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Are logged foot launches a relic of the past? - Hang Gliding Org
Polling threads

Moderators: sg, mods

Do you keep a flight log for foot launches?.

1 I have never bothered with a log.
No votes
0%
2 I started a log but now i don"t bother.
3
7%
3 I keep a log but it is very basic.
6
13%
4 I keep a log and it has all the details of the fly.
6
13%
5 I now use a video log.
No votes
0%
6 I use an electronic log book.
7
15%
7 I use a hand written log book.
10
22%
8 My flight log was begun less than 10 yrs ago
4
9%
9 My log was begun more than 10 yrs ago
3
7%
10 My log was begun more than 20 yrs ago.
3
7%
11 My log was begun over 30 yrs ago
3
7%
12 My log was begun over 40 yrs ago.
1
2%
#400722
I write my log in an almost story like manner...its easy to remember that way even from decades ago and besides the statistical info, i mention any good or bad moves i did,the pilots who were with me,unusual weather etc. I never logged the first 5 yrs...it didn"t seem important...I think it became a legal requirement[ Is it still?}, ...I wish i had my Gopro back then too :lol:
#400725
Normally I keep very good notes and records of everything I do professionally, but for some unknown reason I didn't write many notes on my first few mountain flights. After a few weeks went by, I got around to hand-written logging the flights while reviewing the flight vids. How much did I not remember? My vid editor allows me to add time-dependent notes throughout the vid files, which I did each flying evening, otherwise I would have lost many small details. Of course and the highly-valuable apre's flight video debriefings.

I've found that the vid flight debriefings, if done within seconds of landing, greatly add to the value the flight vid, even if reviewed months after the flight.

When I was over at Blue Sky a few weeks ago, I noticed David Botos making notes of every flight, after every flight. That lit a candle (duh) and so now I've been doing the same, then adding to those notes while reviewing the flight vids in the evening or the next day.
Thanks David!
I've been writing the logs in a large pocket-sized note book. Those log books that u$$pa sells are not fit for even the birds.

Details I usually record in addition to the location, date and times are
Launch altitude
LZ altitude, wind strength and direction, temps
Launch performance/faults
Flight tasks/faults
Landing performance/faults
Time aloft

What I would like to start recording in addition are as follows:

Launch altitude, wind strength/direction/gusts, temp, pressure, and DA just before launching.
LZ altitude, wind strength/direction/gusts, temp, pressure, and DA just after landing.
Cloud types and base altitudes
Recent weather fronts/highs/lows
Atmospheric activity and feel at varying noted altitudes (narrated recording should help with this)
Pilots' names who fly with me
Anything more?

As mentioned on another thread, I just ordered an audio recorder a'la J.Deitch to allow better in-flight commenting and narrating. I hope it's use will lend more precision to the logs.

I'm tempted to begin a digital log via Excel as I can type much faster than I can write, and editing is much easier.

Either way, I need to improve my flight log recording.

The ushpa doesn't say much at all about flight log keeping but I did find this passage:
When you travel outside your local area, your rating card tells pilots at other sites that you have shown a level of competence in your flying. Your instructor’s name is on the card too, along with any special skill signoffs you may have. All of these things give other pilots a reference point to estimate your ability. Together with your flight logbook, your rating card establishes your credibility as a responsible, skilled pilot.
(https://www.ushpa.org/page/ratings-and- ... troduction

This leads me to another conclusion about good log keeping. I have access to many great flying sites all within about four hours' drive, most closer. Many of them have restricted to very-restricted LZ's. Being a newcomer to the sport, a good, thorough log at the ready would better help local pilots judge whether I should fly at their sites within the present weather conditions.

Flying my agile, versatile, Super-Falcon (I love this ship!), I've learned that so far I am able to put her down well where-ever I want to in varying, reasonable weather conditions, RLF or not. And I've found that adding to my flying site repertoire helps immensely in developing my flying skills and confidence. Being able to communicate my skills in the form of recorded logs to others prior to flight may go a long way in gaining access to more challenging sites as well as gaining new, more-experienced flying buddies.
#400730
Like virtually everyone else, I started out with the standard USHGA logbook, in order to advance my ratings. At first, the entries were very basic - matching the simple nature of my flights. As I progressed, I found myself cramming the comment section with as many details as I could.

Eventually, I switched to my own version of a flight blog, with a full narrative of every aspect of the day. Who was there, conditions on arrival to launch and what time arrived. Any changes to conditions while setting up; launching, soaring, landing, post-flight. I include my thoughts on the glider's performance, my own physical/mental performance, any instrument issues - the works. I include my favorite photos as another way to memorialize the flight, and to save them in an additional location other than my hard-drive. I send these reports via email to my flying buddies, and keep an email file which functionally becomes my Flight Log.

It's a terrific way to relive the flights - much more personalized than a track-log and very easy to create.

