ClaudeBorne eLogbook

A free, web-based pilot logbook for commercial airline pilots. Log flights, auto-calculate day/night hours, track regulatory limits and recency, and sync your logbook across devices — no subscription, no credit card.

Current version: v4.3
Live app: claudeborne.my

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Why ClaudeBorne

Paper logbooks don't add up your hours for you. Spreadsheets don't know where the sun was over the Andaman Sea at 0200 UTC. And most digital logbook apps want a monthly fee to track numbers you're already required to track.

ClaudeBorne exists because manually splitting day/night hours and cross-checking rolling FTL limits by hand is exactly the kind of work a computer should be doing instead of a pilot at the end of a duty day. Enter STD/STA, pick a capacity, and the app works out the rest — day/night split, running totals, recency, and regulatory limit tracking — for free, forever.

How it compares

	Paper Logbook	Excel / Spreadsheet	ClaudeBorne
Auto day/night split	❌	❌ manual formulas	✅ sun-position accurate
FTL limits & recency tracking	❌	❌ DIY	✅ automatic
Works offline	✅	✅	✅
Syncs across devices	❌	⚠️ manual file sharing	✅ one-tap cloud sync
Installs like a native app	❌	❌	✅ PWA
Cost	Cost of the book	Free–paid	Free, no subscription

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Quick Start

1. Go to claudeborne.my
2. Sign up with email or Google — verify your email
3. Enter your carry-forward hours (optional, if you're moving from another logbook)
4. Start logging flights — day/night hours and totals calculate themselves

No credit card, no trial period, no install required (though you can install it as an app — see Sync & Offline).

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What It Does

ClaudeBorne eLogbook replaces a paper logbook with a browser-based app that automatically computes flight times, classifies day/night hours using real sun position data, and keeps a running tally of your FTL limits and recency requirements. It works offline, installs as a PWA, and syncs to the cloud on demand.

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Core Features

Flight Logging

• Monthly logbook view with rows for each flight sector
• Fields: date, aircraft type & markings, captain, departure/arrival ICAO, STD/STA, pilot capacity (P1 / P1 U/S / P2), sectors, pilot flying, remarks, autoland flag
• Inline cell editing — click any cell to edit
• Expandable remarks modal for long entries
• Auto-populates default aircraft type, markings, captain from your profile

Automatic Time Calculation

Flight times are computed automatically from STD and STA — you never enter day/night hours manually. Three calculation methods are available:

1. Fixed UTC Bands

Night = 11:30–23:30 UTC. Day = everything outside that window. Simple, fast, no airport data required. Correctly handles cross-midnight flights.

2. Dynamic (Departure Airport)

Night is defined as sunset + 20 min → sunrise − 20 min at the departure airport, per the CAD-6 aviation night standard. Uses SunCalc with actual airport coordinates. Falls back to Fixed bands if the airport code is not in the database.

3. Route-Integrated (Sun Along Route)

The most accurate method. Night is counted minute by minute along the aircraft's interpolated great-circle route between departure and arrival airports. At each 1-minute sample the app computes the sun's altitude at the aircraft's current position; a minute is classified as night when the sun is below civil twilight (−6°, the ICAO/EASA definition). Correctly handles:

• Eastbound flights flying into a sunrise (not marked 100% night)
• Long-haul sectors crossing multiple time zones
• Flights where conditions differ significantly at departure vs. arrival

Falls back to Dynamic (departure) if arrival is unknown, or to Fixed bands if both are unknown.

Pilot capacity routing:

• P1 → Day P1 + Night P1
• P2 → Day P2 + Night P2
• P1 U/S → Day P1 U/S + Night P1 U/S

Three Main Tabs

Tab	What It Shows
Logbook	Monthly flight entry with per-column totals and carry-forward
Flight Summary	Annual hour totals broken down by month and category
Limits & Recency	FTL compliance, recency, autoland recency, type-specific trackers

Limits & Recency

Automatically computed from your logbook data — no manual input required:

• Rolling 28-day / 90-day / 365-day flight duty and flight time limits
• Recent experience requirements (day/night takeoffs and landings)
• Autoland recency counter
• Per-type trackers with regulatory reference popups (CAD 1901 / MCAR 2016 Regulations 69 & 74)
• Status banners show green/amber/red compliance state
• Configurable pre-flight and post-flight duty buffers (default: +75 min / +15 min)

Carry Forward

Enter your historical hours by aircraft type before your first entry in the app. These are included in Flight Summary totals and Limits & Recency calculations from day one.

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Sync & Offline

• Local-first: every edit saves to device storage instantly — no network required
• Manual sync: push your logbook to Firebase Firestore or pull from the cloud with one button
• Conflict detection: if another device has newer cloud data, a modal lets you choose Keep Local or Keep Cloud
• Offline indicator: toolbar shows OFFLINE chip; sync is disabled when no connection
• PWA: install on iOS/Android home screen and use fully offline after first load
• Auto-update: app checks for new versions every 30 minutes and on foreground resume; prompts to update when one is found

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Export & Import

• Export to Excel — choose All flights (the default) or a date range and download a formatted .xlsx file
• Export to PDF — the whole logbook as a printable PDF in A4 or US Letter, landscape or portrait: a cover, a profile page with your details, carry-forward hours and a signature box, then one page per month with previous, page and grand totals
• Import from Excel — bulk-load historical data from a formatted spreadsheet
• Excel files include separate Summary and Flights tabs with computed day/night/total columns

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Appearance & Customization

Setting	Options
Accent color	10 presets: ClaudeBorne gradient, Mint, Blue, Violet, Amber, Emerald, Rose, Cyan, Gold, Coral
Font family	JetBrains Mono, IBM Plex Mono, Roboto Mono, Space Mono, Courier New
Font size	11–20 px (live preview)
Table density	Default / Compact / Comfortable
Column density	Default / Narrow / Wide
Brightness	Slider control
Column visibility	Toggle any column on/off — including all six day/night columns and Total

Hiding columns shows a gear-icon badge with the count of hidden columns. A toast strip appears above the table as a reminder.

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Profile Settings

• Full name, date of birth, staff ID
• Licence number and type (ATPL, CPL, etc.)
• Airline, home base
• Default aircraft type, markings, captain
• Default pilot rank (P1 / P1 U/S / P2)

Flight Examiner and Instructor roles auto-log the pilot as captain (P1) on every flight.

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Authentication

• Email/password sign-up with password strength validation
• Google sign-in via Google Identity Services (works on PWA/iPad/Android)
• Email verification required before accessing the logbook
• Password reset via email link
• Pilot profile onboarding on first login
• Account deletion with right-to-erasure: submitted feedback is anonymized when your account is deleted

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In-App Help

• How-To Guide — 8 sections: getting started, installing the app, logging flights, day/night calculation, carry forward, syncing, exporting, and settings
• Changelog — full version history viewable in Settings → Misc
• Send Feedback — in-app bug reports and feature requests, stored in Firestore

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, Vite
Auth & Database	Firebase Authentication + Firestore
Offline/PWA	vite-plugin-pwa
Excel Export/Import	XLSX
PDF Export	jsPDF (pages drawn directly), Inter font
Sun Position	SunCalc
Deployment	Vercel (auto-deploy on push to main)

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Data Storage

All logbook data is stored in Firestore under users/{uid}/logbook/data:

• All flight log entries and settings
• updatedAt timestamp used for sync conflict detection
• Locally mirrored to localStorage for offline access

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Development

npm install
npm run dev

Push to main → Vercel auto-deploys. No manual build step needed.

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Version History

See the full changelog in-app: Settings → Misc tab.