these are not aviation devices, it's only outlines placed on the map. No alerts are given if you venture across the line like the aviation Garmins would.

Routes

It's not too difficult to set up routes, and turnpoints. While flying towards a waypoint you can see how far away you are from that point. Essential when you have to reach within half a kilometre from a point.

Glide Ratios

Although perhaps not as good as a gliding PDA that can calculate final glides, the Garmin's do offer glide ratio to destination and vertical speed. As a final glide calculator is only truly accurate in perfectly still air, the not-so-accurate glide ratio actually works pretty well. It gives values like 13:1, or 50:1.

Accuracy

The 60CSx GPS appears to be super accurate, often indicating on the device an accuracy of  plus or minus 3 meters.

John from MapToaster also comments that "For an uncorrected handheld GPS the accuracy is more like 90% of readings within 10m.  The EPE value on the Garmin GPS is indicative.  It doesn't take into account all of the sources of GPS error ".

From other casual reports I've read on the Internet it appears the 60CSx is one of the most accurate GPS devices around.

Altimeter

The built in altimeter is great. It can be calibrated on the ground with either the current air pressure, your altitude, or if you don't know either, from the GPS altitude. The altitude is recorded in the GPS track, and checking while flying is usually very close to the glider's built in altimeter.

Because the altimeter is based on barometric air pressure, it only works in a non-pressurised cockpit, which suits gliding fine. I have tried the GPS in a commercial pressurised plane. While it is possible to view the GPS altitude, but this isn't recorded.

Serial Port

While this won't affect many people, our club has IGC approved data loggers that are serial port based. The  60CSx has serial and USB ports, so they work fine. All the newer GPS's are USB only.

Mac Compatibility

There is heaps of mac software available for the Garmins, including Garmin's own RoadTrip application. I use this to load on waypoints and Routes. It's also easy to upload a waypoint to the GPS from Google Maps with a Garmin browser plugin that works with Mac OS X just fine..

Portability

Because of the small size, it's easy to move the GPS between gliders, essential when I fly up to 5 different gliders in a club environment. Most dedicated gliding equipment needs to be permanently installed. It's easy to find and buy suction cup mounting arms for the Garmin's too.

Use outside the glider

The Garmin also works provides turn by turn directions, so it's great in the car, out walking or geocaching.

Conclusion

The perfect GPS doesn't quite exist yet. There are a number of devices such as the iPhone and newer car based GPS system that have bigger screens, but are let down by either sunlight visibility, battery life, or cost.

There are also the Garmin aviation devices which have fantastic screens, and most of the desired features, however these are thousands of dollars, instead of hundreds.

So even though the 60CSx and 76CSx are old models, over two years old, they're still some of the best. I think my ideal setup would be using a Garmin in combination with a bigger device for maps and airspace.

We've put together this video demonstrating how to import your logbook from an existing spreadsheet.

Key points include:

• The olumn titles in your spreadsheet must match the wentflying fields exactly.
• The data needs to be in exactly the right format, in particular dates and aircraft registrations.
• You can undo any import, incase it doesn't work as expected, make changes and try again.
• It doesn't matter what columns you import, or in what order.

 

Welcome to WentFlying! After many months of work, wentflying.com is now up and running.

I'm a glider pilot and web developer based in the Waikato, New Zealand. I spent quite a bit of time looking at various electronic logbook systems and never found one that seemed to fit, so developed my own. Here's what I was going for:

• A smart design.
• Simple to use, and quick to insert aircraft and flights.
• A reasonable price.
• Compatible with Macs.
• A companion iPhone application, to add flight times at the airfield before I forget them.
• Support for gliding as well as power flying.
• The ability to write a flying journal, and perhaps store a few pictures.

A logbook system fits the web very well. It also has the side benefit of being compatible with Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhones and most any other web browsers.

So wentflying.com has launched. It's not perfect, but it does most of what's listed in the list above. The graphic design isn't quite finished, and there's no iPhone version yet, however it's an excellent starting point.

Check out the demo account, or for more details see the website.