Flight Reader Giveaway 12/9/2023 (post and win!)

[msinger]

I'm giving away a Flight Reader Recreational license ($99 value) to one lucky winner this week on Saturday, December 9th.




What is Flight Reader?
Flight Reader allows you to decrypt and view your DJI TXT flight log data (and other flight log types) right from your Windows desktop.

Some notable features:

• Privately process and view your flight logs locally on your Windows computer (no need to upload your flight logs to the Internet).
  
  
• Flight Reader's proprietary flight log processor generates over 380 flight data points (more than all other flight log applications).
  
  
• Customize the columns included in the generated logs and aircraft/battery reports.
  
  
• Auto sync your flight logs from the DJI Cloud to eliminate the painful process of manually retrieving them after flying.
  
  
• Pay once and use Flight Reader forever (no need to pay mandatory yearly subscription fees).

See more details here.


How can you enter this giveaway?

• Reply below and tell me:
  • Why you like to review flight logs
  • A benefit of reviewing flight logs
  • Share a useful flight log related tip
  • Or expand on an idea someone else shared
    
    
• You'll get one entry each day you participate between now and Saturday, December 9th.
  
  
• If you're a Premium Pilot member, you'll get two entries each day you participate (and other benefits of the premium membership — like no ads on this site).
  
  Note: I'll be giving away another Flight Reader Recreational license each Saturday in December, so keep an eye out for a new giveaway thread each week.

How will I pick the winner?
A winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, December 9th. I'll post the winner here when selected.


How can you try Flight Reader today?
There's no need to wait and see if you're the lucky winner. You can try Flight Reader for free today here.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I'm giving away a Flight Reader Recreational license ($99 value) to one lucky winner this week on Saturday, December 9th.

I process the csv's, from Phantomhelp or a trial version of FlightReader to create a log book, via a Linux program that is based on something someone posted here a few years ago.
Since I can modify the program it allows me to track/compare whatever I want or to find/see how-many/what flights have exhibited a behaviour that I can figure out a way to write the code to track.

 

[msinger]

I process the csv's, from Phantomhelp or a trial version of FlightReader to create a log book, via a Linux program that is based on something someone posted here a few years ago

Got a link to that post?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Got a link to that post?

Not any longer sorry but I am sure your programming skills are far, far better than the OP's and mine. ** I have the impression your FlightReader may already be capable of much that my program does.
I could send you a copy of 'mine' but I will need to sanitise it as it has a lot of stuff related to the way I name the csv's and that will take some time. *

I am not sure if the idea of dividing a line under examination into 'fields" is common to all coding but initially my version worked on the idea of looking the 'x'th field/column of a line/row for relevant information, where "x" was a 'fixed' number whose value was dependent on the relevant field/column number.
From memory that approach worked across the csv's coming from Go & Go4 via either TXTlogToCSVtool or Phantomhelp and possible TXTlogToCSVtoolMM on Mavic Mini logs.
However, when I started to use the Mini 2, fixed field/column numbers went out the window as the location of columns changed i.e. what was the "i"th field became the ("I"th = x) field.
For me this was a challenge, it probably isn't for a real coder.
I ended up having the program look at, for the csv being processed, the column titles in the csv via a "for a >= 1 to a <= the number of the last column" to find the appropriate column and effectively set old field/column number to "a".
I'd guess you already do something similar.

If I was looking for the first cell in that column containing sensible data then the remaining cells in that column are ignored. If I was looking for maxima or minima then the search for the relevant data runs in "if" loops and replaces the 'old' stored value with a 'better' one when found.


My handling is further complicated by the fact that at the time I didn't know how to output the data at the end of the processing of a given csv so I output it when the program encountered the first line of the next csv.
Probably crap programming lol and it means I have to have a 'ghost' csv in the folder containing my csv's otherwise I get no output for the final csv.

* When I decided to adapt the program to handle my library of crash/loss/problem flights from the web I have started to move away from using 'add ons' in the csv names. Primarily that relates to sorting out whether or not the csv's are metric or imperial and outputting everything in metric units.

Realistically I suspect you would think it is awful programming but it works for me lol.
My formatting is also probably crap but I have been trying to improve that.
The program also spits out various other output files as it goes through, these have sometimes been used for checking where I screwed up etc. or looking at things not included/wanted in the log book.

