electronic Flight Journal

Free!

The toolkit is provided free of charge.
No “pay for a Premium version” nonsense.
Open source license (GPLv3).

No Proprietary File Formats

Data is stored locally in a text file, the simplest, most universal file format.
Output files are simple, standard, standalone HTML.

Flexible

Recording simple things is easy. Recording complex things is possible.
Output files can be opened in any browser, and analysed with any spreadsheet.
Multiple interfaces support multiple work-flows.

Future Proof

Simple and self-contained. No external dependencies.
The toolkit you download today will still run many decades from now.
The output files you create today will still be viewable many decades from now.

Getting Started

Tutorial

Both the eFJ schema and the eFJ toolkit are extremely intuitive, so you can learn nearly all you need to know in less than 10 minutes. The tutorial takes you through the process of minimum effort data entry and the process of exporting an EASA/UK CAA compliant logbook and summary. It uses the web interface, so there is nothing to install, you can just jump right in.

While the web interface does work on mobile devices, it is preferable to do the tutorial on a device with a proper keyboard — entering punctuation on an on-screen keyboard can be a frustrating experience!

Start Tutorial

Local Installation

Installing locally gets you a full featured “one stop shop” graphical interface and, for advanced users, a scriptable command line interface. The graphical interface includes features such as syntax highlighting and line completion that are unavailable in the web interface.

Local installation also makes you self-reliant. Even if I were to take down the website, the toolkit you downloaded would continue to be usable indefinitely.

Instructions

Support

Data Import

If your records are currently in paper form, the eFJ schema and toolkit allow those records to be digitised with the minimum possible effort. Many potential users will, however, already have their records in some sort of digital format, and will want to convert that data.

The destination eFJ schema is well documented and stable. The origin format, however, can be anything at all, from a hand crafted spreadsheet to an obscure backup file from one of the hundreds of online logbook offerings. There are also often errors and corruption in the origin material, particularly if it has been through a number of logbook solutions already — these errors are a lot more obvious in a local text file than in a third party's cloud database.

If you have basic programming knowledge, or if you have a friend or relation who does, the conversion is usually a fairly straightforward project. If you would like some support, please email me at hursts.org+logbook@gmail.com and I'll take a look at what you have and send you a quote for the work; the fee will depend on what needs doing, but will usually be around £50.

Output Conversion

The HTML files exported by the toolkit can be viewed with any modern web browser or analysed with any modern spreadsheet, allowing the capabilities of these familiar tools to be leveraged for most output conversion needs.

One of the nicest forms for your data is as a hard back book. Services such as Lulu can produce these for you surprisingly cheaply — I have mine in two volumes, each covering 15 years of flying, which cost me just £20 per volume. Getting everything set up to do this can be a little tricky, so if you would like help in doing so, again for a modest fee, please email me for support at hursts.org+logbook@gmail.com.

The exported files are in the form required by EASA and the UK CAA, as I am a UK pilot and that is the legislation I am familiar with. The software is set up so that the forms required by other authorities should be straightforward to produce, provided that someone is able to explain the requirements. Please email if you are interested.