Foreflight track logging/logbook inaccuracies (again)

RussR

RussR

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I've always had a beef with Foreflight logbook generally logging 0.2 to 0.3 more than the actual hobbs or clock time. This is one of the reasons I don't use it, and when students do, I typically edit the time logged to better reflect reality.

But I do use Foreflight's automatic track logging, and recently had a flight that was so ridiculously overestimated I had to look more into it.

We (manually) logged 0.6 from block-out to block-in. Foreflight called it a 1.1. So a 0.5 hour difference, or an over-logging of 83%.

When does Foreflight start and stop logging? I found this, but it's pretty brief and vague.

https://support.foreflight.com/hc/e...ecording-Track-Logs-with-automatic-recording-

As for this flight, it was a post-maintenance check flight. We started engines and sat there for about 20-30 minutes before even releasing brakes. Since we use Foreflight as an EFB, it was open and running this whole time. At some point during this time, Foreflight started auto-logging (Why? How? No idea.). According to its data, it started at 1:54 PM and shows that we didn't start taxiing until 2:11. Tracking during takeoff and flight seems fine.

Then we land and get to the parking spot at 2:48, followed by an immediate, normal shutdown. Foreflight keeps tracking as we sit in the plane for the next 7 minutes and continues to track until I get in my car and make it out of the parking lot at 3:00, at which point it decides that's enough and stops (again, not sure why or how it made that decision).

Foreflight auto-track logging is a great tool for debriefing and such. But for auto-filling a logbook? Bleh.

Does anybody have any more in-depth information on how and why and when it starts and ends auto-track logging?
 
I use FF with a Stratus 3s and auto logging enabled. I've found that auto-logging engages once you're rolling on the runway (>30kts?) and "backward timestamps" it to the time I turn the Stratus on. Given this and since I'm a renter, I click on the stratus right after I complete my engine start. I do have to manually turn off the log timer once I've shut down.

I've found that by doing this, I get pretty close to Hobbs time.
 
kaiser said:
I use FF with a Stratus 3s and auto logging enabled. I've found that auto-logging engages once you're rolling on the runway (>30kts?) and "backward timestamps" it to the time I turn the Stratus on. Given this and since I'm a renter, I click on the stratus right after I complete my engine start. I do have to manually turn off the log timer once I've shut down.

I've found that by doing this, I get pretty close to Hobbs time.
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If you’re pressing a button (the Stratus) to start it, and then manually ending it, it seems to me that you’re not really using the “auto-logging” feature at all, no? Might as well turn off auto logging and just press start and stop manually.

I should add to my post, I was not using a Stratus or any other ADS-B device on this trip.
 
RussR said:
If you’re pressing a button (the Stratus) to start it, and then manually ending it, it seems to me that you’re not really using the “auto-logging” feature at all, no? Might as well turn off auto logging and just press start and stop manually.

I should add to my post, I was not using a Stratus or any other ADS-B device on this trip.
Click to expand...
Haha - I can't argue with that. I think the FF setting of auto-logging means it would auto-start the recording once moving >30 or so kts.
 
Just use the record button instead, engine start hit record, engine stop hit record again
 
I don't know how the auto-log works, but my CFI used to have problems with her FF not shutting off afterwards, either. She just quit using the autolog feature, so I don't know how or if it is fixable.
 
After engine start, I release the brakes and then after a brief roll, reapply the brakes for a brake test. I look at my watch and record the time as being my flight start time as being the time I began movement for the purposes of flight.

From FAR 1.1 definitions:
Flight time means: (1) Pilot time that commences when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when the aircraft comes to rest after landing;
Click to expand...

Foreflight is recording the location continuously and when takeoff is detected, keeps a portion of the previous track recording time before the takeoff. Slow speeds that might only be a few feet per second are easily within the GPS position jitter and it is very difficult to detect actual slow movement, example my brake test which is the official beginning of the flight time. It might be 10 minutes before I begin taxi from the brake test location, but I am doing a post start check and pre taxi check including listening to the ATIS, possibly a radio check, loading my flight route into the GPS, etc. Taxi speeds are not always easy to detect. So it is a simple matter after the flight to edit the track log to snip any non flight time.
 
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