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Frequently asked questions

Last updated 31 July 2026

Short answers about how Hobbs works. Anything missing? Tell us at support@hobbsfly.com. During beta we usually fix or answer the same week.

Basics

What is Hobbs?

A digital pilot logbook at hobbsfly.com, built by Lift Flight Training (Pty) Ltd in South Africa. It works in your browser, installs to your phone's home screen like an app, works fully offline, and keeps your logbook encrypted, in private mode with a passphrase only you hold, so we cannot read it and cannot recover it; or as a recoverable backup we can restore for you if you forget your password. You choose which. On top of the logbook there's an optional social layer: see where the pilots you know last landed, on a globe of your own flying.

Is it free?

Yes, while we're in beta, including cloud backup and the photo reader. If a paid tier ever comes, the core logbook stays free and nothing you've logged is held hostage: export is always available.

Is Hobbs a valid legal logbook?

Hobbs is a record-keeping tool. Most authorities accept electronic logbooks, and Hobbs prints your logbook in your authority's own layout (with page totals, brought-forward lines and a certification block) and supports digitally signed instructor endorsements with a drawn signature and a tamper-evident seal. Whether a printout, an electronic record, or a wet-ink signature is required for a specific application is your authority's call, check their current requirements. Keep your own backups; the logbook is yours, not ours.

Which authorities does it support?

SACAA (South Africa, the native 30-column layout), EASA (Part-FCL, the official numbered layout), UK CAA, UAE GCAA, DGCA (India) and a cabin-crew layout. Your authority sets the grid you see, the print layout and the CSV export, and you can print in a different authority's format any time (useful when applying for a foreign validation).

Do I need an account?

No, the logbook works without one, stored on your device. An account (free) adds the social features and is needed for the photo reader, which runs on our server. Cloud backup uses its own credentials, see Sync & offline.

Importing your history

How do I bring my existing logbook in?

One button: Import logbook. Give it whatever you have and Hobbs works out what it is:

Every import shows you what it read before anything is saved, and nothing imports without your confirmation.

Will Hobbs recognise my logbook app's export?

Almost certainly. Hobbs matches column names automatically (in several languages). If some columns aren't recognised, it can ask its AI reader to identify them, only the column names are sent, never your flights, and shows you the proposed mapping to confirm or correct.

What if my file still won't read?

Hobbs will offer to send the file to its reader to interpret the structure. That's your explicit choice each time: the file is processed in memory, never stored, and the flights it finds still go through the same review-and-confirm screen. If even that fails, email the file to support@hobbsfly.com and we'll look at it.

If I import the same file twice, do I get duplicates?

No. Hobbs skips rows that are already in your logbook (and tells you how many, before you import). It's smart about legitimate repeats, two identical training circuits on the same day both stay. Importing a newer export of the same logbook adds only the new flights.

Why are some imported flights flagged for review?

Only the ones worth a glance: flights where Hobbs had to assume your role (no PIC/dual columns in the file) or where data with no matching column was kept in the flight's remarks so nothing is lost. Everything else imports unflagged.

My import had departure and arrival times, are they used?

Yes. Times make same-day sectors sort in the order they were actually flown, and they decide your "last landing" for the social map. Flights without times still work; they order by date and file order.

The photo reader

Can Hobbs read my paper logbook?

It reads your totals, not your flight rows. Photograph the totals line at the bottom of your last paper page, or a summary from another logbook app, and Hobbs fills in your opening balance for you to check. Nothing is saved until you confirm it.

Reading whole flight pages was withdrawn in October 2026. Twenty-four rows of handwriting across thirty columns was never accurate enough to trust with hours that end up in a legal record, and a wrong figure in a logbook is worse than no import at all. We would rather tell you that than let you discover it at a licence renewal.

So how do I bring an ink logbook across?

  1. Set your opening balance from your totals page, typed, or photographed and checked.
  2. Log flights from that date forward.

It is a few minutes of typing for figures you can verify at a glance, instead of hundreds of numbers you would have to proofread anyway. It is also how this app's author moved his own career across.

What makes a good totals photo?

Does the photo reader cost anything? Are there limits?

Free during beta. There is a fair-use daily limit per pilot so that one person cannot exhaust the reader for everyone; if you reach it, it resets the next day.

How accurate is it?

