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Flight records

JonLoder

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The company that I work for has merged with (been acquired by) a larger company. We've been trying to establish procedures for record keeping, flight logs, checklists, etc. I've always done all of this with a spreadsheet and one person designated to manage. A couple of people in the company are advocating Aloft services as a cloud-based record keeper. Has anyone in the drone based mapping business tried keeping records with Aloft? My main objections are the cost and inflexibility. We use Autel PPK, Fixed-wing VTOL, Freefly Astra and Freefly Alta-X drones. Any opinions are appreciated. Jon.
 
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Greetings Jon, welcome to the forum from the outback of Australia, can’t help you with Aloft, hopefully someone here can answer you.
Regards
 
You could also look into Airdata. They have various plans including an Enterprise Plan for multiple drones and pilots.
 
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Hey Jon, hope my response helps you some.
We looked hard and long at this in my industry (Global O&G company). Every solution seems to have advantages and challenges. The opportunity is that imported data from your drone can save time and provide a standardized way to collect flight-related data related to the vehicle and its systems. You will still need non-vehicle information for UAS operators. Ideally, most of your UAS program data can be married at the right level, and organized to give the UAS coordinator a quick view of the status and health of their overall program (people, plastic, paper).

Example of UAV flight log data problem: AirDATA and similar systems cannot get accurate battery usage statistics with DJI systems using 2 or more batteries. The DJI Standard development kit does not expose the batter data of secondary batteries (M210, M300, etc.). Not sure if its the same with other OEMS.

The existing auto-loggers read the OEM electronic flight log files when connected. If you're using UAV manufacturers who do not expose their internal flight log files, then plug-n-play 3rd party systems wont be able to read it or parse it into info you can use.

Another challenge may be related to if your company would allow access to a 3rd party flight logging site from behind your company's firewall.

Ultimately, I would guess you're looking for a system to manage all your UAV resources; people, plastic, and paper. Not sure that exists...yet.

People: Pilot info (names, qualifications, certifications, flight hours per system, use cases, etc.)
Plastic: Vehicle info (name, serial numbers, tail numbers, maintenance schedule, maintenance performed , active/quarantined batteries, etc)
Paper: Program documentation (procedures, instructions, checklists, OEM manuals, training material, receipts, warranties,

Back as far as 2018, we looked at AirData, Kittyhawk (Aloft), DroneLogBook, ESRI...even ANRA Technologies who are a big player in UTM development for North America.

We opted for spreadsheets for local use, with a lightweight web-based, internally-built central reporting system to aggregate location-specific total flight hours by vehicle type + general use case descriptions (inspection, emergency response, mapping, etc.)

r/larry
 
Hey Jon, hope my response helps you some.
We looked hard and long at this in my industry (Global O&G company). Every solution seems to have advantages and challenges. The opportunity is that imported data from your drone can save time and provide a standardized way to collect flight-related data related to the vehicle and its systems. You will still need non-vehicle information for UAS operators. Ideally, most of your UAS program data can be married at the right level, and organized to give the UAS coordinator a quick view of the status and health of their overall program (people, plastic, paper).

Example of UAV flight log data problem: AirDATA and similar systems cannot get accurate battery usage statistics with DJI systems using 2 or more batteries. The DJI Standard development kit does not expose the batter data of secondary batteries (M210, M300, etc.). Not sure if its the same with other OEMS.

The existing auto-loggers read the OEM electronic flight log files when connected. If you're using UAV manufacturers who do not expose their internal flight log files, then plug-n-play 3rd party systems wont be able to read it or parse it into info you can use.

Another challenge may be related to if your company would allow access to a 3rd party flight logging site from behind your company's firewall.

Ultimately, I would guess you're looking for a system to manage all your UAV resources; people, plastic, and paper. Not sure that exists...yet.

People: Pilot info (names, qualifications, certifications, flight hours per system, use cases, etc.)
Plastic: Vehicle info (name, serial numbers, tail numbers, maintenance schedule, maintenance performed , active/quarantined batteries, etc)
Paper: Program documentation (procedures, instructions, checklists, OEM manuals, training material, receipts, warranties,

Back as far as 2018, we looked at AirData, Kittyhawk (Aloft), DroneLogBook, ESRI...even ANRA Technologies who are a big player in UTM development for North America.

We opted for spreadsheets for local use, with a lightweight web-based, internally-built central reporting system to aggregate location-specific total flight hours by vehicle type + general use case descriptions (inspection, emergency response, mapping, etc.)

r/larry
Thank you for this. It's very much appreciated. As a matter of fact, I sent a copy of your response to our company manager with a note that I couldn't say it any better. I've been recommending staying with spreadsheets from the beginning but the sales people are good at convincing management that magic beans exist.

Thanks for the help.
Jon
 
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Thank you for this. It's very much appreciated. As a matter of fact, I sent a copy of your response to our company manager with a note that I couldn't say it any better. I've been recommending staying with spreadsheets from the beginning but the sales people are good at convincing management that magic beans exist.

Thanks for the help.
Jon
Awesome, glad to hear it. If you have any additional questions, please feel welcome to PM me here or put them up for community feedback. Lots of experienced folks on this site, and lots of folks just starting out. Great community we have here.

Cheers pal
 
I use a inspection and auditing online service, not drone specific at all but is intended for manufacturing and factory type places doing safety checks and audits. I won't plug them but that alone should yield several options.

My checklists are the main ones, and my checklist includes items about my site, client, and so on so it's not just for aircraft/takeoff but an all around report of every flight for my review back at the office. It's quite advanced, part of my preflight is taking photos of battery and lid fasteners, and they attach to the reports and sync, and save a copy to the device that takes it. I also have a few If/Then questions, like if I get to the one asking if I need LAANC then if I say yes it prompts me to record a note of that, which amounts to saving a screenshot of my clearance.

All this is on an app on my phone, and I have it on the drone tablet too, so if my phone isn't handy I can do it directly from it, phone is easier to handle though.

Since my drone dept. is me, myself, and I, not really much need for other users, but the service I use does that I just don't really need it yet. I do have my work email as a second "user" and everything syncs from my work tablet, personal phone, and desktop access.

I see a lot of expandability with it, I've already been asked to try to get another pilot trained under me, if that comes to pass, I'll likely put them on it and make them use it so I know what they are up to.
 
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