BowenAero.com

I’ve been using LogShare as a pilot logbook for a couple years now.  It’s a nice, basic, logbook and until recently free.  But now it’s use has been rolled into a Weathermeister subscription, which I have, but I don’t maintain a paid status since my flights are few and far between while I’m building the RV-7.  So without paying for Weathermeister again, I can’t log additional flights to LogShare.  I can’t blame the owner of LogShare for doing this.  He has no obligation to give LogShare away free forever.  But, the fact that this change was made without warning to LogShare users seems a little “impolite”.  Without a current backup, or help from another paying WeatherMeister user, LogShare users are not even able to export existing data.  It doesn’t seem right.

Anyway, I had a recent backup, and another user captured a complete export for me, so after a bit of scrambling I had all my log entries.  Where to now?  I searched the tubes and found several possible options.  I was looking for a free web-based logbook with currency reminders.  Those specs narrowed the field considerably.  I ended up going with Zululog.  It has four different levels of service, the basic one being free.  This level doesn’t provide data import though which was a potential show-stopper.  Then I saw a coupon code on their web site for a free 3-month trial of the Platinum level, which does allow imports.  Perfect.

I had to manipulate the format of my LogShare data a little to be compatible with the ZuluLog import, but after a little tweaking, one false start (user error), and some prompt email support from Roger at ZuluLog, all my data was in, including the most recent flight that prompted the change to begin with.  So far, so good.  Thanks ZuluLog!