RM
#400741
I keep my flight log in https://www.koifly.com/ – my wife built this simple app specifically for hang gliding. Apart from basic fields like location / duration / max altitude / etc. it also lets you record free-form notes for each flight, but I don't bother unless something special happened that day.

A few times a year I gather up enough spare time to post photos to Facebook with a story detailing the day and assorted observations. It's rather time-consuming so I haven't been doing that recently.

Sometimes I look at my GPS tracks in Google Earth or in Doarama, especially to compare with wife's if we were flying at the same time.

I also occasionally email to myself assorted HG lessons learned, both general and specific to certain sites I've flown. I usually re-read those when the season starts.

Lastly, I keep a maintenance log of my glider – what was done, and what needs to be done. I could do it in Koifly too, but I use http://trello.com/ instead because most of my non-HG todo-s live there.
#400742
Charlie Romeo wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:13 am I write my log in an almost story like manner...its easy to remember that way even from decades ago and besides the statistical info, i mention any good or bad moves i did,the pilots who were with me,unusual weather etc. I never logged the first 5 yrs...it didn"t seem important...I think it became a legal requirement[ Is it still?}, ...I wish i had my Gopro back then too :lol:
LEGAL REQUIREMENT!?!?

I don't think there is anything in Part 103 that states that you have to maintain a logbook of any sort. If there is then Im a criminal! Nah, j/k. My log consists of a file on my laptop that I download all my track logs into. I have no logs of all the flights I have done at the coast with no variometer. Logging always seemed pointless to me. Ill probably eat my words when I try to get an instructor rating some day.
#400743
I started out being very conscientious about keeping my logbook, because hanggliding meant so much to me. Then after five or ten years I'd loose my logbook, and start a new one. So I clicked on the "over 40 years ago", since that's when I started my first one. I've been through a few now. I found one of my old ones from about 20 years ago, but it got wet at some point and mostly I can't read it. The last entry, at about 600 hours, says "Funston: Fantastic Shear!" This year I started with one of those college composition books, and I've been writing about 1/2 page per flying day about whatever I want. Only about 25 hours this season, I hope to do much better next year. I hope my logbook will bring back happy memories when I'm too old to fly anymore.
#400744
Thanks guys, i definitely feel happier knowing there are many who see the uses a log can bring. Great atitude D.Marley, experienced flying buddies critiquing my flying always helped me.A big :ditto: to what others posted, your Koifly is the modern way Raquo and Dave858 i think you have to like writing to keep a detailed log, an interesting example TJW was at our monthly club meetings i would give a quick talk called Cols Chronicles, this was a synoptis of the coming months weather and flying sites flown from my 37yrs logged.Yes Waltspoint it does bring back many wonderful memories :popcorn:
#400750
DMarley wrote:When I was over at Blue Sky a few weeks ago, I noticed David Botos making notes of every flight, after every flight. That lit a candle (duh) and so now I've been doing the same, then adding to those notes while reviewing the flight vids in the evening or the next day.
Thanks David!
Guilty as charged. I didn't have my little notebook for my very first lesson, but I wrote down plenty when I got home that day. I use a 3x5" spiral notebook (top-bound; they also make side bound) and a basic BIC clicky pen (both fit in a snack size zip bag). I record the date, launch/wind direction/strength, weather conditions other than wind, who else was in the class, and then notes about each flight (things I observed and tips/comments from my instructor). I also used to record what glider(s) I was flying before I bought my Falcon. It's also a great place to make little notes to yourself about gear improvements, items to add to your preflight checklist, etc.

Handwritten notes from that notebook eventually get transferred to my digital log book, which is a Word document that I just keep adding to. Whenever I update it, I also barf out a .pdf copy and email that, the Word doc, and the plain text to myself so it's easily accessible and in more than one format in case the Word doc gets messed up.

And even less often than I update my digital logbook, I take the content of that and make a Cliffs Notes version in my red USHPA logbook, so that I have something more digestable and quicker to read for taking to other sites.

It is fun to read back over my logbook occasionally. I remember when I was kind of bummed out this Spring about the pace of my progress toward my H2 and I looked back at some of my entries when I was in the middle of working on my H1 and had similar feelings. It felt like I was doing the same stuff over and over each lesson, but when I looked back at those notes, I saw many different little things that I was learning and trying to put into practice. Plus there's all those memorable flights that you can go back and relive, such as:

-my first flight ever; I made it all the way to the cone; I attribute this to doing nothing and just letting the glider fly itself mostly
-my first foot landing
-the first time I ever got above the trees and saw the fields of the farm next door
-the flight where the primary tow bridle spiraled around itself after release and I had to use the secondary release; I designed and fabricated hook knife after that lesson to have as a plan C
-first time turning around off-tow and doing a landing pattern
-the time I bent my base-tube on a rocket-to-the-moon way-too-early flare
#405966
#1 for me.