FB FltLog v1.3

FB FltLog v1.3 (12 July 2003) for the PocketPC is a basic aviation logbook to help you easily track your flying time.  It has been designed for ease of use and fast data entry.  This help file covers the features in detail.  Use the following links to jump quickly to a specific section:

• Quick Start
  
• About/Registration
  
• Main List
  
• Edit View
  
• Support Databases
  
• Totals
  
• 24 Hour Lookback
  
• 30-60-90 Tracking
  
• Options
  
• Contact/Support
  
• Version History
  

Copyright © 2002-2003 Front Beach Systems, LLC.

Quick Start

To get started quickly, you should first enter an aircraft. Tap on the second icon in the toolbar and add an aircraft to the list or change the ones already there and tap OK in the upper right. Now, you should set a couple options, so tap the options button (5th from left). On the general page, you should select your date format, whether Mil Labels are primary, Hour:Minute format (leave unchecked for decimal) and set the log to device time. You can set the labels if you like, but they should be pretty standard. Tap OK and you can start to add entries by tapping the "New Entry" button on the toolbar (first button on left).

You may want to start by adding "dummy" entries to represent your past flight time. Each entry can hold up to 1000 hours. You can quickly represent your past flight hours in a couple entries.

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About/Registration

The About screen provides basic information about the program, including version, date and copyright.

In the center of the page is the registration information.  The first box is the unlock key.  When you purchase an unlock key, the numeric value you receive should be entered in this box.  To purchase the program, you must provide information to the vendor for a valid key to be generated.  The next box contains the "Owner" value.  This should be provided to the vendor EXACTLY as shown, including case, punctuation, international characters and spaces.  The final line in the registration box contains the "RegCode".  If you receive an invalid unlock key, send an email to sales@frontbeach.com with your Owner information, RegCode and sales transaction number.  The regcode contains information to catch errors and "hidden" characters.

Finally, at the bottom of the page are email and website locations where you can find support and where you can purchase the program.

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Main List

The main screen has 3 parts:  Filter, List and CommandBar.

Filter:
The Filter section is on the top two lines and shows information on the titlebar.  The titlebar will have the number of records in the list shown in parentheses (e.g. "FB FltLog (23*)").  If there is an asterisk (*) next to the number, then there is a filter of some type applied.

The first button in the upper left labeled "All" removes all filters.  Tap on it if you want to see all of the records.  Below this is the "Reverse" button.  Tap on this to reverse the sort order of the list.  Items are normally shown in ascending order of date and departure time.  If you tap on the button to reverse the display, the button will indent slightly and the graphic will be reversed.

The 5 dropdown lists let you control which entries are displayed.  The selected filter will affect the Totals Page, the Edit Page, and partially affects the 24 Hour Lookback Page.  Moving from left to right and top to bottom, the dropdown list filters are:

• Days Filter - Select All days, 7, 28, 30, 60, 90, 365, current month, current year, 6 Month and 12 month.
  
• Categories - Select All or one of the 15 customizable categories.
  
• In Command - Select All, In command only or entries not tagged as in command.
  
• Acft/Sim - Select Both, aircraft only or simulator only for display.
  
• Aircraft - Select All, Civilian aircraft, Military aircraft, or any of the 10 individually defined aircraft
  

NEW for v1.1:  Added Export All/Filter menu items. These allow you to export all your data or the currently selected filter (including reverse order) to a .csv style spreadsheet.  This spreadsheet is called "FBFltLog.csv" and is stored in your documents folder under the "FBFltLog" folder.  You may copy this directly to your PC using the "Explore" function of ActiveSync and view/print data using a program like Excel.

Speed NOTE:  With a large number of entries, selecting reverse will slow down the program.  Consider setting a filter to reduce the number of entries shown if you experience a slowdown.

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Edit View

The edit view is the heart of the program. Here, you set all the information for each flight. Most of the fields are self-explanatory and you can customize most of the labels through the options page for ease of use. The titlebar will show the entry number and the number of entries in the list (an asterisk (*) will be shown if there is a filter applied to the list). If this is a new entry, it will show "++" instead of the entry number.

