A drone logbook is a logbook kept by drone pilots to ensure that they are complying with the rules that apply to them when flying. While this is not required under current FAA regulations, it certainly has enough benefits to make it a worthy idea.
It typically contains several important pieces of information for each flight and even allows you to keep better track of which batteries and SD cards you’re using on each flight. There are a lot of options out there and we will discuss them below.
Keeping a drone logbook also has several other benefits for your drone business:
- Legal complaint for waivers
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Professional image for client confidence.
Should You Keep a Drone Flight Logbook?
It’s a valid question. Maybe you’ve done some searching and it doesn’t look like you are required to keep a drone logbook (don’t worry, you’re not). But it is a really good idea for a few reasons that I’ll discuss below.
And even if you’ve decided to keep a drone logbook, it may get confusing because you see so many options and you aren’t sure what is the best solution.
First, I’m going to address the benefits of keeping a drone logbook and then I’ll discuss your options for actually keeping a drone logbook.
4 Benefits of Keeping a Drone Logbook
The benefits of keeping a drone logbook include the following:
- Legal Compliance for Waivers
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Professional Image for Client Confidence
I’ll give some more details on keeping a drone logbook below.
Legal Compliance for Waivers
First, as an attorney, you have to know that legal compliance is usually top of mind for me. Like I said above, there is currently no requirement that you keep a drone logbook. But there are certain types of waivers (think night flights), that do require some kind of training (for now anyway). The FAA is issuing daylight waivers, but they specifically state:
Prior to conducting operations that are the subject of this Waiver, the remote PIC and VO must be trained, as described in the Waiver application, to recognize and overcome visual illusions caused by darkness, and understand physiological conditions which may degrade night vision. This training must be documented and must be presented for inspection upon request from the Administrator or an authorized representative;
And while getting this one waiver may be reason enough to keep a full drone logbook, this alone may not convince everyone to do it. Keep in mind though where we were 3 years ago on the commercial drone front. While the FAA doesn’t currently require any drone pilots to keep a log book, there’s nothing saying that these rules can’t (and won’t) change again.
You might be thinking, okay how am I supposed to get night flight training if I can’t get a waiver to fly at night? Another good question. The FAA isn’t looking for a bunch of night flight hours; instead, they’re looking to make sure that you’ve taken a course or done some type of learning to show that you understand the added issues that come with flying at night. And while keeping track of this training wouldn’t necessarily be part of keeping track of drone flights, there is nothing that says you can’t keep track of this training in the same space.
Have you taken any drone classes or do you have any certificates showing training? Write them down and keep them with your drone logbook. This is a good practice to begin now.
Insurance
Just like keeping a drone logbook isn’t required for legal compliance (yet), it is also not a requirement for getting drone insurance. Some insurance companies will ask for your records, but in reality, the application for drone insurance will probably just ask you to provide the information that you would keep in a drone logbook.
Again, I don’t know about you, but keeping track of this information apart from somehow recording it at the time seems like an impossible task. Besides, being able to provide accurate and detailed records of your flights may even get you a discount on your insurance premium.
I’ve talked before about how Sky Watch (a drone insurance company), offers discounts of up to 50% for pilots that share their information with their app and have a proven safety record. At this point, I don’t believe there is a separate discount for a drone logbook, but the way the Sky Watch information reads, it looks like they can access your previous information on the DJI Go App (when you give them permission), which they use to calculate a discount.
To me, this is proof positive of the benefits of logging your drone flight time.
Maintenance
I know, talking about maintenance doesn’t sound like fun. And talking about keeping track of your maintenance sounds like even less fun. But it can be SUPER helpful, especially if you have a few drones.
Despite the fact that a drone doesn’t require the same maintenance schedule as a typical manned aircraft, it does still require maintenance. This includes cleaning any dirt and debris from the drone as well as cleaning the camera or sensor, replacing the propellers, updating the firmware (on the controllers, drone and batteries), and completing any necessary repairs (send it to the manufacturer to complete any repairs). All of this should be tracked. Why not keep it in the same place that you log your drone flights?
Again, as an attorney, my mind usually goes to the worst case scenario. Should anything bad happen while you are flying your drone, your ability to show that you maintained and tracked your maintenance on your drone (or drones) could be worth way more than the time spent.
Professional Image for Client Confidence
If I’m being honest, I’ve never had a client ask me for my drone logbook. But imagine if you did and you weren’t able to show your client flight and maintenance records. Now imagine that your competitor has all of these records on hand to provide to this imaginary client. Who looks more professional?
