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Drone Flight Log in Excel

Gandalf00

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Presenting the Drone Flight and Maintenance Log (DFML), Rev1.0. I searched the net quite a bit for a drone flight log, but never found one that covered everything I wanted in a log. So, taking inspiration from all that I found plus items I thought to be useful, I built one myself from scratch in Excel.

It covers most anything I think I will need in terms of drones. But I thought other people may be able to make use of it, so I’d like to make it available to other drone pilots in the hopes that it might be useful.

Now for the CYA stuff.

As stated, I created this sheet from scratch. I did take inspiration from several online logs. In particular I liked Nobue Andersons’s flight log (Drone Flight Logbook - Free Download - The Drone Trainer). Some of his implementation I liked, and some parts of his sheet I felt were not useful to me. Let me emphasize, I did not download his sheet, then modify it. I created my own log from scratch. Don’t misunderstand, he did a great job and I can highly recommend his log if that floats your drone. But I wanted something different, so I created my own log with my own preferences for data recording.

This log is presented an open source project. Take it, use it, modify it, and even sell it if you think you can, but please don’t try to lock it down so that other people can’t use this log without obligation.

This drone flight log is presented “as-is” with no warranty or support of any kind promised or implied. Use at your own risk (UAYOR)!!!

FAQ

  • Can I modify this sheet? Yes! But BE CAREFUL!! It is completely unlocked and unprotected. There are a few columns that have formulas as cell entries. They are marked red at the top as a reminder not to mess with them If you change a cell with a formula in it and the sheet craters, IT’S YOUR FAULT! I highly recommend you keep an untouched copy of the sheet somewhere as backup.
  • This (or that) column of data is ridiculous, who needs that, or why didn’t you include X, or Y or Z? Don’t like it? Change it! It’s no skin off my nose if you change it to suit yourself. Just remember UAYOR!
  • Can I use this with a Mac? Absolutely no idea. It should work AFAIK, since all it has outside of a vanilla sheet is some formulas and named cells. Give it a try and let us know how it works out.
  • I don’t like Excel, can I use this with Google sheets (or whatever)? As it stands, since all it has outside of a vanilla sheet is some formulas and named cells, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. But hey, I certainly am not an expert on GS/Excel compatibility, so if you are a real wiz at converting between the two, knock yourself out. EDIT: I tried some quick testing and it appears to work in GS. YMMV.
  • I need help with … Can you help me? Sorry, I can’t do tech support. If you have a question or suggestion ask it, and I’ll help if I can, but no promises. I am only online off and on, so please don’t feel insulted if your question goes unanswered.
How To Use

Overall tab

This is where the record for all your flights are kept and summarized. Sort of a “at a glance” of all your flights. There are two items to be manually entered in this tab: The drone’s description (Aircraft column) and its ID/Nickname (ID column) that you will use throughout the sheet. The rest of the cells are meant to be populated automatically from the Flight_Log tab but as of Rev1.0, this has not been implemented.

Flight_Log tab

This is where you enter all the relevant flight data per flight. Most of the columns are self-explanatory. I left some dummy entries in there that hopefully shows how it works. Again the red means populated automatically, so don’t mess with those columns. Note that local time to UTC conversion is not yet implemented as of Rev 1.0. A lot of that data is taken from the Kitty Hawk and DJI apps at flight time, at least that is how I get that data.

Some of the features of this tab are:

Location – text field; can be a description or GPS coordinates. Still pondering the best way to implement GPS.
LAANC – Needed Y/N and if Y space for LAANC number
Flight time in various formats
Incident – Was there one Y/N? If Y, can record in Incident_Log.

Everything else I can get from the apps as recorded in my “field log”. A note about that. Since I haven’t got a good method for taking Excel with me into the field, I use a separate piece of paper to record things with a pen. I then transfer that data to the log when I am back at my main computer. Also, I get the flight time by uploading my DJI text log to Airdata. Definitely improvements can be made in the way data is taken and consolidated, but it is what it is at the moment.

Battery_Log tab

Again self-explanatory. Note the ID column is where your batteries are named in both the ID/Nickname sense and also in the cell variable name sense.

Maintenance_Log tab

Self-explanatory

Incident_Log tab

Self-Explanatory. This is meant to be useful not only for documenting all the minor crashes or incidents you may have, but also as a record if anything major happens and you have to file a report with the Feds.

Information tab

Info on pilot, hardware, file locations and any other reference information you might need.

Notes tab

Conversion factors, variable cell name dictionary, and any other reference info about the log itself.

Todo tab

Self-Explanatory

So that’s it. I hope people find this useful. Right now it is still a bit inefficient in terms of data entry. I find this is too cumbersome to take to the flight location. I have a separate sheet I take to the field to manually write down a lot of the information. I then transcribe it into the log once I get back to my office. Also as noted above, some info (right now, flight time) I get only after going to one of the online sites like Airdata. But it is a good start as I look for means to make the data entry more efficient.

Here is the link:
 
Thanks for this and the detailed instructions. I plan to take a closer look at it this evening, but it appears to be very well thought out.
 
Nice one.
Downloaded & had a play around, works great but personally don't think it’s something I would use.
 
Gandolf, thank you for your days of work on these Excel-based flight log with the other well thought out tabs for other record keeping!
 
Presenting the Drone Flight and Maintenance Log (DFML), Rev1.0. I searched the net quite a bit for a drone flight log, but never found one that covered everything I wanted in a log. So, taking inspiration from all that I found plus items I thought to be useful, I built one myself from scratch in Excel.

