FLIGHTLEDGER / PRACTICAL GUIDE
Electronic pilot logbook: plan portability before choosing a workflow
Separate an ongoing logbook from a conversion job, and test what survives an export before moving records.
By Zijian Xiao
Separate the ongoing record from a file task
An electronic pilot logbook is an ongoing system for maintaining flight records. A converter is a tool for preparing or reviewing a file at a particular moment. Decide whether you need daily record entry, a migration, a checked spreadsheet or a printable review copy before choosing software. For a small existing digital record, an ordinary spreadsheet may be sufficient without a conversion purchase. Paper records still need transcription first, whether by hand, by a human service or by a photo-scanning app whose drafted entries you check one by one; FlightLedger itself does not read handwriting or scans.
Test portability with your own fields
Before moving a full history, obtain an export from the current source and inspect its actual columns. Look for dates, aircraft identifiers, total time, relevant components, landings and remarks. Confirm whether supporting evidence and other non-table content are separate. Do not assume that everything visible in an application exists in its CSV. Keep the export unchanged and document the field meanings. A small representative sample containing unusual entries is more useful than only checking ordinary flights, because it exposes the categories and text that may not map cleanly elsewhere.
Check time and date semantics
The same-looking numeric value can mean decimal hours or hours and minutes. Confirm the source convention before comparing totals. Preserve blank component fields as unknown instead of asserting zero time. Night, PIC and cross-country can overlap, so adding all component columns is not supposed to reproduce total time. Keep actual, simulated and generic instrument labels distinct when their meanings differ. For dates, use source context to resolve day/month ambiguity. A migration that preserves every digit can still change meaning if it maps those digits using the wrong unit or field definition.
Compare a manual and a converted route
You can map a small CSV in a spreadsheet and use the destination's own import controls without buying a separate converter. Keep identifiers as text, convert times deliberately and compare counts and totals before and after import. A conversion service may help by normalizing fields and reporting inconsistencies, but its export profile still needs review in the destination. Avoid treating a profile name as vendor certification. Use a backup or test record set where available and retain rejected rows and mapping notes rather than repeatedly importing a changing file into the only copy of your logbook.
Plan storage and review independently
Decide where your permanent originals, checked exports and supporting documents will be stored. Open downloaded files and verify the first and last flights, text fields and any summaries. A printable review layout is not automatically a signed or authority-approved logbook. Check required records and creditability with the relevant reviewer rather than inferring them from an automated report. Temporary converters may delete files soon after upload, including paid outputs. Portability therefore includes downloading, opening and retaining the file yourself, not just reaching a conversion success screen or buying a credit.
Test round-trip meaning before moving the history
Build a small field inventory from your own export: each source header, its unit, its meaning and its intended destination. Include an overnight flight, an empty component field, a long remark and the kinds of aircraft identifiers you actually use. Compare the values after the destination's preview or a controlled import, following its documented repeat-import rules. Keep non-table evidence outside this test and check how it will be retained separately. If a field has no destination equivalent, plan a companion archive instead of silently dropping it because the remaining columns import successfully.
Treat vendor-style output as a preparation file
A ForeFlight-style flight table is a file layout, not proof of a complete ForeFlight backup or a direct account integration. Likewise, recognizing header aliases from a Garmin Pilot export does not connect the converter to Garmin Pilot or establish an import destination. Decide which actual file you can obtain and inspect its headers before choosing a profile. FlightLedger's current MyFlightbook-oriented output needs landing-header corrections and a source-derived total Landings column; follow the dedicated preparation guide. Use the destination's own documented importer and compare its resulting records. Keep the complete normalized workbook for fields that a narrower profile cannot represent.
Where FlightLedger fits
FlightLedger is a temporary file step with no logbook account connection. Upload CSV or XLSX up to 8 MiB, 20,000 flight rows and 100 columns; confirm mapping, date order and decimal-hour or H.MM inputs. The complete report, first twenty converted rows and exclusion list are free without an account. One credit unlocks standard CSV, ForeFlight-style flight-table CSV, a MyFlightbook-oriented CSV needing header checks, XLSX, an FAA 8710 preparation worksheet and an FAA/EASA-style printable PDF. Vendor profiles have synthetic tests rather than live-account certification. Full-file downloads need a credit even below twenty rows; payment does not extend the 24-hour upload expiry.
Start with your own file.
Confirm your mapping and review the report before choosing an export.
Review my logbook free