Being a drone pilot gets a bad wrap, partially because of the weekend warrior nature of many “commercial” drone pilots. Keeping a drone logbook is worth it for the simple fact that it sets you apart from the competition. You don’t have to wait until a client asks to show off your professional chops. You can just tell them and you have the records to back it up. This could be the difference between getting the client and losing the job.
Options for Keeping a Drone Logbook
Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that keeping a drone logbook is worth it. Maybe already knew that you should and you’ve even looked into keeping a drone logbook but you weren’t sure the best route to take. There are basically three options in the event that you decide to keep a drone logbook.
- Electronic drone logbook (using drone software)
- Electronic drone logbook (spreadsheet)
- Paper drone logbook
I’ve even provide you with a free spreadsheet version below that you can copy and download. Woot!
Everyone has their preference. I’ll cover each option below in depth and you can decide for yourself where you land (pun intended).
Digital drone logbook (using drone software)
There are so many different options for keeping a drone logbook using drone software. This is probably because this option provides the least amount of friction in getting started and keeping up with it. Some electronic options are separate and apart from your flight app, others integrate with your flight app. If you are a person that prefers the automatic nature of setting up a drone logbook as opposed to something more manual, I totally get that.
My go-to app for all drone flights is Kittyhawk.io. You can set up checklists, determine the overall risk of your flight, see the weather, KP index, and get authorizations. Today, we’re only going to talk about one of Kittyhawk’s features: the ability to “automatically” track your drones flights.
I use the word “automatically” a bit loosely. To be clear, you don’t have to write any of your information down, but you do have to go through a sync process that can feel a little bulky at first. Once you’ve set up the sync though, it does the trick. If I’m being honest, I was hoping to be way more impressed with this set of features. As it stands, I’m just not.
First, you’re going to need a Kittyhawk account (don’t worry, they have a free version). Next, you’re going to need to turn on your drone and sync all of your flight data to the DJI cloud (if you haven’t already).
Once this is completed, open the Kittyhawk app up again and connect your DJI account to Kittyhawk. Again, the first time this may take a few minutes, but the result is that it pulls in all of the recorded data from DJI. To be fair, this is a lot of info. It includes the drone model, battery serial number, latitude and longitude, flight time and date, duration, pilot name, authorizations, temperature at the time of flight and sunrise/sunset.
You’d think that this information would be easy to export from DJI Go without syncing to Kittyhawk, but you’d be wrong. If you want to go through the hassle of connecting your tablet or phone to your computer and accessing the records through itunes, you can do that. But I know I don’t want to do that.
But even using Kittyhawk, there are a few things that I don’t love about keeping a drone logbook this way.
First, there is seemingly no way to export this information from Kittyhawk in a clear, concise (or customizable) way. You can export flights from Kittyhawk’s website but not from their app.
And once this information has been exported, if you log everything you want, it actually comes out in a few different spreadsheets, which would require you to combine this information by manipulating spreadsheets (which is everyone’s favorite activity). Another thing that’s kind of strange is that the Kittyhawk export logs your flight time in seconds. Uh, what? That’s not helpful.
Long story short, if you’re going to use this version of a drone logbook, I would make it a habit of exporting all of your information once a month from Kittyhawk and saving the spreadsheet. The information will not be super accessible in this format, but it will exist if you need it.
While there are other electronic options, they all seem to have limitations that make them difficult to use or alternatively, a cost per month. While I totally understand that companies need to make money to survive (and I want good drone companies to make money) sometimes the monthly fees associated with a bunch of different software feels like a hassle. That said, I’ll provide a brief outline of the other electronic options below and then some other alternatives that are either free or only charge for a physical product.
Pros:
I’m pretty impressed with Airdata UAV. The first thing I noticed is how many ways you can import the data. If you are a Litchi user, you can actually get a discount on the monthly cost of Airdata. Airdata is exactly what I wanted a digital drone logbook to be. Not only does it import all of the information, it takes all of that data and puts it in charts so that you get an easy to read visualization of the information.
Cons:
The downside, like I said before, is the monthly cost. Although you can read your flight information on their app or website, the free version limits you to the first 100 flights. I guess they archive your flights if you go over the limit but it is not entirely clear how you’d access them. To me, this kind of defeats the purpose of keeping a drone logbook. How am I supposed to use the information if I can’t access and export it? Also, you are restricted from making any kind of report unless you pay for their $14.99 per month per pilot option. To be fair, their lowest monthly plan is only $2.99 but if I’m going to pay, I’d prefer to have the ability to export my information.
