iPhone Time Calculator Suggestion

tpakiz

Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Messages
19
For the iPhone Time Calculator

Have HH:MM to HH:MM "Add Interval" to HH:MM, but sum "Total Duration" to Hours.tenths. Or have it be a selectable option.

For example, if I fly four legs and each is 1 hour and 21 minutes long (for a total of 5 hours and 24 minutes), using the Time Calculator, the total duration incorrectly shows 5.6 hours (should be 5.4 hours).

Another option would be have multiple out/in times (and the ability to "hide" TO/LD times). For example, if I set "Legs" to 4, I would have Leg 1 Out/In, Leg 2 Out/In, Leg 3 Out/In, Leg 4 Out/In


Any rough timeframe for an APDL iPhone app?
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Hello Troy,

The time calculator is designed to come up with a duration "by leg" so that your interval pair results in a decimal duration. Then it sums up the interval durations. It is not correct to instead take a total minutes for the day and in turn convert that to a duration value.

The software in its present form is not capable of logging multiple OOOI sets per flight entry, this is something we are investigated for Logboo Pro v2 PC edition with a different way we are handling legs/days.

APDL for iPhone won't be considered until after Logbook Pro v2 PC is done as it sets the baseline for the airline apps to follow.
 
I understand how the Time Calculator comes up with its total...I'm saying that I'd like to have the option to have it add all interval HH:MMs together and then spit out a Total Duration time for me...instead of rounding each individual interval and THEN adding the intervals together and converting that sum to a duration value.

When the airline says I flew 4 legs for a toal of 5+24, it doesn't know (or care) if that was 4 legs of 1+21 each or some other combination of legs/time..they and the FAA (and therefore, I) just care about hours+minutes for the day. And I'd like my logbook to reflect what the airline and the FAA (and therefore, I) say I flew that day, not the interval durations of individual legs. When I import to LBP, one of the ways I make sure I don't miss anything is see what the airline's monthly total is versus what LBP tells me I entered.

The Time Calculator feature is the sole reason I paid for a cloud sync subscription (I have been using LogTen, but can't import/sync easily with LBP...well I can, but only "By Leg" and I'm a stubborn "By Day" kindda guy!). I am an airline pilot and use LBP, but don't want a logbook that is 4-6 times thicker than it needs to be, so I log my flight time "By Day" to cut down on the entries. If I can't trust the time calculator to add correctly, the iPhone app serves me no purpose.

One of the great things I thought the iPhone mobile app would do (even better than APDL for my PPC--wow...that's saying a lot!) is allow me to "split" days of flying. Normally, I'd like everything in one entry (assuming I stay with the same airplane all day)...but *ideally* if I switch tailnumbers or crew members, I'd like the option of 2 (or more) separate entries.
 
What if I had the time calculator show you a total HH:mm for the intervals but keep the duration as is? It would be for reference only as Logbook Pro is only going to take a total duration for the flight purpose, the reason for the Time Calculator, but I'm getting a few inquiries that lead me to believe people are also using this as a pseudo duty calculator.

It's an easy mod, just want to be sure what will suit your needs without interfering with the purpose if at the same time.
 
That may work...If I saw 5 Hours 24 Mins, I could mentally convert that to 5.4 (even if "5.6" was displayed right next to it. That would be infinitely better than seeing 1.4 four times and a total of 5.6 (when, if you do the math on paper, adds to 5 hours + 24 Mins). One suggestion would be if you could also make it appear on the "New Flight" Log Page? Again, an option for display (hours.tenths vs. HH:mm) would be best, but I'd take your suggestion in a heartbeat over what we currently have--assuming it would also total, not merely display the interval HH:mm (1:37 + 1:31 + 1:45 + 0:52 +:1:39 would still require some paper and a pencil and more brain cells than I'm willing to commit!)

Honestly, the OOOI times (and the user defined default values thereof) are useless in the airline world, unless you only have 1 leg per day or are happy logging "By Leg". EVERY leg. Basically, when I get home from a 4-day trip, the last thing I want to do is sit down with my iPhone and modify/verify/transfer times into LBP on my PC. It is much better to log it "as it's happening" than try to figure out what you did later.

This may be far more difficult, but it would also work if you could program the sync/cloud to import groups of flights "By Day" (or even better "By all the same variables"--i.e. Date, Crew, Airplane, etc--though I understand the next-to-impossibility ramificaions). The biggest problem early versions of LBP mobile had (and the single reason I didn't renew after the free subscription ran out) is because there is no way to import "By Day"...only "By Entry". And "By Entry" was impossible to calculate times (within the app) for multiple leg days (plus night, instrument, approaches, landings, etc) until the Time Calculator addition. And the only deficiency of the time calculator is WHEN in the process it does it's rounding. If we could get that modified, it'd be a very functional tool.
 
Definitely you would see each interval have HH:mm and Duration and then a total at the top for total HH:mm added up and the leg durations added up as is. That may be a happy medium without confusing. I wouldn't want to have a total HH:mm, a Duration for total HH:mm and a duration for leg sum.

The option to pull data from the cloud in a By Leg or By Day option is on the tracker. I'll have to revisit this one for the next Logbook Pro PC update. I'd rather you logged by leg on your device and let the system do the combining to a by day. The problem is you'll lose some information in the process i.e. how do you merge custom text fields, remarks, etc. The highest fidelity logbook is going to be one that remains By Leg. I realize a lot of you are trying to save paper but in the end I still suggest people use By Leg. The Commander series logbook can hold a lot of flights and even if you had to use two binders in your career that's not a big deal in the span of an aviation career over the loss of fidelity from keeping by leg data.

Okay, it will take me 10 minutes to modify the time calculator. I have a few other goodies I want to get in and then I'll push 2.3.2 probably next week so you won't have to wait long. Don't hold me to that though! :)
 
I agree that "By Leg" is far superior to "By Anything Else". The problem is when you are flying 6-8 legs a day, 18 or so days a month, it doesn't take long to fill up even a Commander Binder...or 12.

I meant that the display could read, "5:24 // 5.6". Ideally, the user could select one or the other displayed to suit their needs (as I'd look at that and think, "5:24 doesn't equal 5.6!" and promptly input 5.4 into LBP Mobile.

The interval displayed in the Time Calculator in HH:mm would also be VERY helpful as we write the block times in the aircraft logbook/"can" and being able to see that total calculated would be nice.

Looking forward to the next update...the clock is ticking!:D
 
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