Understanding flights

A flight record captures a single use of an aircraft. While flights most commonly represent airborne operations, you can also record ground runs, maintenance taxi tests, and other uses where the aircraft’s timers advanced but the aircraft did not depart.

Timer readings

A flight is comprised of readings from timers that have been set up for the aircraft. There are two readings per timer:

• Out — The timer reading when the aircraft departed, or was “taken out.”
• In — The timer reading when the aircraft returned, or was “brought in.”

Complete and incomplete flights

A flight with both Out and In readings is complete, and its duration is calculated from those values.

A flight with no In readings is considered an incomplete flight. An incomplete flight is a valid record and does not need to be completed (e.g. for a cancelled flight).

Flights with equal In and Out readings are considered complete and will have a 0.0 duration.

Multiple flights per day

More than one flight can be recorded on the same date. When multiple flights share a date, they are ordered by their Out reading values.