Logbook not updating after patch

[Superfrog500870]

I have the same issue, and where I fly in the Icon A5 makes no difference; takeoffs are sometimes recorded, landings are rarely recorded, my flight time if often truncated (e.g., only, say, 15 minutes of a 30-minute flight are recorded), and any recorded flight is inaccurate (e.g., the logbook will show that I flew for 15 minutes in the vicinity of, say, ENVU, rather than I flew from ENVU to ENME). Here is what I use if this helps:

ENVU = flightsim.to/file/1380/bush-airfields-of-norway
ENME = flightsim.to/file/1282/enme-meraker-airport-oian
Norway height/elevation fixes used = flightsim.to/discover?s=norway

I have found that this logbook error is more likely to happen after the latest update (v1.10.8.0; updated 30/10/20).

I have not yet tried other aircraft as I am trying to change one variable at a time (e.g., location first, then aircraft). If I get any more useful repro steps, then I will post again here.

[gue63]

Unfortunately the logbook is tied to the Objectives system. If you don’t meet the objectives, then you don’t get the event recoded. An since the Objectives system appears to be bugged, there is no nice way around it.

For example, if you start a flight on the runway, ready to take-off, the first objective is to take-off. This will (for me) always count the take-off in the logbook. If you start on a parking spot, one of the initial objectives will be “Taxi to edge of the runway”. At small uncontrolled airfields this often does not get completed, regardless of how often you taxi over any of the “runway edges”. If you have Assistance - Navigation Aids turned on, you can see that the POI marker for it never disappears. As a result, the take-off won’t count, and the flight might not count either, depending on how you complete it.

The only way around the bugged take-off objective at most small airfields is to start the flight at the default runway (not my preferred method, but alas).

As for the rest of the flight, my work-around is to follow ATC procedure to a designated parking spot and then shut down engine(s), avionics and electrics. I let the AI handle the often mind-numbing ATC.

The above work-arounds enable my flight times to be properly recorded. However, since the system is bugged, it needs to be fixed, preferably in a way not tied to Objectives.

[JALxml]

Newbie ignorance here. Does one have to takeoff from somewhere and then land or otherwise specially terminate a flight to have flying time logged in the logbook?

If one just spawns in the air, flies around, hits the Esc key to exits, spawns again in the air, etc., it doesn’t seem like one gets any flying credit at all for doing that even though you had to be controlling the plane, avoiding terrain, etc.

On the OTH, if you do most of a long-distance high-altitude flight on Autopilot (whenever it’s working properly!), if you did the flight with takeoff and landing, it seems one is going to collect a whole bunch of credit for doing nothing much most of the time - so that would be the way to build up an impressive amount of flying time without breaking out a sweat.

Maybe someday a really smart AI logbook will take note of how much and what kind of flying the human pilot was actually doing and award brownie points on those bases?! (Sorry if it already does this to an extent and I just haven’t figured it out yet - I’m too busy mourning missing credits for just spawning in the air and “aimlessly” flying around!).

Edit_Update: Actually, looking back a couple of weeks in my logbook, spawning in the air seems to have been recorded (the “Vicinity” entries) but not such much just in the last few days after the two most recent updates.

[MmAaMmOo]

as i’ve read many times before, the error seems to be there for many people, but always a little bit different.
yesterday i had a perfect landing and parking instruction in LSZH. but there is no blue field (which turns green when entering the aircraft).
for small airports without controls, there is not even the possibility to show these blue fields.

please vote all at the top of the thread !!! thanks!

[JALxml]

Hookay! I found a partial answer to the idiosyncratic behavior that I experienced of the Logbook not updating. I am not sure if the error of updating is a change in my behavior or whether updating worked differently in earlier versions of MSFS and has now changed. But in any case, it’s broken and needs to be fixed.

As a test, I tried the Icon A5 and the Cessna 152 both spawning in midair (no takeoffs or landings required). I tried flying them from cockpit view and from external view behind the plane (default view when you hit END key to get out of cockpit view). You can start by planning a flight on the World Map or load a .FLT or .PLN file. You get the same result all the time.