Pros:
Overall, I’m actually pretty impressed with Dronelogbook.com as well. The sync feature with the DJI cloud is seamless and only took a few minutes. It literally imports EVERYTHING, including any media thumbnails from while you were flying. You can add your drones, batteries and equipment and it will use the imported information to sync all of this. You can also add attachments if you have documents you’d like to associate to the flight. You can import your flights manually or sync via DJI cloud. I just used the DJI sync because I’m not sure of the formatting required to import manually. Either way, both are available. If you click into a flight, it also provides you with a map layout showing exactly where you flew and the altitude at each point along the way. You can even add default projects or flight types upon import.
The only thing that seems to be missing to me is the ability to import your flight authorizations. This is one thing that using the Kittyhawk app allows for that is missing here. The real downside to using dronelogbook.com is just the cost, which starts at $6.95 per month per pilot. Without a paid plan, you can only export 5 flights at a time and even then, it only allows you to export the information as a PDF. This is fine, but if I’m going to export my information, I’d prefer to be able to calculate things as well. Last thing I don’t like is that all of the flight information is calculated in meters. I know, I know, the rest of the world uses the metric system, but because I don’t use it on a regular basis and because the FAA rules are written using feet, I wish there was a way to display this information using feet instead. Not a major gripe, but something I’d change nonetheless.
Digital drone logbook (using a spreadsheet)
This version of keeping a drone logbook is like a hybrid between the version discussed above and the paper version discussed below. Like I said, a lot of this is preference, so there’s nothing wrong with any version of tracking your drone flights. Honestly, just keeping track at all will put you ahead of the curve.
With this version of a drone logbook, you can either create your own or use a version that someone else has made. So long as you include the correct information, you should be good. At the very least, you should track the following:
- Date of flight
- Drone make and model
- FAA drone registration number
- Location of flight
- Type of flight (commercial, training, recreational, etc.)
- Total flight time
The thing about creating your own drone logbook is that the formatting can take some time. I’ve gone ahead and done the work for you, so that you can take all of the information listed above (with a few extras added in). I’ve found that it is helpful to number your batteries and SD cards as well so that you can track which ones you are using. You can always use the serial number for your batteries and then use this information from the DJI Go App. This has proven helpful because sometimes you will have issues with a battery that doesn’t charge or discharge properly or is out of balance and will cause problems. As far as SD cards, we’ve found that some of our SD cards do not write information quickly enough to keep up with the drone footage (especially at 4K). So, I’ve included columns for this information in my spreadsheet as well.
The spreadsheet I’ve created even does the math of adding up your numbers for you. My recommendation is to download the spreadsheet and make a copy to use as a template. Then you can just copy a blank spreadsheet to a new sheet for each month. If you wanted to be super nerdy about it, you could sync the information from DJI Go to Kittyhawk and export it once a month. Then clean up the columns to match my spreadsheet for an easy cut and paste. If you wanted to be even nerdier, you could then create formulas to sync information between sheets for a cover page of your logbook that gives you an easy, at-a-glance overview. Yes, I realize that not everyone loves spreadsheet math like I do.
Paper Drone Logbook
Last (but certainly not least), you can manually log your drone flights and maintenance in a paper drone logbook. To some of you, this option may seem like entirely too much work or too old school. And while it definitely doesn’t have the “automatic” appeal or the ability to easily search a database, I wouldn’t count it out immediately.
First, some people just prefer an old school logbook. When I was studying to get my manned pilot’s license (way back in the early 2000’s), we used paper logbooks. Also, carrying a paper logbook means that it will always be easily on hand in case you need to show someone.
Another benefit to a paper logbook is that by having it on hand, you will be more likely to track the information in it at the time of the flight. Not only will this help you be more accurate, physically writing things down helps with recall.
No matter what your reasoning, if you’ve decided that the options above don’t work for you, I’ve got a paper drone logbook (link to Amazon) that I have developed specifically for you. It includes all of the information that you will need to record as well as a bunch of extras.
In creating this drone logbook (link to Amazon), I spent a lot of time writing and re-writing to include all of the things that I personally would want in a drone logbook (and getting rid of the things that I wouldn’t want). It needed to be small enough to carry with me (smaller than a standard spiral notebook) but it also needed to have room for any additional information, including notes and sketches. I also wanted something that made it easy to flip between the various sections. To that end, each section has a notation on the side of each page that indicates which section you are in. This makes moving between sections a lot easier. Like I mentioned above, I also wanted something that included everything I’d need to log all in one place. I don’t want my information scattered among a bunch of notebooks. So this drone logbook contains all of your checklists (and some extra spaces for your own checklists if you find it necessary), plenty of space to record your actual drone flights, a separate section for maintenance and repairs, and a bunch of room for notes at the end.