Pilot Logbook Idea (1 Viewer)

[Juniour]

Afternoon,
I was task to create a Pilot Logbook in MS access. I know there are several applications availible on the market but the requirement came in as our company systems are starting to interface with access.

I know forsure this is not impossible, So my questions are - Do someone have a sample database? How do you approach this subject?
1. Log in has been created.
2. Recording of time flown and time log in created.

Can someone assist me please? Or just point me in a general direction?

 

[Steve R.]

As a quick response. It would appear that more fundamental research is required. I assume the word "pilot" in your post refers to aircraft activities (i.e. "time flown") and not maritime activities. Nevertheless, some of the concerns listed below remain the same.

• This is an Access forum, so using Access would be desirable. Nevertheless, what is your companies management/productivity goals that are to be achieved by using Access that can't be achieved by using other existing software?
• Have you looked at the data other pilot logging software collects?
• Have you talked to a pilot concerning what data would be important to them?
• Have you talked to company management that employees pilots. What data do they need for decision making?
• Additionally there is a myriad of factors: pilot skill levels, hours as pilot-in-command, medical certifications, pilot certifications, helicopter ratings, multi-engine ratings, even the type of "jobs" a commercial pilot would be allowed to legally take, etc.

Once you have a data-structure developed, I believe assistance could then be provided.

 

[Juniour]

As a quick response. It would appear that more fundamental research is required. I assume the word "pilot" in your post refers to aircraft activities (i.e. "time flown") and not maritime activities. Nevertheless, some of the concerns listed below remain the same.

• This is an Access forum, so using Access would be desirable. Nevertheless, what is your companies management/productivity goals that are to be achieved by using Access?
• Have you looked at the data other pilot logging software collects?
• Have you talked to a pilot concerning what data would be important to them?
• Have you talked to company management that employees pilots, what data do they need?
• Additionally there is a myriad of factors: pilot skill levels, hours as pilot-in-command, medical certifications, pilot certifications, helicopter ratings, multi-engine ratings, even the type of "jobs" a commercial pilot would be allowed to legally take, etc.

Once you have a data-structure developed, I believe assistance could then be provided.

Thank you so much for your reply,
All of that is important I agree.
I was thinking of starting with baby steps.
A basic structure has been developed so far. I also have an Excel sheet of what they currently used. It comes down to personel tracking of flight and duty hours and a basic summary of total hours flying and time off. My struggle I am having is to "copy" the formulas from excel to access.

 

[Juniour]

attached is a brief content, I am also unable to attached the excel sheet. if this might help

 

[Steve R.]

attached is a brief content, I am also unable to attached the excel sheet. if this might help

A slight hiccup. I no longer use Access, since I retired. Now using Linux with MariaDB, so I won't be able to see your sample. What I can say, in a generic way, is look at your spread sheet. Separate you computed fields from data fields. Review those data fields from the context of "normalization". There are many discussions on "normalization" that you can research. I like to push this free PDF book: Base Tutorial:From Newbie to Advocate in a one, two... three!

You may want to ask a moderator to move this thread to Theory and Practice of Database Design. I believe you might get a more focused response there, though everyone does look around at the various threads.

 

[Juniour]

Thank you for your suggestions and attention.
I will consider them.

 

[moke123]

As steve suggested you should do a little research into normalization.
Theres a big difference between access and excel.

looking at your table, you need to split out several of your fields into new tables.
You also dont need the calculated fields as you can do that on an as needed basis with queries.

edit: looking further into your data, you have start and end times. What happens if the flight passes midnight? you need to calculate elapsed time, therefore the start and end need to include date and time.

 

[NauticalGent]

I personally would look into the many apps already out there and push your company in that direction:

https://flightlog.io/

However, if you want to continue in Access (who could blame you, we all love it!), then I would download the app and try to recreate it with Access.

 

[NauticalGent]

This one seems to hot all the wickets:

Logbook Pro Desktop

www.nc-software.com

 

[Pat Hartman]

I am not in favor of using "free" applications. Nothing is ever actually "free". If they are not charging you money, then you are the product. If you are OK with being the product, great.

I also am not in favor of reinventing the wheel. Much as I enjoy developing Access apps, if there is an off-the-shelf product that works for you and is within your price range, then you'll actually save a lot of money. Time is money and your time is not free.

This is one of those apps that would benefit from realtime communications so having something on your phone to connect to the app would probably be extremely useful during the trip. Then once back in the office, the web interface would be used to do reporting and analysis. Access is a great tool for analysis but connecting to it from your phone, while possible will be less than optimal. You would need something like Citrix to host your application to make it available in a browser. You would probably also want to create custom forms for the phone interaction part if you go that route.

so, before you spend a lot of time on this, you really need a good problem statement so you know that Access will actually be able to satisfy the need now and into the future.

 

[Juniour]

Good Morning Guys.
Thank you for all your inputs, This is exactly why I wanted to discuss this. You have been a great help so far.