The top section contains the general flight information. New entries will be filled with default information based on your options settings. The Date and Dep/Arr times will be the current date/time adjusted by the time correction in the options unless you have set something else. Selecting a different aircraft from the list will change the tail numbers in the tail number dropdown (showing only tail numbers for that aircraft AND with no aircraft set). Tapping in the "Dur" field will auto-calculate based on the Dep/Arr times if it is zero (or if you have the "Tap recalc Dur" option set). The Rmk field is limited to 30 characters.

The "Times" tab lets you edit the 9 flight time fields. After tapping in a field, you can use the hardware up/down scroll buttons to change the values rapidly. This also works in any of the numeric fields (Dep/Arr/Dur/Counters/Exp).  Also, if you have the "Tap time field = Dur" option set, tapping on a blank time will calculate the duration and set the duration in the field.

The "Events" tab shows the Counter type fields (values of 0-255), the 2 extra checkbox fields and the Exp field.  If you have the "Tap count field = 1" option set, tapping on a blank counter field will set it to "1".

The "Notes" tab allows you to enter more information about the flight (120 characters).

At the bottom of the page, the "Done" button saves the entry and returns to the main list. The Delete button deletes the current record and the Cancel button discards all changes you have made (including cancelling an add new entry action). The "Next" and "Previous" buttons let you move through the entries in the filter. Changes to the current entry are saved before moving.

The toolbar below the edit page has the same functions as the buttons at the bottom of the page (for easy access if the onscreen keyboard is shown). In addition, there is a "New entry" button at the far left and a "Help" button on the far right, which goes to this page of the help file.

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Support Databases

Here, you can edit the Airfield, Aircraft, Tail Number and Category databases. Each database has a limited number of entries (50 Airfields, 10 Aircraft, 50 Tail Numbers and 15 Categories) which are shown on the left column of the list. To change databases, tap the button in the upper left and select from the menu. Tap "New" to add an entry to the list and "Delete" to remove the currently selected item in the list.

To edit an item, simply tap in the desired field and make your changes.

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Totals

The Totals page is pretty simple. The first sheet shows a description of the filter at the top and totals for the times and events. The "Daily" sheet shows the same filter without the "Days" and totals up the 7, 28, 30, 60, 90, 365, current month, current year, 6 month and 12 Month. It also shows the number of entries in each date range.

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24 Hour Lookback

The 24 hour lookback actually allows you to examine your flying/rest for the last 1-96 hours. The results are based on Aircraft only (no simulators) and the selected aircraft filter, which can be adjusted on this page.

At the top of the screen, you can set the date and time for the window. Next to the time is the "Now" button. If this is set, it will show indented and have a clock with a green checkmark. When set, the current device date/time will be used and results will be calculated automatically each minute. You can set 1-96 hours for the lookback window.

The "adjust" checkbox, when checked, uses the time correction set in the options to adjust the date/time. Finally, you can set the aircraft to include in the calculations and tap the "Calculate" button to force a calculation.

Results:
The top section displays the date/time for the current calculation and the adjustment factor, if any. Next, it displays the number of flights in the window, the total flight time (based on Dur) and the maximum "rest" (based on time between flights using Dep time and Dur).

The grid at the bottom shows the flight details for entries in the window. The far right columns show the Dur in the window and the "rest" before and after. Times marked with an asterisk (*) are calculated from the start or end of the lookback window.

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30-60-90 Tracker (new for v1.3)

The 30-60-90 tracking page allows you to view your flight totals and project them out for the next 60 days. The page uses the Day settings set in the Options. It is also dependent on the "Today counts as a day" setting.

The "adjust" checkbox, when checked, uses the time correction set in the options to adjust the date/time. Also, you can see the aircraft included in the calculations and tap the "Calculate" button to force a calculation.

The left column shows the date/julian date and the next 3 columns show your times as of that day.

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Options

The Options are broken up into 6 sheets: General, Default, Label, Auto, Custom and Day.

