Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
Online Community of Zenith Builders and Flyers
Builders Log - What do people use? Anyone using KitLog Pro?
Greetings-
I have been tracking progress to date on the 801 in a spreadsheet. Now that the building is underway and more regular I wanted to get something more official. What do you guys use and reccomend? I was looking at KitLog pro as an option but I was wondering what else might be out there and in use. http://www.kitlog.com/
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Carlson on
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Just my $.02 - when I started thinking about building a plane, I was looking at options for builder's logbook software too - I found kitlog, but it doesn't work on a Mac. I helped my dad setup a Wordpress blog a few years ago (http://www.carlsonskunkworks.com) for his airplane project, and it works, but it's not as simple as I'd like.
I got frustrated by the currently available builder's logbook options, and was thinking about it - why couldn't I build a better tool that's simpler to use, so I have more time to build my plane? I build websites for a living for multi-national companies like Nintendo and Toshiba... a logbook mobile app is well within my skill set!
So I'm building a mobile app. Feel free to signup, and I'll let you know once it launches: https://www.avialoft.com - There aren't a lot of details yet as it's still being fleshed out, but I'm open to suggestions and feedback!
-Ben
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Permalink Reply by Mark Stratman on
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I'm using wordpress, with a custom plugin to track build time and aircraft sections. You can install the plugin directly from your wordpress, just search for "aircraft" and it should pop up pretty quickly.
More details here: http://zenith.stratman.pw/builders-log-wp-plugin/
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Permalink Reply by Chris Boultinghouse on
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I'd like to give a thumbs up to this plugin that Mark created, as well as his prompt response when I had some issues getting it installed. I like how it looks, and it's super simple to use! You can see it on my home page, unless you're using a mobile device and for some reason it doesn't render on the mobile view:
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Permalink Reply by Gary Welch on
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I use an app called Diaro. It is Android friendly, synchs online, the program is available online so you can enter) edit data from your PC or Lai to in addition to your cell phone.
It's quick and easy to snap a pic during the build and enter a build note about it. It doesn't have an work hours prompt and won't total your hours. Not sure what the benefit of that is anyway. The DAR won't care how many hours the build took.
I really liked the way I can access from any of my electronics. Also it will prompt you for entries on a daily basis.
Lastly you can back up the file to PDF and store that separately. This avoids the nightmare scenario of programs shutting down or loss of your records. The cost was minimal as well.
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Permalink Reply by Donald Lynam on
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I have a great app, it's called my smartphone. At the end of a day working on my project I snap a few pictures of the work I have done. Occasionally I have my wife take a photo of me working on something. Every few weeks I pull the pictures and put them in a folder in my online storage. A date and timestamp is on the file so I know when I did the work. I also have an EAA tech counselor visit every so often and keep a copy of his reporting sheet. Every DAR I have asked says that's good enough for them. If you enjoy keeping a kit log more power to you but I would rather use the time to build.
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Permalink Reply by Don Morrisey on
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The best thing about Kitlog is when you show the printed report to the DAR on inspection day...it's impressive with all the logs and pictures
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Just an update on my previous post - I launched https://www.avialoft.com in the weeks prior to Airventure. It's free to use (there will be a paid tier eventually, but it's not my priority), and will handle the basics of what is needed to log your build progress. It's available for iPhone/iPad and Android phones & tablets, and I'm working on the website version at this time. Let me know if you have any suggestions, or questions!
-Ben
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Permalink Reply by William C Cooper II on
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Ben,
I have had some issues with KitLog (after buying a Windows laptop just for this one app) and I am interested in your solution. How easy is it to simply add my several hundred build photos and then go back in and start re-creating my log? Does your app use the date/time of the photo to put them in order when imported?
Thanks!
- Bill
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Hi Bill,
The iOS and Android apps are up, working and being used by a number of builders - you can either take new photos, or use existing ones. To answer your question about taking the date from photos - it does not currently. Right now it defaults to the current date, but you can choose a date in the past.If you don't have access to your photos from your phone/tablet, then you'll have to wait for the webapp (coming soon... probably a month off or so).I'm actively working on the webapp, to be used from your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, Commodore 64 - anything with a browser) which is probably the easiest path if your photos are on your computer.Question though - do you have the .mdb file from kitlog? I've been asked about migrating from kitlog pro to Avialoft, and haven't had source data to attempt it with. If you have this file and don't mind sharing, please send it (or a dropbox / google drive link to it) to: ben@avialoft.com and I'll see if I can write a conversion utility to save kitlog pro users time in migrating.
-Ben
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Permalink Reply by Greg Duncan on
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Wish I could say that I like Kitlog Pro like some others do. Looked good when I started and paid for it. Having issues since trying to let it do an update it had been prompting me to do for a while that didn't work. Now the program is useless and I no longer have access to over 300 hrs of logs, pictures and records that will be a nightmare to reconstruct. Contact by email for tech support has been slow, like 1 to 2 weeks to get a reply. They don't actually read the email and ask the same questions over again with the answer already in the email they replied to. They won't explain unclear comments or instructions that I have asked them for clarification on.
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Permalink Reply by Steven M Bray on
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Greg,
I too had stability issues with Kitlog Pro, especially with recent updates to Windows 10. I found this post on the Vans forum which gives excellent instructions that completely fixed my issues. As long as you have your .mdb file, you might want to try them. I would suggest uninstalling Kitlog and doing a clean re-install from the download. Even if the clean install fails to run, these instructions got me going. You can then just open your .mdb file and all should be good. No new license needed since it is embedded in the .mdb file. I have found that most of the Kitlog issues stem from compatibility with Windows updates. Good Luck
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=1182396
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Of course! I should have thought of looking there myself...
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