Tailfin
A self-hosted digital flight logbook
Table of Contents
About
Tailfin is a digital flight logbook designed to be hosted on a personal server, computer, or cloud solution. This is the API segment and can be run independently. It is meant to be a base for future applications, both web and mobile.
I created this because I was disappointed with the options available for digital logbooks. The one provided by ForeFlight is likely most commonly used, but my proclivity towards self-hosting drove me to seek out another solution. Since I could not find any ready-made self-hosted logbooks, I decided to make my own.
Getting Started
Prerequisites
- python 3.11+
- mongodb 7.0.4
Installation
- Clone the repo
$ git clone https://git.github.com/azpsen/tailfin-api.git
$ cd tailfin-api
- (Optional) Create and activate virtual environment
$ python -m venv tailfin-env
$ source tailfin-env/bin/activate
- Install python requirements
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
- Configure the database connection
The default configuration assumes a running instance of MongoDB on localhost:27017, secured with username and
password tailfin-api and tailfin-api-password. This can (and should!) be changed by
modifying .env, as detailed in Configuration. Note that the MongoDB instance must be set up with
proper authentication before starting the server. I hope to eventually release a docker image that will simplify this
whole process.
- Start the server
$ python app.py
Configuration
To configure Tailfin, modify the .env file. Some of these options should be changed before running the server. All
available options are detailed below:
DB_URI: Address of MongoDB instance. Default: localhost
DB_PORT: Port of MongoDB instance. Default: 27017
DB_NAME: Name of the database to be used by Tailfin. Default: tailfin
DB_USER: Username for MongoDB authentication. Default: tailfin-api
DB_PWD: Password for MongoDB authentication. Default: tailfin-api-password
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES: Duration in minutes to keep refresh token active before invalidating it. Default:
10080 (7 days)
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES: Duration in minutes to keep access token active before invalidating it. Default: 30
JWT_ALGORITHM: Encryption algorithm to use for access and refresh tokens. Default: HS256
JWT_SECRET_KEY: Secret key used to encrypt and decrypt access tokens. Default: please-change-me
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET_KEY: Secret key used to encrypt and decrypt refresh tokens. Default: change-me-i-beg-of-you
TAILFIN_ADMIN_USERNAME: Username of the default admin user that is created on startup if no admin users exist.
Default: admin
TAILFIN_ADMIN_PASSWORD: Password of the default admin user that is created on startup if no admin users exist.
Default: change-me-now
TAILFIN_PORT: Port to run the local Tailfin API server on. Default: 8081
Usage
Once the server is running, full API documentation is available at localhost:8081/docs
Roadmap
- Multi-user authentication
- Basic flight logging CRUD endpoints
- Aircraft management and association with flight logs
- Attach photos to log entries
- GPS track recording
- Implement JWT refresh tokens
- PDF Export
- Import from other log applications
- Integrate database of airports and waypoints that can be queried to find nearest