Managing Your Aircraft
In LogTen Pro, you can manage a list of aircraft types to help reduce data entry, since most pilots will fly multiple individual aircraft of the same type. LogTen Pro's default aircraft specifications follows the FAA's classifications: so for example if we were using a Boeing 757-200, you would create an aircraft type like this:
Type: B752 (this is generally a short identifier combining the
make and model, like C-172 for a Cessna 172)
Make: Boeing
Model: 757-200
Engine Type: Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi-Engine Land
Now if I fly a fleet of 757's in the Aircraft tab I just enter the Aircraft ID, and select the type, and I don't have to specify that it's a Multi-Engine Jet Airplane for every Aircraft I enter. For each individual aircraft, I can then track things that are unique about that particular aircraft.
More than meets the eye! LogTen Pro's powerful
bi-directional linking means that not only is a flight "linked" to
an aircraft (meaning a change in the aircraft entry updates in
every flight) but that an aircraft, and even an aircraft type knows
the flights that it's linked to and can quickly display information
based on this. Check out the status display at the bottom of the
window, you'll be able to see quick stats such as the number of
flights and total time in any particular aircraft!
This is very important, because it determines how your times by type are calculated... So you need to have each of your "Aircraft Types" be unique. If you have more than one with the same "Type" then you can't select the right one for a particular aircraft.
Handling Simulators
If you fly a simulator make sure you select the appropriate value for the Category, such as "Simulator" or "PCATD" (Personal Computer-based Aviation Training Device). Since aircraft types must be unique, if you also fly the real thing, I suggest adding something like "S" or "Sim" to the aircraft type so that it can be clearly identified for flights and reports. So if our example above were a simulator you could enter it as B752SIM.
Alternatively you could create an Aircraft and set it's ID to something like B752SIM, and then just select the B752 type, however this will have the side effect of including your sim time with all other B752 time when viewing Time by Type reports.
See also: How Do I Log My Simulator Time?