It covers most anything I think I will need in terms of drones. But I thought other people may be able to make use of it, so I’d like to make it available to other drone pilots in the hopes that it might be useful.

Now for the CYA stuff.

As stated, I created this sheet from scratch. I did take inspiration from several online logs. In particular I liked Nobue Andersons’s flight log (Drone Flight Logbook - Free Download - The Drone Trainer). Some of his implementation I liked, and some parts of his sheet I felt were not useful to me. Let me emphasize, I did not download his sheet, then modify it. I created my own log from scratch. Don’t misunderstand, he did a great job and I can highly recommend his log if that floats your drone. But I wanted something different, so I created my own log with my own preferences for data recording.

This log is presented an open source project. Take it, use it, modify it, and even sell it if you think you can, but please don’t try to lock it down so that other people can’t use this log without obligation.

This drone flight log is presented “as-is” with no warranty or support of any kind promised or implied. Use at your own risk (UAYOR)!!!

FAQ

  • Can I modify this sheet? Yes! But BE CAREFUL!! It is completely unlocked and unprotected. There are a few columns that have formulas as cell entries. They are marked red at the top as a reminder not to mess with them If you change a cell with a formula in it and the sheet craters, IT’S YOUR FAULT! I highly recommend you keep an untouched copy of the sheet somewhere as backup.
  • This (or that) column of data is ridiculous, who needs that, or why didn’t you include X, or Y or Z? Don’t like it? Change it! It’s no skin off my nose if you change it to suit yourself. Just remember UAYOR!
  • Can I use this with a Mac? Absolutely no idea. It should work AFAIK, since all it has outside of a vanilla sheet is some formulas and named cells. Give it a try and let us know how it works out.
  • I don’t like Excel, can I use this with Google sheets (or whatever)? As it stands, since all it has outside of a vanilla sheet is some formulas and named cells, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. But hey, I certainly am not an expert on GS/Excel compatibility, so if you are a real wiz at converting between the two, knock yourself out. EDIT: I tried some quick testing and it appears to work in GS. YMMV.
  • I need help with … Can you help me? Sorry, I can’t do tech support. If you have a question or suggestion ask it, and I’ll help if I can, but no promises. I am only online off and on, so please don’t feel insulted if your question goes unanswered.
How To Use

Overall tab

This is where the record for all your flights are kept and summarized. Sort of a “at a glance” of all your flights. There are two items to be manually entered in this tab: The drone’s description (Aircraft column) and its ID/Nickname (ID column) that you will use throughout the sheet. The rest of the cells are meant to be populated automatically from the Flight_Log tab but as of Rev1.0, this has not been implemented.

Flight_Log tab

This is where you enter all the relevant flight data per flight. Most of the columns are self-explanatory. I left some dummy entries in there that hopefully shows how it works. Again the red means populated automatically, so don’t mess with those columns. Note that local time to UTC conversion is not yet implemented as of Rev 1.0. A lot of that data is taken from the Kitty Hawk and DJI apps at flight time, at least that is how I get that data.

Some of the features of this tab are:

Location – text field; can be a description or GPS coordinates. Still pondering the best way to implement GPS.
LAANC – Needed Y/N and if Y space for LAANC number
Flight time in various formats
Incident – Was there one Y/N? If Y, can record in Incident_Log.

Everything else I can get from the apps as recorded in my “field log”. A note about that. Since I haven’t got a good method for taking Excel with me into the field, I use a separate piece of paper to record things with a pen. I then transfer that data to the log when I am back at my main computer. Also, I get the flight time by uploading my DJI text log to Airdata. Definitely improvements can be made in the way data is taken and consolidated, but it is what it is at the moment.

Battery_Log tab

Again self-explanatory. Note the ID column is where your batteries are named in both the ID/Nickname sense and also in the cell variable name sense.

Maintenance_Log tab

Self-explanatory

Incident_Log tab

Self-Explanatory. This is meant to be useful not only for documenting all the minor crashes or incidents you may have, but also as a record if anything major happens and you have to file a report with the Feds.

Information tab

Info on pilot, hardware, file locations and any other reference information you might need.

Notes tab

Conversion factors, variable cell name dictionary, and any other reference info about the log itself.

Todo tab

Self-Explanatory

So that’s it. I hope people find this useful. Right now it is still a bit inefficient in terms of data entry. I find this is too cumbersome to take to the flight location. I have a separate sheet I take to the field to manually write down a lot of the information. I then transcribe it into the log once I get back to my office. Also as noted above, some info (right now, flight time) I get only after going to one of the online sites like Airdata. But it is a good start as I look for means to make the data entry more efficient.

Here is the link:
I'm wondering if I took the FAA safety course for night flying do I also need a waiver? I'm kind of curious
 
I was looking for something to use for a flight log for all my UAVs and found this. I made a few changes including:
added a "hanger" sheet to list all planes and accessories to track spending (yuck)
created a macro (chatGPT) to copy any rows in flight log that have a 'y' in the incident column to the incident log
I'm working a few more changes but thought I would share what I have so far. The incident Y/N must be in lowercase as written to transfer using BUTTON 9 in the header row.
 
I was looking for something to use for a flight log for all my UAVs and found this. I made a few changes including:
added a "hanger" sheet to list all planes and accessories to track spending (yuck)
created a macro (chatGPT) to copy any rows in flight log that have a 'y' in the incident column to the incident log
I'm working a few more changes but thought I would share what I have so far. The incident Y/N must be in lowercase as written to transfer using BUTTON 9 in the header row.
Cool! I like the "hanger" tab idea.
 
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