Import Flight Records from another Logbook or my Excel sheet

CrewLounge PILOTLOG imports flight records from more than 50 other logbook apps, such as LogTen Pro, RosterBuster, Safelog, NC Software, Wingman,... 

If you have been using a self-made excel datasheet, that can be imported too!

How to import flight records?

The process takes 3 steps:

1. Export the data from the other logbook software
2. Convert the Data File into a Compatible File
3. Import the compatible file via the PILOTLOG Import Wizard (PIW) Queue
   

You can download the template refer below: 

• Conversion template CSV
• Conversion template Excel 
  

Step 1+2: Export and Convert the data into a compatible File

If you have created your own Excel sheet you should to do the conversion yourself, follow the guidelines in this article.

Continue here for the export instructions (Step 1) and file conversion (Step 2).

Step 3: Import the File

Upload the Compatible File into your personal Queue. Login to 

My CrewLounge > Apps > PILOTLOG > Import records from another Logbook.  Click here to go directly to that page. 

The PILOTLOG Import Wizard (PIW) verifies the quality of the records and will report any errors or issues. Issues are recommendations that can be fixed at a later time, after the import.  However, errors must be fixed right away, before you can submit your file to your PILOTLOG Cloud Database!

Once you submit the records to your PILOTLOG Cloud Database, all flight data will automatically sync to all devices on which you run the PILOTLOG logbook application.

Doing the conversion yourself

Step 2.1- Modify the column headers

Open the data file with a text editor (like notepad) or with some spreadsheet software, like Excel or Calc. Caution when using Microsoft Excel :MS Excel has a bad habit to auto-modify the contents of the fields. A flight time of 1.4 hours can be modified to Jan 1^st or April 4^th. If you notice this kind of data modification, then use another software to edit the CSV file.

The following 120 headers are recognized by the PILOTLOG import wizard. There are 6 mandatory headers, listed below in red bold color.

Each header can only be used once. Columns (headers) can be used in any order. The header name is not case sensitive.

Each column must have one of the following headers. If you cannot find a suitable header, then use "X" as header; these columns are then ignored by the import wizard.

The following Types Of Approach, Landing and Takeoff are recognized by the import wizard. Use any of the keywords from the right column in your data sheet, e.g.  APP_1 = LLZ

Step 2.2 - Save file as CSV or XLS

The following formats are accepted: CSV, TXT, XLS and XLSX  

Continue with Step 3 above, to import the file through the PILOTLOG Import Wizard (PIW). 

Additional guidelines

If you get an error ‘columns too many [X]’ for all record lines, there can be two reasons :

1- the CSV delimiter and the windows decimal delimiter are both set to comma ;

e.g.2010-10-26,EMB145,SIM,,26 oct 10 18:30,26 oct 10 22:30,4,0,,,,,,4,0,,,,,,

The duration of this simulator session is 4.0 hours. However, the duration was exported as 4,0 which is interpreted as 2 columns...

The solution here is to choose another delimiter when you create the CSV file, or save the file as XLS.

2- one or more header captions are missing in the first row

e.g. if the ‘Remarks’ column header is missing, you need to manually add this header at the end of the first row in the CSV file.

(e.g. ,'Instructor Flying','Any Other Flying'becomes,'Instructor Flying','Any Other Flying',’Remarks’,’unknown’)

Make sure to use the correct delimiter, especially when the delimiter is a TAB :a TAB looks like a space, but a space is never used as delimiter !

If you don’t know what data is stored in that column, just enter a fictive header, such as ‘unknown’. Data from this field will not be imported with this kind of header.

If you get an error ‘columns too many [X]’ for only a few record lines, this can either be an error in the file structure or the CSV delimiter being used inside a data field :

Typical examples are :

- using a comma inside pilot name or remarks field :

…,3:00, , 1:45, “Beck, Jan”, , 1:45 (remove the comma in the name)

…,’3:00’,‘‘,’1:45’, ‘Special Flight, Hotel Sun’ (remove the comma in the remarks field)

- using a single quotation mark in the pilot name :

…,3:00, , 1:45, ‘O’Neill Jeff’, , 1:45 (remove the single quotation mark in the name)

- the record line has an additional delimiter at the end :

e.g. all records end by …;3:00;1:45;and this records ends like…;3:00;1:45;; (remove the semi-colon)

- the CSV delimiter is the same as the windows decimal symbol (you log flight hours in decimal format)

…,3,0,1,75,should have been stored like …,3.0,1.75,or…;3,0;1,75;

If you get an error ‘columns missing’, the wizard considers the line broken. The wizard will add empty fields at the end of the record line and try to import the record line. Even if you do not get any subsequent error for this record, you still need to verify the flight details, since time fields may have shifted, should the missing column be in the middle of the record and not at the end!

Dates can be saved in any numeric format, such as 1999-12-6, 8/31/2009, 01.05.2010 and others. You can use any of the following date separator symbols: hyphen, slash, point and space. Alphanumeric dates, such as 1-jan-2010 or Dec 8, 1996 are refused, due to language differences. Find-Replace all months by their numeric value.

Flight Times must be formatted according to your Windows regional settings, e.g. 1:35 If times are logged decimal, such as 1,6 or 1.6 make sure not to use the CSV delimiter. Decimal hours must always have a tenth digit (e.g. 2 must be logged as 2.0 or 2,0)