In a hypothetical world without computers, a solution to the error-prone tedium of keeping a paper flying logbook updated would be to use a pocket diary to note down just enough information to allow a perfectionist assistant with a strange talent for adding up times to complete it for you.
To keep your own effort to a minimum, yet to keep communication with your assistant clear, you would need to agree some sort of system:
Each sector would need the times. You would also need the airfields involved, but to save writing you could assume that you depart from the last place you landed at unless you say otherwise, and similarly you could assume you returned to the last place you left from. In a multi-crew operation, you would need to say whether you landed the aircraft. If you are a First Officer, you would also need to say whether your role was p1s or p2, plus you would need to record the Captain's name.
That just leaves recording the aircraft you flew. To save writing, you could adopt a system where you only write the aircraft registration and type each time you change aircraft — that way if your work pattern was to fly the same aircraft for multiple sectors, or even for multiple days, you would only record its details once. In fact, a First Officer could treat the Captain's name in the same way.
Your assistant would have quite a bit of work to do, of course. Expand out your notes so that date, aircraft, airfields and times are recorded for each sector. Work out flight durations for each role. Work out how much of the flight was at night, and whether the landing was at night. Add everything up. Maybe make some interesting reports for you. But that's all their problem, not yours, and you hired them because they are really, really good at that sort of thing.
An eFJ is just a simple text file that fills the role of the pocket diary. It has an intuitive, terse, fully documented schema to ensure clear communication. The assistant role is provided by the eFJ toolkit software. This software supports three different interfaces: a fully featured menu-based graphical interface providing a one stop shop for editing the eFJ and creating reports; a command line interface for scripting or integrating with your preferred text editor; and a web-based interface for occasions when you cannot, or do not wish to, install the toolkit.
The eFJ schema is pretty straightforward, and this tutorial will quickly cover nearly everything you need to know. If you need to record something unusual, such as circuit training or flying an aircraft type as both single pilot and multi-crew, see the full documentation.
The tutorial will use the web-based interface to enter a couple of days worth of my flying. This interface is somewhat limited compared with those you get by installing the software locally, but it is more than sufficient to demonstrate the schema, and means you don't have to install anything to try it out.
Firstly then, open the web interface (should open in a new tab). In the text area, enter the date:
2024-02-04This is an ISO 8601 date, which removes any ambiguity around what is a day and what is a month.
On the next line, enter details of the aircraft registration and type, separated by a colon:
G-EZBY:A319On the next line enter details of the first sector of the day:
BRS/GLA 0702/0818 mHopefully this is fairly self-explanatory other than the m. The
m means that you were pilot monitoring for this flight, and
should not therefore log the landing.
Next, we enter the second sector:
/BHX 0848/1037 # Diversion due weatherThe origin airport, GLA has been omitted — the parser assumes
that your origin airport was the previous destination airport if this is done.
This is optional: putting GLA/BHX is also fine.
Comments relating to a sector are included by inserting a #.
Anything after this is a sector specific comment. Full line comments that are
not specific to a sector can also be added by placing a # at the
start of a line — the # and everything after it will be ignored
by the parser in this case.
Now, add the last sector of the day:
/BRS 1300/1341For the next day’s flying, add:
+
G-UZHI:A320
BRS/FNC 0708/1045
/ 1127/1451 m
A blank line is added to aid readability. These can be added anywhere, and are ignored by the parser.
A + is used instead of an ISO date — this means add 1 day to the
previous date. If you wanted to add three days, you would use
+++. Again, this is completely optional — entering the full date
also works fine.
Note that both the origin and destination airfield can be omitted for a route reversal.
The end result of all this should look like this:
2024-02-04
G-EZBY:A319
BRS/GLA 0702/0818 m
/BHX 0848/1037 # Diversion due weather
/BRS 1300/1341
+
G-UZHI:A320
BRS/FNC 0708/1045
/ 1127/1451 m
The parser is perfectly happy dealing with data in this form, but it could be nicer for a human to read. Click the “Expand” button in the “Modify” group, then accept the suggested date range, which will include everything. This should modify the text to look like this:
2024-02-04
G-EZBY:A319
BRS/GLA 0702/0818 m
GLA/BHX 0848/1037 # Diversion due weather
BHX/BRS 1300/1341
2024-02-05
G-UZHI:A320
BRS/FNC 0708/1045
FNC/BRS 1127/1451 m
This fills in the assumed data, making it a bit easier for a human to read. It also parses the entire text, so will report any errors; if you get a message about errors, fix them and try again.
Now click the “Night” button in the same group. You should get:
2024-02-04
G-EZBY:A319
BRS/GLA 0702/0818 n:18 m
GLA/BHX 0848/1037 # Diversion due weather
BHX/BRS 1300/1341
2024-02-05
G-UZHI:A320
BRS/FNC 0708/1045 n:6
FNC/BRS 1127/1451 m
This has added flags for regulatory night flying. n:18 means 18
minutes of the flight took place in regulatory night hours. The toolkit can
calculate this value so long as the airfield codes are in its database — it
knows the IATA and/or ICAO codes of over 22,000 airfields, so the chances are
good!
So far, we have assumed that these records belong to a Captain and thus everything is p1 flying. If you are a First Officer, you need to record whether flights are p1s or p2. Click the “FO” button, and you will get:
2024-02-04
G-EZBY:A319
BRS/GLA 0702/0818 p2 n:18 m
GLA/BHX 0848/1037 p1s # Diversion due weather
BHX/BRS 1300/1341 p1s
2024-02-05
G-UZHI:A320
BRS/FNC 0708/1045 p1s n:6
FNC/BRS 1127/1451 p2 m
The FO tool uses the m flag to determine the role for the
flight. First Officers have the option of either recording the roles directly
(i.e. just add a p1s or p2 flag to the relevant
sectors) or to save a bit of effort with this tool.
For a logbook, a First Officer must also record the Captain’s name. Add the line:
{ CP:Smith }under the first date, so that the final eFJ now looks like:
2024-02-04
{ CP:Smith }
G-EZBY:A319
BRS/GLA 0702/0818 p2 n:18 m
GLA/BHX 0848/1037 p1s # Diversion due weather
BHX/BRS 1300/1341 p1s
2024-02-05
G-UZHI:A320
BRS/FNC 0708/1045 p1s n:6
FNC/BRS 1127/1451 p2 m
Now click the “FCL.050 Logbook” button, and again accept the suggested date range. A file named “fc‑logbook.html” will be downloaded by your browser. Use your browser to open this file in a new tab and you will see that your data has been transformed into an HTML file with the format required by EASA and the UK CAA. You can also try importing this file in your spreadsheet of choice.
Next, click the “Summary” button. This will download a file named “summary.html”. Like the logbook, any browser or any spreadsheet can be used to open this file.
The final thing to mention is that both the types in the tutorial were multi-crew. The toolkit assumes that aircraft are multi-crew unless told otherwise, which is achieved by using a slightly extended syntax for the aircraft line on the first occasion that a new type is flown. Details can be found in the help file. This help file is also accessible from the “eFJ Schema” button in the “Help” group.