General:
The general section contains the most used options. The following table shows the options and their results:

Display Splash Screen	With the registered version, this controls the "About/Registration" page display on startup.
Date Format	Choose from Day/Month/Year (DMY), Month/Day/Year (MDY), or Year/Month/Day (YMD)
Date Separator	Choose the symbol that separates the day, month and year. Leave blank for a compact format.
Mil Labels	Choose the default label set to use when the program is unable to determine the proper set based on the filter or aircraft.
Scroll Page	Move one page or one line at a time when using the hardware scroll buttons.
Hour:Minute	Hour:Minute format or Decimal if not checked WARNING:  Changing to decimal format will cause the times to be rounded to a 6 minute interval. Your times will appear incorrect if you switch back to an Hour:Minute format.
Tap recalc Dur	Normally, the Dur will only calculate if it is zero. This allows you to enter up to 1000 hours in an entry. If you set this option, then the Dur will recalculate based on the Dep/App times when you first tap in it. If this option is set and you have a Dur that does not match the Dep/Arr times, it won't be overwritten unless you tap in the Dur field on the edit page.
Exp Symbol	Expense symbol - up to 3 characters
Decimal	Number of decimal places in the expense field (0-4)
Log times to Device time	Time correction factor (-12:00 to +12:00). For example, if you use Zulu time for your logbook entries and the device time is set to Eastern time (Z-5:00), you should set "-5:00". During daylight savings time, you would need to adjust this if necessary.

Last Entry	Base new entry on the last edited entry. Checking this will ignore all of the settings below except the Current Date setting.
Current Date	Use the current date for new entries
Acft	Default aircraft for new entries
Tail	Default Tail Number
From	Airfield to place in From field
Counter Field	Select the desired counter field from the dropdown and set the default value in the edit box next to this.
In Command	Default in command status

Labels:
The labels section allows you to customize the 2 sets of labels (civilian and military). You can use the label sets in any way you desire, they are just tagged as civilian and military by default. The first column shows the use for the field, the second column shows the civilian version of the label and the thrid column shows the military version. To make a change, simply tap on the field you want to change and enter the new text.

Auto:
The Auto section lets you add a couple automation features.

Auto exit when "X" clicked	With PocketPC, tapping on the "X" in the upper right corner does not exit the program, it minimizes it.  This means the program does not rlease the logbook database and you can't copy it for backups without using the "Tools->Exit + Close Log" menu option. By setting this option, the program will actually exit instead of minimizing.  Program startup will be a little slower, but it should fix the problems with trying to back up your logbook.
Auto Export on Exit	If you have AutoExit set and this option set, when the program exits, it will automatically generate a .csv export of your data in the FB FltLog document folder.
Export All entries	Only applies if AutoExport set.  By default, the program will export according to the filter you have set.  Setting this option forces the program to export all your data.
Always replace old export	If this option is not set, the program will will ask if you want to replace the old export file if it already exists.
Tap time field = Dur	With this option set, when editing a logbook entry, tapping on a blank/zero time field will force the program to calculate the Dur (if not already calculated) and set the time field to this result.
Tap count field = 1	With this option set, when editing a logbook entry, tapping on a blank/zero counter field sets it to "1".
Export dates as YYYY/MM/DD	With this option set, entries exported to .csv will have the YYYY/MM/DD format to help with PCs using various regional date settings.

Custom:
The Custom section lets you customize the main grid list page.

Customize main grid	By default, the program shows all fields in the main grid.  By checking this option, you can select 6 columns to display in the main list in a specific order. Changing to/from a customized grid will not take effect until you either exit and restart the program or edit a logbook entry and return to the main list.
Grid Columns	Choose the 7 columns, in order, that you want displayed in your customized main list.
Pixel width	Set the individual column widths in pixels.

Day:
The Day section lets you customize the main grid list page.

Today counts as a day	If this option is set, days filters will include the current day as one of the days.  For example, the 7 day filter will show the current day and the 6 previous days.  If not checked, the 7 day filter will show today and the 7 previous days.
Day Settings	Choose the 3 day settings used in the 30-60-90 tracking page.
Include sims in 24/306090	Check this option if you want the totals on the 24 hour lookback and 30-60-90 tracking pages to include sims as well as aircraft flights.

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Contact/Support

If you have questions/comments, please contact support at one of the following locations:

pocketlog@frontbeach.com
support@frontbeach.com
http://www.frontbeach.com/pocketlog

For information regarding a purchase, contact:
sales@frontbeach.com

For all support questions, please provide as much information as possible, including device type, operating system version (if known), program name, version and date, any messages and a summary of your actions.

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Version History

v1.3 - 12 Jul 2003: