New GRT flight data logging analysis tool, 15-Sep-19

Greetings.

The version below has been superseded. Please view this post.

https://rv-14a.blogspot.com/2020/05/avionics-new-grt-flight-data-analysis.html

Do you have a GRT EFIS? It records a lot of data but we don't have good tools available to view those data. To that end, I have created a comprehensive and very simple to use Microsoft Excel-based flight data log display tool. The most up-to-date version will always be found here on my blog.

I make mistakes. Complaints and suggestions welcome via my blog's contact form (rather than a PM on VAF).



Key data visualization features:

• More than 30 engine and flight parameters plotted.
• Each graph is one-click zoomable with user-defined zoom scales.
• Extrema of all parameters shown.
• Times on ground and in air calculated.
• Integrated UTC offset to set displayed times to local.
• Nearly all parameters have user-defined names and units.
• Complete instructions provided on spreadsheet, including how to setup your EFIS to record flight data.
• Plots all data or, to focus on a particular portion of a flight, only a specific time period.

KMZ file, for integration into Google Earth, automatically generated.

• 53 selectable engine parameters and flight data shown at each point on the 3D map, including distance and time to next plotted point.
• All points can be plotted or
• Four optional user-selectable thresholds to control which points to plot.
• Plotting at user-defined epochs (e.g., every 30 seconds)
• Lines colored according to user-defined flight status parameters (ground, climb or descend)
• Aircraft registration, flight time and date integrated into route names to manage multiple saved flights in Google Earth.
• Airplane icon points in direction of magnetic heading.
• Click on any location to get selected flight and engine data.
• Each point labeled with the time using user's UTC offset.

With the KMZ file, Google Earth lets you:

• Plot multiple flights.
• Animate your flight path.
• View flight paths in 3 dimensions from any angle.
• View engine and flight data specific to aircraft position.
• View positional data with greater resolution than FR24 and FlightAware, with engine and flight data.

Here is an example of overflying the field and executing a right 270 to join the final. This is from an oblique angle. In this plot, the user specified that the flight path should be marked red when the VSI is less than or equal to -500 ft/min. White indicates ground operations.



This is an example of a flight where the user chose to have points plotted only when certain flight data have exceeded specified thresholds. Furthermore, each point can be clicked on to show user-specified flight data. Airplane icons point in the direction of magnetic heading.



This is an example of an entire flight with the icons turned off. Green indicates the portions of the flight path where the VSI was specified by the user to be 500 ft/min or greater. Red was specified by the user to be -500 ft/min or less. White tracks indicate ground operations.



You can even plot your flight path and data against FAA charts in Google Earth.




An example of a zoomed-in CHT graph.



The tool is completely automated: One button to import data, one button to create a Google Earth KMZ map file. It's generally fast to import (about 5 seconds on a modern computer) and speedy to create the KMZ file (2 seconds), though older computers will need more time.

It has been tested on a PC with Windows 7 and 10 with Excel 2007, 2010 and 365. It assumes your EFIS provides GRT's version 2 flight data logging. It also assumes you have a single engine.

Thank you for doing this. Will give it a try.

Slick

That's very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Can you explain what you mean by Version 2 flight logging?

I have an old GRT Sport HS EFIS and the flight logging I get is DEMO files which I use DeCode to analyze.

Thanks

Jim Butcher

h&jeuropa said:

Can you explain what you mean by Version 2 flight logging?

I have an old GRT Sport HS EFIS and the flight logging I get is DEMO files which I use DeCode to analyze.

Thanks

Jim Butcher

Click to expand...

Sure,

The Sport HS may not support flight data logging. I don't see reference to it in its manual (page 7-2). For the models that do support flight data logging, it needs to be enabled. This is different than DEMO recording.

Enable "USB Flight Data Logger" at 1 second intervals (see below). This will create a CSV file with the data. This is not the same as recording DEMO files. That's a different kind of recording which creates a LOG file. The CSV files aren't too big (about 1 MB per hour if you use 1 second recording intervals). Version 2 flight data logging CSV files can be identified by opening the CSV file in Excel and viewing the first column - each row will have a "2". You may need to upgrade your EFIS firmware to ensure version 2 flight data log is available.

The USB Flight Data Logger is found by...
SET MENU -> General Setup -> DEMO Settings.
Options are (what I use is in red bold):

USB Flight Data Logger

• Off - Default. Disables all USB Flight Data Logger activity. Any unsaved data in memory will be written to the file and no more samples will be recorded.
• On - Starts the USB Flight Data Logger and enables the other settings.

USB FDL Record Interval (ms)

• Data samples are recorded at this interval. 200 - 30000 ms in steps of 200 ms.
• Default 1000 ms.

USB FDL Save Interval (s)

• The recorded data are written to the USB flash drive at this interval. 0 - 300 seconds.
• Default 60 seconds - If set to zero, the file is only written when the internal buffer fills up or the data logger stops.

USB FDL File Type (either of the last two options is fine):

• Single - Default, always appends new data to the same GRT Flight Data Logger.CSV file.
• New file on each boot - Creates a GRT FDL ####.CSV file (like DEMO does) on each boot, looking for the first unused number on the USB drive.
• First time of boot - Creates a GRT FDL YYYYMMDD HHMMSS.CSV file using the time of the first recorded sample after boot, if the time is available.

USB FDL Always Record:

• No - Default, records samples when any of these are true: Airspeed is valid (above the sensor minimum), ground speed is above 5 knots, RPM/N1 input is non-zero or fuel flow is non-zero.
• Yes - Records samples unconditionally, ignoring all speed and engine criteria.

New Update

Just noticed this fellow update his Excel spreadsheet to include Garmin data.
I have been using it to monitor GRT data logging and am pleased with this spreadsheet. Check it out.