Even a few seconds of flight will be perfectly logged if you stop your free flight by hitting the ESC key and doing the following. The required sequence (starting from Active Pause with ESC) is ESC key, HOME key (Restart), (wait 'til it says Ready To Fly), then hit ESC key, and then END key (Main Menu).

If you terminate a free flight by hitting ESC key, then just pick END key (exit to Main Menu), nothing will be logged.

Another idiosyncrasy that needs to be corrected is on the screen at Ready to Fly, the floating flight parameters box will say something like 1:30 pm Local Time (U.S. Mountain Time), 7:34 pm UTC (on August 29th when I originally saved the .FLT file). But in the logbook when I tried the flight today (end of daylight savings time now), it’s 2:10 am CST and the logbook records the flight at 8:10 am UTC. So there’s a weird disconnect there that loading the file allows you to supposedly fly on a past date and time but you’re credited for flying effectively in the middle of the night TODAY (11/2/2020 in U.S. dating) by VFR rules (I would have flown at 1 am MST according to the log book but it was broad daylight when I flew! Completely whacky!

I will file a Zendesk report about this.

Here are a whole bunch of very short free flights spawned in the air and logged by hitting ESC, the HOME (Restart), wait for Ready to Fly, then ESC, then END (Main Menu).

[hobanagerik]

I’ve found one way to generate a non-logging situation at at untowered airstrip. If you land, and taxi just off the runway, then announce to ATC you are clear of the runway, then shutdown, it will log.

However, if you taxi clear of the runway, announce this, then proceed to taxi to a parking area, it won’t give you the pop-up when you shut down. It seems like a proximity issue. Moving outside of the area you shutdown in off the runway breaks it.

[BlueYello]

And it worked just fine when the game was just released…strange ”development-methods”.

[LazyHipp0]

For LSZH, have you contact the ground to assign the parking space or gate? the picture looks like you just fallow the blue line go straight in without contact ground.

For those uncontrolled airstrip like YCLQ after landed, move your plane out of the runway, shut down engine you should get it logged, if you are not sure, open OBJECTIVES window, it should say end the flight / stop main engine, if you see that you are golden.

[CyclonesWorld]

I’ve been having this issue for a few updates, and it’s really become evident as I’ve been doing all of the bush flight activities. I’m not sure if there are objectives tied to it or not, I have that turned off and rather not turn it on since I’m aiming for the achievements. While I think the objective screen doesn’t matter, don’t want to risk it.

But, I did several of the flights that are about 50-60 minutes long. End the flight and my log book reports 12 minutes, and 3 minutes. This is really irritating, as I’m also going for the flight time achievements too. I have the 50 hours, but according to Steam I’ve logged over 120 hours in game. And over the course of 20 hours of playing, I’ve gone up by maybe 6 hours.

This is really killing the game for me.

[CyclonesWorld]

Discovered another anomaly. I noticed on my most recent landing, my ‘Total Time of Flight’ at the end flight screen actually went down a few hours. What is going on here?!

[TranquilitySea]

Did you use developer mode during the flight? That happens to me if I use it.

[MmAaMmOo]

yes, for LSZH i contacted the ground and got the blue arrows after contacting them. yesterday i made several small flights and used the objectives field. there i found some hints what to do. helps, but unfortunately not always! thanks.

[hobanagerik]

@LazyHipp0

For those uncontrolled airstrip like YCLQ after landed, move your plane out of the runway, shut down engine you should get it logged

This. Also, don’t be tempted to taxi to an untowered airstrips ramp to park, if it has parking, as that will stop it from logging, in my experience. Just off the runway, then shutdown.

[CurriedCat]

Basically it’s broken in its current state. There’s some work arounds which work for some people some of the time.
It seems to have got worse since the last patch.
Flights should log all the time and shouldn’t force you to taxi backwards off the runway while waving a chicken in the air and humming the theme tune from The Addams Family.

It used to work just fine. You didn’t have to start cold or even taxi off the runway. If you want to start in the air that too would log. It just worked.

[onkelyogi4210]

2 crashs logged since oct.15. nothing else … 100h lost …

[pmb2019]

@CurriedCat

Basically it’s broken in its current state. There’s some work arounds which work for some people some of the time.

