Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

Cockpit Apps released a major revision to its iLog flight and maintenance log system, which replaces paper cockpit logs with an iPad app for recording and transmitting FAA-compliant log information. The iLog version 2.0 is available in the Apple iTunes Store for $149, but owners of the previous version released a year ago can upgrade for free.


What makes iLog appealing is the way it walks the user through all aspects of a flight. The app’s process overview shows all the elements on one page so the user can see everything that needs to be verified and recorded, beginning with on-duty time, RVSM review, departure and destination airports, fuel, block-out and takeoff time and so on. Pilots can record RVSM altimeter checks in flight, and after arrival note landing and block-in time, fuel burned, flight time (night/day, approach types), off-duty time and VOR check details. If any required parameter is out of limits or near the limit, such as the VOR check, it will be flagged on the process overview page.


A new optional minimum equipment list function makes managing MEL items simpler. With the MEL function, iLog when started will show “any outstanding MEL items, the status of each item and when each item is due,” according to Cockpit Apps. MELs can now be categorized as A, B, C and D items. Any time an MEL item is added to iLog, taken care of or expires, iLog automatically sends a report to the flight department maintenance team (or designated recipient).


Users can customize iLog by adding a company logo on the log template, and this will appear on the iLog export page. Logs can be sent to designated recipients in Adobe PDF and html formats. Other new features include tracking both flight time and cycles; setup for single-pilot operations; population of out/off/on/in times using the standard one-hour-show/one-hour-go times; custom approach types and setup of user-defined data using the custom fields screen and more.


Robert Creek, founder of Cockpit Apps and a corporate pilot for a large charter/management company, developed iLog because he couldn’t find a comparable product and he wanted to eliminate the tedious “stone tablet and chisel” method of flight logging, where pilots have to lug around the traditional “can” clipboard filled with paper flight logs. “I wouldn’t have done this if there were a product like it,” he told AIN. For the version 2.0 upgrade, “I listened to everybody and what they had to say.”


For those who wonder whether the user signature in iLog is legitimate (signed using a finger to draw the words on a blank part of the form when it is completed), Creek has a ready answer. “These [paper] log sheets do not legally require a captain’s signature,” he pointed out, “but [pilots] get so used to it.” The only time a signature is required is for a maintenance item. In any case, iLog provides for signing the flight log, for those who prefer that.


“This is really meant to replace the can and the paper and keep life über simple,” Creek concluded.

Cockpit Apps Releases Version 2.0 of iLog App

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