Departure pre-fill

What it is

When you start a new flight on an aircraft, the Departure starts filled in with where the aircraft last landed. An aircraft can only leave from where it last landed, so for most flights the departure is already right. It is an ordinary value you can change: if you left from somewhere else, type or pick the right airfield.

The Arrival is never filled in. It decides whether home-airfield landing fees apply, and only you know where you landed.

Who can use it

Everyone logging a flight on an aircraft. The pre-fill is automatic; there is no toggle and no permission gate.

Where to find it

Log Flight screen: the Departure box when you start a new log from the booking. A log opened from Quick Capture or from a held watch capture keeps the departure the capture recorded.
Quick Capture (I’m flying now): the Departure picker on the first step, Ready to fly?.

Fields / options

Not a field in its own right. It affects one value:

Field	Pre-filled from	Editable
Departure	Where the aircraft last landed; else the aircraft’s home airfield; else blank	Yes, always

Behaviour rules

Where the aircraft last landed is the arrival of the flight that happened last on that aircraft, among bookings (not cancelled or rejected) that had started by the time yours did. The latest booking counts first; within it, the leg with the highest end reading, then the one that ended last (by on-blocks or landing time), then the one written last. So a flight logged late about an earlier booking cannot stand in for the last landing.
A second leg starts where the first ended. Your own booking’s earlier legs count, so after logging a flight from EGMC to EGKB, the next leg’s departure starts at EGKB.
Later-written repeats are passed over. Within each booking, a log repeats an earlier one if their flight times overlap, or both meter readings match within 0.01 h. This is the same rule used by meter pre-fill and the server’s meter and departure checks. Meter ranges that only partly overlap at different times remain separate flights. A duplicate with a different arrival therefore does not move the next departure pre-fill.
Ground runs are passed over. A log with Ground run: no takeoff selected never counts as a landing, whatever its route boxes say. Nor does a log with no arrival recorded.
Home airfield when nothing has been logged. If no flight with an arrival has been logged, the departure starts at the aircraft’s own home airfield, or the syndicate’s home airfield if the aircraft has none. It does the same if the app cannot read the aircraft’s flights. With no home airfield set, the departure starts blank.
It follows the sync until you change it. Flights reach your phone in the background, so the departure can change a moment after the form opens. Once you change the box, it is yours and stays as you left it.
An untouched pre-fill is not something you entered. Leaving the form with only the pre-filled departure does not ask Discard this flight?, and a draft does not save it as if you had typed it.
A line says when your departure differs. On a new log in Log Flight, when the departure in the box is not where the aircraft last landed, a line under it reads, for example, “Last landed at EGKB”. This holds for any leg: on a later leg it names where your previous leg landed. A flight that leaves from somewhere else holds the booking for an admin; see Departure conflict.
Quick Capture pre-selects the same airfield. The Departure picker on Ready to fly? starts with where the aircraft last landed, else the home airfield. An airfield code that is not in the app’s airfield list is not pre-selected. Nearby airfields found from your location are only offered, never pre-selected. Picking a departure makes it yours.
The Apple Watch does not use it. The watch’s departure step lists airfields near you, nearest first, for you to pick from; it does not start at where the aircraft last landed.
Aircraft only. Equipment and other non-aircraft assets have no departure, so nothing is filled in.
Only on create. Editing an existing log shows the departure it was saved with.