It used to work just fine. You didn’t have to start cold or even taxi off the runway. If you want to start in the air that too would log. It just worked.

Confirmed. I tried all the suggestions coming up here, and they work - “sometimes”. I still will have to find a consistent pattern. Sometimes no logging at all, often departure missing, sometimes arrival, it’s just a lottery.
I think this has to be fixed soon.

[hobanagerik]

I wanted to test something, an it appeared to work, on a Neofly job between KFET-KMYZ.

You will see I taxied off the runway, but I kept going and I did not report I was clear of the runway, which is what I would normally do the second that option appears in the ATC dialogue window. Instead I continued on to the ramp, and found a free parking spot. It wasn’t at first, there was a fuel truck parked there, but it reverse out then drove off when I sat there for a few seconds. I moved to the parking spot, pulled the handbrake on which triggered the completion of the Neofly job. I then announced I was clear of the runway, and shutdown, and it logged correctly.

Previously I had announced clear of the runway the second the option appeared, and would then taxi to the parking, and this would fail to log. I suspect that announcing you are clear, then moving off is breaking the process.

On the next flight I will repeat this, but I will park at some random spot on the ramp, then announce clear, and shutdown, and see if that logs.

[CyclonesWorld]

I had used developer mode before in the past, but stopped after update 3 I believe, when it was breaking flight logging. Then I had no issues for awhile and all of a sudden I have issues. I’ve seen a lot of discussion on the Steam forums regarding the same problem, so it’s definitely an issue with the game.

[hobanagerik]

Repeated the test, and did a circuit at 87NE. It did log, but was marked as vicinity, presumably because I did not park where I was supposed to. Will re-test this circuit, but park where I am supposed to.

Interesting. I was right on the parking spot, that spawned right in front of me, with the marshals appearing out of thin air, but it still logged as vicinity.

Now back to “parking” as soon as I clear the runway. announce it to ATC, then shutdown. This time it logs without the “vicinity” flag.

There must be something in the airport/airstrip object that defines what is on the airport, and what is near it, and it almost certainly varies between airstrips, and perhaps some, the AI generated ones, do not have this well defined?

[ShovelBum4584]

I haven’t seen any commonality in logbook errors based on communicating with the ground or where exactly I end a flight at an airport, but I haven’t tested that fully yet (only been back flying since yesterday… this patch hasn’t been a whole lot of fun for me.) For me, it seems to log correctly if I get the auto-exit back to the main menu. If I run through shutdown and nothing triggers the auto-exit and I have to exit out myself, then my logbook will be messed up.

It might be tied (somehow?) to the flight plan created in the World section of the main menu. For example, yesterday I did a multi-leg flight for FSE across north Africa, with four stops set up in MSFS prior to starting my flight. After I reached my fourth stop, I went into the aircraft’s G1000 and edited the flight plan to add a few more stops. When I finished the flight, I had to manually exit from the sim to the main menu, despite requesting parking and then parking there at my final destination. The logbook showed the flight to the first four stops, but nothing beyond there… the three hours of flights made after exceeding the original pre-flight plan weren’t reflected in time flown or concluding location in the logbook.

A second flight yesterday evening followed just the pre-flight plan with no extra stops, I received the auto-exit to main menu when I shut down the plane, and it logged correctly after I completed the legs.

Just now, I had pre-flight planned a multi-leg flight, but ran out of time to fly more than the first leg. Again, no auto-exit, and the logbook only shows a 4 minute from from my departure airfield to vicinity of the same instead of the 90 minute flight it really was.

There seems to be issues when the flight deviates from what you tell the sim you plan to do prior to starting the flight. I have exactly zero idea why that would affect the logbook, which you would think would just simply record time airborne and start/end points. But it seems tied to the pre-flight planning, which seems tied to whether or not the auto-exit triggers, which (for me at least) seems to be what determines if the logbook gets recorded properly.

As I said, I’ve only been back flying for about 10 hours total under this patch and update, so I’ve not seen all scenarios possible, such as what happens if no flight plan is made pre-flight in MSFS. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread, though. It irks me that the record of my time is all wonky.