A totals page is a handful of large figures and you check every one against the paper before saving. That is the whole reason this is the part we kept. It refuses to guess: a figure it cannot read comes back empty for you to fill in, never invented.

Opening balance (brought-forward totals)

What is the opening balance?

Your career totals from before Hobbs, one set of figures per column (SE/ME, day/night, PIC/dual/co-pilot, instrument, simulator). Every running total in Hobbs = opening balance + the flights you log. Set it by typing, or by photographing your last paper page's totals line or a summary from another app.

Should I import flights or set an opening balance?

Either, but be careful about doing both for the same flying, or those hours count twice. Hobbs watches for this: after any import, if you also carry an opening balance, it asks whether they overlap and takes you to the editor if they do. And if you entered your grand total as the balance but also log flights, one tap recalculates the balance so everything reconciles without losing a single flight.

Can I type times as hours and minutes?

Yes, every totals box accepts both 106.5 and 106:30, whatever your display preference. The photo reader converts hours:minutes for you and tells you it did.

Why are my totals locked?

Once set, the opening balance locks so a stray tap can't rewrite your history. Unlock (with your passphrase, if you've set one) to edit.

Times & authorities

Decimal hours or hours:minutes?

Your choice, and switching is instant, it's a display preference, the stored record doesn't change. Choosing EASA (or UK CAA / GCAA) as your authority switches the display to hours:minutes automatically, per Part-FCL convention. You can override it either way in Settings.

Does simulator (FSTD) time count in my total?

That's authority-dependent, so it's a setting. EASA convention excludes FSTD from total flight time; SACAA pilots commonly include it. Hobbs defaults to your authority's convention, shows the choice openly, and never silently changes your headline number.

Block time or airborne time?

Also a setting, chocks-to-chocks or wheels-up-to-wheels-down, whichever your operation logs. It's recorded once as your convention and stated on printouts.

Can I print my logbook?

Yes, a paginated printout in your authority's own layout, with brought-forward and carried-forward totals per page, an optional endorsements section, and a certification line. Export to PDF via your browser's print dialog, or export CSV for spreadsheets.

Currency & documents

What expiries can Hobbs track?

Medical, licence, instrument rating, type or class rating, PPC/OPC, BFR or flight review, CRM, dangerous goods, SEPT and passport, plus a separate expiry for every country's visa, as many as you need. Enter the date once in Settings and the dashboard counts down.

Does it warn me before something lapses?

Yes, and quietly. Each item sits green while it's clear, turns amber as the date approaches and red when it needs booking, an annunciator you notice rather than a nag. Everything is on your device, so it works offline like the rest of the logbook.

How is passenger recency worked out?

From the landings you already logged, no separate tracking. Hobbs counts the last 90 days per aircraft type, day and night separately, and shows the date each currency runs to. If your instrument rating is valid it's taken into account where the rules allow.

Do I have to log take-offs as well as landings?

No, Hobbs fills them in. The count is the same as your landings, and whether each one counts as day or night is worked out from the departure time and place. That distinction matters: a dusk departure that lands after dark is a day take-off with a night landing, and night passenger currency needs night take-offs as well as night landings. Log only landings and a logbook can look night-current when it isn't.

When would I change the take-off numbers by hand?

Two cases, and both boxes are editable for them: a multi-crew sector where you flew the departure but your colleague landed (a take-off with no landing), and a circuit session that straddles dusk where the split isn't quite what Hobbs assumed. If your imported file already carries real take-off counts, those are used instead of the derived ones.

Privacy & the AI reader

The one-sentence version: your logbook lives encrypted on your device; the only things that ever reach our AI reader are the photos and files you explicitly send it, processed in memory and never stored.

Who can read my logbook?

You. It's stored in your browser, and if you enable cloud backup it's uploaded only as ciphertext encrypted with a key derived from your passphrase, which we never receive. There is no backdoor: if you lose the passphrase, the cloud copy cannot be recovered (your local copy still works).

What exactly gets sent to the AI?

Nothing else. Normal imports and everything you type stay entirely on your device.

Do you track my location?

No, never. There is no GPS in Hobbs. The map and your "last landing" come only from flights you logged or a location you set by hand.

Can I delete everything?

Yes. "Start over" in Settings wipes your logged flights and opening balance. To delete your account and any server-side data, email support@hobbsfly.com. Full details in our privacy policy.