**I recollect having a look at some of the post-processing files that flight reader creates and thinking that there are similarities in things we are outputting but I promise you that nothing has been copied from the output of Flightreader.

The basic idea was to monitor battery usage and ID which drone flew which flight, subsequent additions stem from looking for things mentioned in various threads or as I realised that I could track other things of interest e.g. which drone took photos and video and when it took it, useful for ID'ing imagery.
.


The program is written for awk/gawk to it is, I think, all freebie use only.

 

[Arnold LeVine]

Flight logs are fascinating. They are invaluable when there is a problem or a lost drone

 

[msinger]

Realistically I suspect you would think it is awful programming but it works for me lol

That's how programming works. You learn what not to do over time. It's an exciting career/hobby as there is always something new to learn.

**I recollect having a look at some of the post-processing files that flight reader creates and thinking that there are similarities in things we are outputting but I promise you that nothing has been copied from the output of Flightreader.

No problem. You can use the exact format if you like it... no secrets there. The real secret sauce is in knowing how to accurately extract flight data out of the encrypted flight log files.

The basic idea was to monitor battery usage and ID which drone flew which flight

I recently added new aircraft/usage reports to Flight Reader. It makes it very easy to retrieve usage data for any period of time.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

That's how programming works. You learn what not to do over time. It's an exciting career/hobby as there is always something new to learn.

Do you want a copy?
Exciting isn't the word I'd use lol.
The folks that do this for a living must have incredibly focused minds lol.

 

[msinger]

Do you want a copy?

I was just curious and the detail you provided is good enough. Thanks!

The folks that do this for a living must have incredibly focused minds

Oh, a must have to do it well!

 

[smbishop]

I'm giving away a Flight Reader Recreational license ($99 value) to one lucky winner this week on Saturday, December 9th.

View attachment 170818


What is Flight Reader?
Flight Reader allows you to decrypt and view your DJI TXT flight log data (and other flight log types) right from your Windows desktop.

Some notable features:

• Privately process and view your flight logs locally on your Windows computer (no need to upload your flight logs to the Internet).
  
  
• Flight Reader's proprietary flight log processor generates over 380 flight data points (more than all other flight log applications).
  
  
• Customize the columns included in the generated logs and aircraft/battery reports.
  
  
• Auto sync your flight logs from the DJI Cloud to eliminate the painful process of manually retrieving them after flying.
  
  
• Pay once and use Flight Reader forever (no need to pay mandatory yearly subscription fees).

See more details here.


How can you enter this giveaway?

• Reply below and tell me:
  • Why you like to review flight logs
  • A benefit of reviewing flight logs
  • Share a useful flight log related tip
  • Or expand on an idea someone else shared
    
• You'll get one entry each day you participate between now and Saturday, December 9th.
  
  
• If you're a Premium Pilot member, you'll get two entries each day you participate (and other benefits of the premium membership — like no ads on this site).
  
  Note: I'll be giving away another Flight Reader Recreational license each Saturday in December, so keep an eye out for a new giveaway thread each week.

How will I pick the winner?
A winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, December 9th. I'll post the winner here when selected.


How can you try Flight Reader today?
There's no need to wait and see if you're the lucky winner. You can try Flight Reader for free today here.

1. I like to look at basic stats like distance, flight time, number of flights, and have a repository on my PC of every flight log.
2. A benefit for me is to monitor battery usage so that all of the batteries are being used about the same amount.
3. Set Flight Reader to automatically retrieve logs from the cloud. Then, each time you launch FR, new flights are loaded.
4. I have a license for my desktop PC at home. I would love to have a license for my laptop when I am away from home so that I can still track my flights.

- Premium Pilot Scott

 

[msinger]

And this week's winner is...

 

[msinger]

Congrats @Yorkshire_Pud! I'll contact you via a PM to get the details for your Flight Reader license.

For those who didn't win (or didn't have a chance to post), another winner will be drawn next Saturday. Keep an eye out for the new contest thread.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

That's great, cheers Msinger and thanks.
Oh and just incase this nominally adds me to the draw for the next one please withdraw my name.

 

[msinger]

just incase this nominally adds me to the draw for the next one please withdraw my name

It won't. You must participate to win.