A pilot writing under the name James Harding has published a detailed personal project built from his flying logbook, turning years of flights into an interactive portrait of an aviation career.
The project uses charts, maps and calculated metrics to show how his work has changed over time, from short-haul operations to longer flights and larger aircraft. Rather than presenting the logbook as a static record, the article uses data visualization to tell the story of how a pilot’s routine, exposure and aircraft mix evolve across the years.
Among the more notable measures is seat-miles, a standard aviation metric derived from the number of seats multiplied by the distance flown. The article uses that figure to compare how much flying the pilot has done on different aircraft types and routes. It notes that a move from short-haul aircraft such as the Airbus A320 family to long-haul operations on the A350 changes the comparison dramatically because long sectors contribute far more seat-miles even if the number of flights is smaller.
The piece also touches on environmental and occupational factors. It references the carbon footprint of burning Jet A fuel, and notes that flying at altitude exposes crew to cosmic radiation, especially on long-haul flights and at higher latitudes. The project even includes charts about how much flying is done at night, reflecting the rhythm of long-haul schedules and the practical realities of airline work.
What makes the article stand out is its mix of personal narrative and structured data. It is not a generic aviation blog post. It is a self-analysis built from a pilot’s own records, with the kind of detail that lets readers explore the material flight by flight.
The project also includes visualizations by country, airport and aircraft type, along with breakdowns by hour, distance and weekday. Those views show how the work is distributed across different parts of the world and across different times of day, and they suggest how a pilot’s life becomes visible only when the data is assembled carefully.
The author describes the page as a labour of love and says he plans to add more graphs and insights later. That makes sense: aviation is one of those fields where personal experience becomes much more informative once it is quantified.
As a piece of writing, the project works because it treats data not as decoration but as the subject itself. A logbook can tell you where someone has flown. The charts tell you how the job feels.
