Capture times from the FMC
What this does
Fills the four block times on a flight by photographing the FMC page that shows them, instead of you typing them in.
Before you start
- This is a Pro feature, on iOS and Android only. On the free tier the button is there but opens the Pro screen: Capture from FMC is a Pro feature (iOS and Android). Here is everything Pro includes: (→ K3).
- The entry form is open on a flight, on the Times section (→ C2). Read C2 first: this fills the OOOI fields and sets the time basis, and both need to mean something to you.
- Accepting overwrites. Every time on the sheet replaces what’s already in that field, and the captured date replaces the date on the form. And because captured times are UTC, accepting sets the flight’s time basis to UTC / Zulu — if you’d chosen Airport local, you won’t have it afterwards.
Steps
- At the right-hand end of the Block Times header row, tap Capture from
FMC. (The first time, the app asks for camera permission.)
- Line the FMC, MCDU or FMS page up inside the brackets — Align the FMC display inside the brackets — and tap the shutter. To use a photo you already have — a gallery picture, a screenshot — tap the gallery button beside the shutter instead.
- On Confirm captured times, check each line — FLT, DATE, OUT, OFF, ON, IN — and tap any that’s wrong to correct it. Each shows what was read and where it came from: Detected: 11MAY26 — tap to override, or a confidence figure on a time.
- Answer the date question — Does this DATE refer to departure or arrival? — with Departure or Arrival. The line above the buttons previews the dates your answer will produce.
- Tap Accept.
How to tell it worked
A message reads Applied all four OOOI times and flight date and flight number from FMC capture, naming whichever of those it filled. The four block times on the form hold the values you approved on the sheet, Date holds the captured date, the basis reads UTC / Zulu, and Flight Time has been worked out from Out and In.
None of this saves the flight. Tap Save on the form as usual.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No Capture from FMC button | You’re on a desktop. The reading uses the phone’s own text recognition, which desktops don’t have | Type the times (→ C2) |
| The Pro screen opens instead of the camera | The feature is Pro | See K3 |
| Camera permission denied | The app doesn’t have permission to use the camera | Grant it in your device’s settings, or tap Pick image from gallery and use a photo you already have |
| No camera available on this device | There’s no camera the app can open | Pick image from gallery, or Back to entry and type the times |
| On-device text recognition is not available on this platform. | This platform can’t read text on the device | Type the times |
| Could not read FMC display: … | The image couldn’t be processed | Take it again: fill the brackets with the page, hold steady, and keep glare off the screen |
| Could not open gallery: … | The photo chooser wouldn’t open | Grant photo permission in your device’s settings |
| One line reads Not detected, Tap to set manually | The app couldn’t find that value | Tap the line and type it, or use Tap to assign |
| Some fields are missing or low-confidence. Use Tap-to-assign to pick them off the image. | Some values were read poorly, or not at all | See Tap to assign, below |
| Times are not in chronological order. Edit before saving. | The four times as read don’t run Out → Off → On → In | Tap the lines that are wrong and correct them before you accept |
| Accept won’t respond | Nothing was read from the image, and the app won’t guess | Tap Cancel, then take the photo again or type the times |
Tap to assign
When the app has missed a value you can see perfectly well on the photograph, tap Tap to assign. The photo comes back with the blocks of text it found outlined, and a row of field chips beneath it: Tap a block on the photo, then pick a field.
Tap the block, then the field it belongs to, and the value moves onto the sheet. Tap Done when the lines are right.
The app checks what you give it. A block that doesn’t hold the right kind of value is refused, with the reason:
- No valid time found in ”…”. Pick a block with a HHMM or HH:MM value.
- No valid date found in ”…”. Pick a block with a DDMMMYY (e.g. 11MAY26) or YYYY-MM-DD pattern.
- No valid flight number found in ”…”. Pick a block with an alphanumeric value (e.g. 1552, AC123).
The date question is the one that matters
An FMC page prints one DATE and four times, and it doesn’t tell you which day the times belong to. On a leg that crosses midnight in UTC — pushing back on the 11th and arriving on the 12th — that one field decides whether your flight gets filed on the right day.
The sheet asks you directly: This flight crosses UTC midnight — which day is the captured DATE?, with Departure and Arrival as the answers and a preview of what each one produces. Go by the preview rather than the buttons. Get it wrong and the whole leg is on the wrong date — the kind of error that only turns up months later, in an export.
The confirmation sheet is the feature
Tap any value to edit before saving. Times are UTC. — the sheet tells you what it’s for. It isn’t a formality between the camera and the form: it’s where the app’s reading of a photograph becomes your logbook entry, and it shows its working on every line so you can check it. Check it there. Once you tap Accept, the values are in the form and nothing is left showing what the photo said.
A line left empty on the sheet — not read, and not typed in — is the one case where the value already on the form survives Accept.
What else it fills
As well as the four times, a capture fills the flight’s Date and — when the page shows one — the Flight Number on General Info. The flight-number editor on the sheet is titled Flight number and hinted e.g. 1552 or AC1552.
Your photo stays on your phone
The reading happens on the device. Nothing leaves it and nothing is kept: a photo taken with the shutter is deleted before the screen closes, and a photo picked from your gallery is read and left exactly where it was.