Hobbs and tach

For: Pilots · Hangar admins · Mechanics

Every aircraft in RampMates keeps a hobbs reading. Some aircraft also keep a tach reading. Hobbs is the clock the whole app runs on. Tach is optional, and only matters for what a flight costs.

Hobbs

A flight’s hours are its ending hobbs minus its starting hobbs. RampMates uses hobbs time for:

each flight’s length in the Logbook, and its cost when the aircraft charges per hobbs hour
hours since the last oil change
inspections due every so many hours
each engine’s time since overhaul. Every engine counts against the aircraft’s one hobbs meter.
the reading recorded with a squawk when it’s reported

The log has no gaps

Each flight starts where the previous flight on the aircraft ended. RampMates takes the highest ending hobbs in the log (or, before the first flight, the reading the aircraft was set up with), so you never type a starting reading, only the one you see when you land.

For example, the last flight ended at 2843.7. You press Start flight and RampMates asks Confirm 2843.7 start hobbs? You land with 2845.1 on the meter, and the flight is 1.4 hours.

If the meter shows more than RampMates expects – say 2844.5 instead of 2843.7 – someone flew without logging it. Press Actual hobbs reads differently? Set your own start hobbs and start from the real reading. Once you close the flight out, the hours in between appear in the Logbook as Unlogged flight — 2843.7 to 2844.5 hobbs until someone fills them in. A starting reading below the last flight’s end is refused. See Start a flight and close it out.

Readings only move when flights are logged, corrected or deleted. There’s no hobbs field in Aircraft settings. A wrong reading is fixed by correcting the flight it came from.

Tach

A hangar admin turns the tach on per aircraft, under Tach meter in Aircraft settings (Track tach time on this aircraft). When it’s on, every flight records a tach reading next to hobbs, and you enter the End tach when you close out.

The only thing tach time changes is what a flight costs, under the Wet rate · per tach hour or Dry rate · per tach hour, plus fuel models in Flight cost model. Oil, inspections and engine time all count hobbs, whatever the tach says. See What a flight costs.

Turning the tach on asks for the Current tach reading, which the next flight starts from. Turning it off keeps the tach readings already logged on past flights, and turning it back on later asks for a fresh reading.

You can’t turn the tach off while the aircraft prices flights per tach hour: change the Flight cost model first. And neither change is allowed while a flight is open: “Close the open flight first — its tach reading is already part-recorded.”