steve too Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 7 hours ago, Cuban8 said: ... Before we know it it'll be compulsory medical checks next ... Not a medical, but the BMFA's Article 16 does require pilots to be fit to fly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 6 minutes ago, steve too said: Not a medical, but the BMFA's Article 16 does require pilots to be fit to fly. Now there's a can of worms, vacancy for club Physician ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan Disorderly Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Nothing can ever move forwards without comparative data. We don't all have to do it but it definitely helps if some do. The weirdos will step up to the plate unbidden and we're perfectly happy to help the rest of you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Whisky Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Futura57 Post - See above Quote No, I don't log flights or lipo charges, any more than I would log visits to the WC Well if you ever have a problem with bladder retention due to enlarged prostate, it's almost certain you'll be logging visits to the WC - and recording volumes passed too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 15 hours ago, steve too said: Not a medical, but the BMFA's Article 16 does require pilots to be fit to fly. That is completely reasonable and is pure common sense - could easily apply to riding a bicycle or operating machinery. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futura57 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 38 minutes ago, Romeo Whisky said: Well if you ever have a problem with bladder retention due to enlarged prostate, it's almost certain you'll be logging visits to the WC - and recording volumes passed too! There's only one type of WC log 😉 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jenkins Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Coming from a full size flying and gliding background, when I re-started model flying back in 2000, it felt perfectly natural to kept a log of all my training flights. This had date, model, and any comments e.g. which lesson and how well I thought I'd done. Once I went solo, I maintained the log and still do. I record trim setup changes whenever they occur e.g. CG position, wing incidence, rates, mixes as well as comments on how I flew and what I am having problems with - oh and if the wind speed / direction. When I passed my FW B, I was able to look back and see that I had flown 80 flights with almost always 2 B schedules per flight so a total of 160 Bs flown to get to the consistency I needed to feel sure I would pass. I did at my first attempt but was asked to re-do one of the rolling manoeuvres before the Examiner was happy. That's a useful story to tell folks who want to get a B. OK, so I'm a slow learner but I was starting from a low level of skill. For my electric flight, I have a strike off sheet that goes from 1 to 100 so that I know how many cycles that pack has had. One diagonal means the pack has been discharged and a cross, or 2nd diagonal, that the pack is fully charged. I also keep a record at home for each flight pack or how much charge went in, the IR and the cell voltage difference. This also provides a cross check with the battery pack strike off list. I used to do an annual tally of which aeroplane I'd flown, including number of flights and total duration and kept a running total of total flights and hours flown. That fell away once I focused on flying almost just 1 aircraft, my current competition bird. I find it useful to see how many schedule flights I've flown in the run up to competitions and for the year. It's never as many as I would like, of course. I just use paper records and print off the forms as I need them. I find that filling in the log after every flight helps me to think about how I flew and what I need to work on. It's useful sometimes to look back at previous history but that happens only very rarely. Why do it? Habit! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Well, looking back at the responses in this thread, I'm heartened to see that quite a few of my fellow flyers do log their flights, or take part in some aspect of record keeping and creating data which they find useful in their hobby. I totally get it that some flyers prefer not to do so and that is completely fine. It's entirely a personal choice. I thought it would be interesting to see the response from the much larger, international community on RCG and it couldn't have been more different - overwhelmingly, with just a few exceptions it was very strongly anti-logging, sometime really aggressively so and that did surprise me somewhat. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 RCG can be very "anti". 2 hours ago, Peter Jenkins said: When I passed my FW B, I was able to look back and see that I had flown 80 flights with almost always 2 B schedules per flight so a total of 160 Bs flown to get to the consistency I needed to feel sure I would pass. I guess at around ten minutes a pop, that's 800 minutes of air time, (round up) call it 15 hours of stick time. Doesn't seem unreasonable to learn enough skill to consistently pilot something to B standard. