Flight Logger 1.12.2: Your Flight Survives a Simulator Crash

Version 1.12.2 of the Flight Logger goes out within the next 30 minutes. If you already have the logger installed it will update itself the next time you open it, and it can also be downloaded from the Flight Logger page.

A simulator crash no longer costs you the flight

This is the change that matters most. Until now a CTD ended the sector: the report was cancelled and the flight was gone. A flight is now kept open for six hours from the last position it logged. Start the app again and it offers the flight back, with the same report, the same block times and the distance already flown. If the simulator comes back while the app is still running, the flight simply carries on. Ninety-four pilots lost 253 flights to a crash in the last thirty days, and this is the change for them.

Points you should not have lost

The rules that judge lights, flaps and landing gear now wait for evidence that the reading works on your aircraft before charging anything. Add-ons that drive their switches through their own systems were costing points for strobes that were on and flaps that were set. Seaplanes and floatplanes are no longer penalised for failing to lower a gear they do not have, and a landing on water is judged as a landing on water.

Figures on your report that were wrong

Landing flaps were read at the stand, after you had cleaned up, so most reports said you landed with the flaps up. Take-off weight was read the moment you pressed Start, so if you fuel and board inside the simulator your aeroplane looked lighter at take-off than at landing. Top of climb latched on the first level-off, so a sector that cruised at FL370 could be filed as a cruise at FL40. Tailwind was measured against indicated airspeed, which at altitude reported winds of 200 knots and more. All four now come from the moment they describe.

Your bookings have times

A single booking now carries its scheduled off-blocks and on-blocks, with a countdown on the Home screen and on the briefing. You choose when you actually operate it, and that is simply your plan: it needs no reason and is never counted as late. If you then arrive more than fifteen minutes after the time you set, the flight-complete screen asks why, once the flight is over rather than before it starts.

Bookings you cannot start are marked before you press Start

A booking made at one airport while your aircraft sits at another now carries a tag saying so, and the briefing opens with the airport your aircraft is actually at. Pressing Start on one of those used to produce a bare "Request failed with status code 400".

Connecting to the simulator

The app keeps trying to connect for as long as the simulator is running, rather than making one attempt and stopping. For X-Plane, the installer offers to add the Windows Firewall rule on UDP 49100, which is the commonest reason X-Plane shows a connected simulator sending no data, and boarding no longer sits at 0% when X-Plane forgets its data subscriptions.

The full list of changes ships with the app.