As a private pilot, I have to log my flight time. Before I got my IRIS, I made a determination to make a separate logbook for flying the IRIS or any other drone. For someone who wants to perhaps earn some income from drone flight somehow (however it will be in the future), it would be a good idea to actually log your flight time. The reason for this is that insurance companies want to know about your flight experience when you apply for insurance for your drone business. You can't apparently use drones for commercial use legaly now, but I contacted a few UAS/UAV insurance companies and all of them asked about flight time.
Here's what I log, just as an idea.
Date / Minutes of Flight / Equipment (drone make & model) / Any "prop-strikes", tumbles, crashes, etc. during flight and why / Equipment attached (like tarot gimbal and GoPro, etc...) / Weather (mainly wind conditions) / Location of flight.
Just a thought.
DISCLAIMER: My intention is not to start up a debate about whether drones can legally be used for commercial purposes!
Replies
I too have a log book of sorts. I'll use Apple's Numbers spreadsheet from my phone/pad and a paper log. I also number my batteries so that I can see how many cycles are on a particular battery. I'm not particularly religious about it.
I also have a single engine land and glider ticket, plus SCUBA builds a habit of logging. Heck, I log each gas fill-up and maintenance on my car and motorcycle.
I have a plastic container that my wife's stepfather's cremains were delivered in to keep broken props, mounts, and other bits. Seemed like a fitting resting place for dead drone pieces.
For those that believe logging is a personality flaw, I blame my mother who got me started logging gas milage when I was a at the impressionable age of 16.
Yeah I also log and for years have been saying it should be part of mission planner. It is a requirement in Europe for commercial use. If you use Andropilot it shares your flights with Droneshare and that is a start of the logging process. I have no idea how people work out the real costs of their systems if they don't log stuff. RCAPA (free to join used to have a logbook and maintenance program that was picked up by the FAA for the COA process (long use of brackets there)) http://rcapa.net/ can't see the logbook anymore will ask Patrick.
@ Gary Mortimer
I think you are looking for this? --> http://www.rpflightsystems.com/RCAPA/index.html
Ah yes that's it thanks. Trust Gene to keep a copy! If you are in the USA I would strongly recommend joining RCAPA. It is free after all ;-)
I also archive my flight logs and GPS logs.
I always download the logs when Iris is back on the bench and clear logs after download.
Great idea! There is also a UAV logbook available in the Google Play store to do such a thing. It's available HERE
Good find! I've just been entering it into OneNote on my tablet. This is better.