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan Disorderly Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 55 minutes ago, leccyflyer said: with just a few exceptions it was very strongly anti-logging, sometime really aggressively so and that did surprise me somewhat. ...presumably preferring to advance the hobby by means of hearsay and Chinese whispers, and it's all Spektrum's fault anyway. How dare you attempt to make anything better through use of data ! The funny thing is, I didn't once notice the log-keepers saying how daft not keeping a log was, yet plenty came back the other way (in a good-humoured way on this forum - but flak nonetheless!) Great thread leccy - it's been a really interesting read. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Thanks Dunc - though I'm not really intending to make anyone else's hobby better, just trying to keep track of my own models and equipment. I picked up a few interesting other angles from this thread that I might consider incorporating into my spreadsheet in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jenkins Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, Nigel R said: RCG can be very "anti". I guess at around ten minutes a pop, that's 800 minutes of air time, (round up) call it 15 hours of stick time. Doesn't seem unreasonable to learn enough skill to consistently pilot something to B standard. . Actually it was nearer 15 mins be flight so, on that basis, I make it 20 hours. The other point I would make is that I only ever flew my Wot 4 during that time and only ever flew the B schedules. It was a case of needing the B as soon as possible so that I could get into competitive aerobatics. I would never have know this had I not kept the notes that I did. The notes also showed that the most difficult manoeuvres were the 2 rolls. Eventually, I set up a low rate on the ailerons that gave a constant rate of roll with the stick hard over, and then I only had to work on timing the elevator application. A bit later on, when I was challenged on the very low roll rate being more akin to a slow roll, I measured the roll rate and found that rolling right took 2.5 secs per roll while rolling left took 3 secs per roll. Rolling with the engine's torque was faster! I would never have found that out since the difference in roll rate was not at all obvious to the eye! Funny what you learn with a bit of data! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 On 24/01/2024 at 09:31, steve too said: I've had a look to see what the CAA say on this subject and found this: (https://regulatorylibrary.caa.co.uk/2019-947/Content/AMC-GM/AMC1 UAS SPEC 050 1 d i ii.htm) So, while log books aren't in the BMFA's Article 16 at the moment, it wouldn't surprise me if they appear at some point. Indeed. This is also interesting/slightly worrying, though I suspect it probably doesn't apply to LOS recreational model flying... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jenkins Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 5 hours ago, MattyB said: Indeed. This is also interesting/slightly worrying, though I suspect it probably doesn't apply to LOS recreational model flying... This is usually required for flight crew licencing. Since we who fly model aircraft/drones for sport and pleasure are unlikely to be required to hold a FCL I would think that we will be exempted from this. If, we ever get to being classed as being Flight Crew then the hobby side of the sport will be done but then so will a lot of other odd aviation sports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrunner Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Inspired by this thread I've started to log my flights. As mentioned earlier I already log my motor/esc/battery test results with prop, Watts and Amps, but now I've started a new spreadsheet with very basic flight data, just recording name of model, number of flights and including wind speed and temperature. Hopefully I can keep it updated all year and it will be interesting to how many flights I manage and which models I fly. With my first flights of the year I've made a start today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jenkins Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Will you be doing that at the field Outrunner or when you come home. I write my comments after I get the aircraft back to the pits as if I leave it till I get home I'll probably forget key parameters. But that just might be my old brain or rather memory bank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrunner Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 I will probably update the log when I get home as I will know how many flights I've had by the number of batteries I have to put on charge and I never take more than 2 or 3 models to the field and I don't charge batteries at the field. If that doesn't work I might do some notes on paper at the field. I'm only logging very basic parameters like model flown, number of flights on each model, temperature and wind speed. It could evolve to more data but I want to keep it simple. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 I record stuff on my moby at the field/hall, then update my database at a later point.... just flights plus anything that I need to do in the way of maintenance or repair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Gates Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Does anyone here use specialist software? I used to but with training people it just got too hectic to record accurately. I used to use Flight Log. I will see if I can find it and post it for people to try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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