Sync, offline & devices

How do I use Hobbs on my phone like an app?

Open hobbsfly.com (no "www") in your phone's browser and use Add to Home Screen. Open the icon once while online so it caches; Settings shows "Offline ready" when it's safe to fly with. After that it works with no signal at all.

How does sync between devices work?

Set up cloud backup in Settings with an access code, email and passphrase, enter the same three on every device and they stay in sync. The passphrase is the encryption key: choose one you'll keep, because we can't reset it. You can change it in Settings (every other device then needs the new one).

I updated, why am I seeing the old version?

Refresh twice. The first load fetches the new version in the background; the second shows it. The version you're on is at the bottom of Settings.

My logbook looks empty on another device or browser.

Two common causes: you're on www.hobbsfly.com instead of hobbsfly.com (use the bare domain, old links may need re-saving), or cloud sync isn't set up on that device yet (enter your access code, email and passphrase in Settings).

Pilots & the map

What do other pilots see about me?

Only what you opt into. By default: nothing. If you connect with friends, they can see your profile and, if you enable it, your most recent airport of landing. Sharing has three positions: friends, public, or off. Your flights, hours and logbook contents are never visible to anyone.

How does the map know where I am?

It doesn't, in the GPS sense. Your pin is the arrival airport of your latest logged flight, that's all. Flew commercial and didn't log it? Set your location manually; it lapses automatically the next time you log a real flight.

My pin shows the wrong airport.

The pin is your latest logged landing, ordered by the flight's actual times. If a day had several sectors, check the times imported with them; if your latest flying isn't in Hobbs yet, the pin cannot know about it. Import the newer flights or set the location manually.

I fly circuits and local training and nothing shows on my map. Why?

The map draws a flight from the places in its Details of flight. A circuit detail like "FAWB FAWB" is one airport, so there's no line to draw, that's normal, and your hours are unaffected. What makes local flying show up is naming the places you actually go: the general flying area, the practice field, the strip you land at. Add each one once (below) and it behaves like any airport from then on.

How do I add a place that has no airport code?

Settings → My aircraft & crew → Your own places, training areas & private strips. Give it a short name (2–10 letters or numbers, e.g. GFAREA, NORTH, SMITHS), paste its coordinates, tap Add. Then write that name in a flight's Details of flight, FAWB GFAREA FAWB, and it appears on your map with the track drawn to it. You only do this once per place; after that you just type the name.

Where do I get the coordinates?

Google Maps is easiest: press and hold the spot, the coordinates appear at the top or bottom of the screen; tap to copy, then paste them into Hobbs. Your EFB works too (ForeFlight, SkyDemon and Garmin Pilot all show a point's lat/long in its info panel), as does a chart or the AIP.

What coordinate format does it want?

Whatever yours is in. All of these work, pasted as one line:

Hobbs shows you what it read, "Reads as 25.9385° S, 28.1401° E", before you save, and refuses anything it can't read cleanly rather than guessing at a position.

Is this tracking me?

No. Nothing in Hobbs reads your device's location, ever, there is no GPS in the app. A place you add is just a name and a pair of numbers you typed, stored in your own logbook, used to draw your map. Adding your home strip tells Hobbs where that strip is, never where you are.

Can I block someone?

Yes, from their profile. They won't be told, and they can no longer find you or send requests.

Troubleshooting

"Couldn't read this photo"

Usually the photo, occasionally the connection. Retake it flat, square-on and in better light, and if it's a screen you're capturing, send a screenshot instead of a photo of the monitor. If it keeps failing on a photo that looks clean, email it to us; the reader improves from real examples.

My totals photo didn't read

Retake it flat and square-on, with even light and just the totals line in frame. If it reads some figures and not others, fill the blanks in yourself, the boxes stay editable and nothing is saved until you press Save. Whole flight pages are not read at all; see the photo reader.

My total looks too big after importing

Almost always double-counting: an opening balance and imported flights covering the same flying. The import summary shows the split ("X brought forward + Y logged"). Open the opening-balance editor and zero the columns the import now covers, or if the balance was your grand total, use the one-tap recalculation.

Something else is wrong

Tell us: support@hobbsfly.com, or the feedback button in Settings (it includes your app version automatically). Beta reports get fixed fast, most of this page exists because pilots asked.