My totals don't match my paper logbook
The usual reasons a Pilot Lab total differs from your paper book, and how to track down the difference.
Pilot Lab never keeps a running total. Every figure on your Dashboard is added up fresh from your entries and any opening totals, under the rules of the authority you chose when you set up your logbook. That makes the numbers dependable, but it also means they can differ from a paper book that was added up by hand. Almost every difference comes from one of the reasons below. Work through them in order.
1. Some flights are still drafts
Only finished entries count. Entries marked Imported, Final, Signed or Locked are added up. Entries marked Draft are not, however complete they look.
Open Entries, open the filter, set Status to Draft, and finalise the ones that are complete. See Log your first flight for what finalising needs.
2. Simulator and ground time are counted separately
Your aircraft totals only include flights in an aircraft. Simulator sessions and ground instruction are kept out of them. Simulator time has a total of its own. If your paper book mixed sim time into its total column, Pilot Lab's aircraft total will be lower by that amount.
3. Your brought-forward total isn't in yet
If you started your paper logbook with a "brought forward" line from an older book, or you've only imported recent flights, your earlier hours need to come in as an opening balance. The spreadsheet import can add one for you. See Import a spreadsheet. You can also type your opening totals in yourself under Settings ▸ Opening totals, and every change you make there is kept in a history.
4. Rounding
Pilot Lab stores every time in whole minutes and adds the minutes up. Paper logbooks usually round each line to a tenth of an hour (six minutes) and add up the rounded figures. Over hundreds of flights those small differences add up.
For example, ten flights of 1 hour 20 minutes each:
Table: Same flights, two ways of adding up
| Method | Each flight | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot Lab (minutes) | 1:20 | 13:20, or 13.3 in decimal |
| Paper (rounded to 0.1 per line) | 1.3 | 13.0 |
Neither is wrong, but they won't agree to the decimal place. Durations show as decimal hours to one place unless you change it. To switch to Decimal, two places (1.75) or H:mm (1:45), open your account menu, choose Preferences and change Duration format. It changes the display only, not the minutes underneath.
5. Columns calculated to the rules, not by hand
A few columns are worked out from what you entered, the same way for every flight. A handwritten book may have done it differently.
- Night. If you or your old logbook wrote a day and night split, Pilot Lab uses it. Only when nobody wrote one does it work the split out, from the flight's times and the actual twilight times for that date and place. Where it could work one out and your written night figure differs from it, the entry keeps your figure and shows a warning naming both, so you can see the difference rather than have it hidden.
- PIC and dual. The whole flight time goes to the column for your position on the flight. Instructing and solo flights also count as PIC, as the rules allow. Command practice (PIC under supervision) has a column of its own and isn't added to PIC. If you write command practice beside another position, the rest of the flight goes to that position. An entry keeps the version of the rules it was worked out under, so entries calculated before a rules update aren't changed by it.
- Cross-country. A flight that qualifies counts its whole time as cross-country.
The detail of each column is in How flight time is split into columns, and How your totals are worked out explains what's counted.
6. A flight is missing or doubled
After an import, compare your flight count with your paper book, a page at a time if needed. A page that didn't scan, or a spreadsheet row that was skipped, shows up as a gap. Importing the same file twice shows up as duplicates, since an import always adds rather than replaces.
Still out?
If you've been through all of these and a total still looks wrong, email support@pilotlab.app with the column, the figure you expected and the figure Pilot Lab shows. Totals are the one thing Pilot Lab has to get right, and we'd rather hear about it.
Pilot Lab calculates totals under the rules as we've implemented them. If you're relying on a figure for a licence application or a flight test, check it against the requirement yourself.