ForeFlight reports the ForeFlight Logbook is now available.
Logbook is integrated into the ForeFlight app, making it easy for pilots to manually and automatically log flights, track hours, review currency, record certificates and ratings, receive electronic instructor endorsements, and generate experience reports, according to company officials.
“With ForeFlight Logbook, we wanted to deliver an app for pilots that makes recording flights simple, provides currency information at a glance, simplifies experience reporting, and never loses a logbook entry,” says Tyson Weihs, ForeFlight’s cofounder and CEO. “ForeFlight Logbook goes well beyond the basics, with automation for flight entries based on our automatic flight logging system, encrypted instructor signatures and endorsements, real-time syncing across iPhone and iPad, and automatic backups that regularly snapshot your logbook.”
ForeFlight Logbook automatically uses recorded Track Logs, ForeFlight’s built-in flight data recorder, to create draft logbook entries, eliminating the need to manually enter basic flight information like date, total flight time, and route. Pilots review the entry, add desired details, and then tap to save the flight to the digital logbook. Custom fields offer flexibility to capture and track any additional information the pilot needs, company officials note.
A color-coded dashboard includes a recent flight experience summary where pilots can see their activity at-a-glance. For example, they can check if they are current for IFR flight or for carrying passengers at night. Pilots can export a flight experience report that can be used for completing annual insurance forms, rental applications, job applications, and more.
ForeFlight Logbook also supports digital endorsements allowing instructors and examiners to sign endorsements in the app using their finger or a stylus. A database of more than 60 endorsement templates derived from FAA Advisory Circular 61-65E eliminates the need to type endorsement text, while still allowing the customizations necessary to complete an endorsement, according to company officials. Logbook endorsements and digital signatures are locked and stored in the ForeFlight Cloud for safekeeping.
Logbook is available with ForeFlight 7.5 as part of ForeFlight’s new Basic Plus and Pro Plus plans, or as an upgrade to the Business Pro plan for multi-pilot accounts.
A how-to video is now on YouTube:
This is an ‘enhancement’ that already exists in multiple apps. It and other recent foreflight gadgets are nice, but not game changers. They increase the volume of code, potentially slow the program, and perhaps introduce a few bugs for little gain for many users. The settings menu already has obscure settings, like “ownship” that the unwary can mess with at their peril. A cafeteria style pricing system that goes beyond “VFR” and “Pro” would be very welcome. As the number of features (gadgets?) increases the loan on iPad systems and user pocketbooks likewise balloons with no obvious value received.