Flight Logging

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Hello all,

I am wondering how everybody tracks their Launch logs. I am playing around with a Workflow on the iPhone to collect Location, Date/Time, then prompt me for details like Rocket, Motor, Parachute, and and a bunch of other details. I can then export this data as a CSV file. Before I do too much work on it, I just wanted to see what other people do and what data people track. Thanks for the help.

Greg
 
I have been using a pencil and side-spiral-bound 3x5 notebook - I’m on the seventh one since I became a BAR. I’d love to have something electronic but I’m a one-finger text entry person on my iPhone and that’s just too slow.

I typically record the date and location at the beginning of the entry, then list, for each flight, the following:

Model, flight number for that model, motor(s), sometimes motor date code
Altimeter data if any
Some short notes on how well each phase of flight went and anything else noteworthy about the flight.

In the 3x5 notebook that typically means two or three flight entries per page. When I’m flying an AltimeterThree I just note the apogee in the notebook and rename the flight data in the app with the model and flight number so I can cross-reference later.


I used to keep a similar 3x5 notebook for each of my RC airplanes but for rockets that’s too many little books, so I’m just keeping the data chronologically.
 
I use a spreadsheet with the following headings:
Date Rocket Name Motor Weight (lb/oz) Diameter (in) Cd Ejection/Altitude Wind (mph) Post Flight Status Flight Location Notes
 
At the range I jot down flights in a 3x5 spiral notebook. When I have time I transfer the info to my actual log, which is an Excel Spreadsheet. I have columns for date, location, rocket, motor, altitude, speed, and notes. At the bottom I have formulas for total flights, flights per rocket, flights for each favorite motor (for instance, I fly a lot of I180 and H123), flights per impulse F thru M, and flights per year.

Relatively simple and it gives me data to see what I’m doing. For instance: my cardboard fleet gets about 11 flights before they get retired, I’ve flown I impulse the most (I would have thought it was H if I hadn’t tracked it), I average 16 HPR flights a year, my favorite pizza topping is pepperoni, etc.
 
I've created OR model files for each of my rockets that I keep on a netbook that I bring with me to launches.

If you double-tap the top-most level in a model you'll get a "Rocket configuration" window that opens up, and within that there's a "Comments" section that I update every time I launch a rocket. I like keeping track of things this way as it saves me from having to go looking through a notebook for the last time I flew that particular rocket, or for a particular detail that happened on some flight - all the information about that particular rocket is right where I need it. I keep track of what motors I've flown it on, what delay I used (since I always seem to be tinkering with that), how much powder was used for ejection charges (where applicable), and the results of how all those worked. It also gives me a good place to make notes for things I need to remember to do on future launches of a particular model that I'd definitely forget if I didn't write down... The downside is it's not really "searchable" (in a database sense), but I know exactly where to find all the data I need, and it's easy to evolve the information I record as I find new things I need to keep track of.
 
I've created OR model files for each of my rockets that I keep on a netbook that I bring with me to launches.

If you double-tap the top-most level in a model you'll get a "Rocket configuration" window that opens up, and within that there's a "Comments" section that I update every time I launch a rocket. I like keeping track of things this way as it saves me from having to go looking through a notebook for the last time I flew that particular rocket, or for a particular detail that happened on some flight - all the information about that particular rocket is right where I need it.

That's a interesting idea. I wonder how much that "comments" field can hold. I fly LPR/MPR and have several models with 20+ flights on them (one with 75).

I agree that going back through a notebook (or notebooks) for prior flight data is a pain. That's probably the biggest downside for me to the paper-based system I mentioned above.
 
Hello all,

I am wondering how everybody tracks their Launch logs. I am playing around with a Workflow on the iPhone to collect Location, Date/Time, then prompt me for details like Rocket, Motor, Parachute, and and a bunch of other details. I can then export this data as a CSV file. Before I do too much work on it, I just wanted to see what other people do and what data people track. Thanks for the help.

Greg

I ended up building an iPhone flight log app using airdata - a free cloud based DB with clients for iPhone, Mac and pc / andriod:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?141158-Flight-Log-looking-for-an-iphone-app

There are instructions in the linked post on how to clone the DB for your own use. I’ve got a little over 100 flight logged in it now.


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
I wonder how much that "comments" field can hold. I fly LPR/MPR and have several models with 20+ flights on them (one with 75).

I'm not sure what the limit is, but I just tried adding a whole lot of text to the field. It grew the model file size from 5k to 7k (so 2k of extra text) and it just kept on taking it. It may very well be that there's virtually no limit, but I don't think you'll run in to trouble even with your +75 flight model.
 
I've been working through alternatives for logging my flights including just a simple spreadsheet. Currently I'm developing a system within Wolfram's Mathematica software; primarily because I'm very familiar with it from past working life and because I've enjoyed using it from 25+ years.

One item that can be tricky to log is current weather conditions at the time and location of the rocket launch. Turns out Dark Sky made it's name on hyper accurate, geolocation specific current conditions with one hour forecasts. Based on work by some others in using their API, I've developed a Siri Shortcut app (formerly Workflow app) on iOS to log the current weather conditions to a text file just before I launch the rocket. Back home, I'm integrating the text file weather data into my Mathematica system. I've used it for the past few flights with my iPhone and it worked! So, I decided to write an explanation of what I did on a new blog I've started. You can find the details, including access to the Siri Shortcut at:

https://www.macmodeler.net/ramblings/2019/2/3/automating-weather-data-collection

Hope you find it useful.

Best,

Mark
 
I have been working on an Access database that will keep track of your rocketry fleet and launches. It is still under development, but we did release an early version of it. You can read about it on our blog at https://rocketry-journal.blogspot.com/2019/01/software-project-flight-logs-version-05.html. The current version of the software is available through SourceForge at https://sourceforge.net/projects/flight-cards/.

We have been working on the software since this release, and hope to release version 0.6 soon. Nasty weather has changed focus from building rockets to working on software, so some good progress has been made. We'll post when we release it.
 
Once upon a time, a long time ago, I wrote a database program for my PDA to log flights. My interest in detailed records went with the PDA...

I recorded date and location, the rocket, the motor, and a comment about how the flight went. I particularly tried to comment on whether the delay was right and if the recovery was at a good speed. Later I also recorded what electronics were used and if I downloaded any data.

What you record depends on what you are interested in. Any database or even note taking app will work. Have fun!
 
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