FOR PC PILOTS
Let the flight review itself
One file. Double-click it, type a six-character code once, and every flight from then on arrives in your logbook on its own.
You do not need this to use Three Flights. Planning, briefings, the logbook and the passport all work on any device, including Xbox and PS5. This is the piece that makes the landing review observed rather than self-reported: it reads the flight from the simulator itself.
Windows will warn you the first time
Your browser may warn you first, while it downloads: Edge or Chrome can say the file “isn’t commonly downloaded”. Choose Keep (in Edge, click the … beside the download first, then Keep, then Keep anyway).
Then, when you open it, you will see a blue box saying “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info, then Run anyway.
Both warnings appear because the file is not code-signed. A signing certificate costs several hundred pounds a year and Three Flights has not bought one yet. We would rather tell you that plainly than let you discover it and wonder what you had downloaded. If you would rather not run an unsigned program — a reasonable position — the section further down shows you how to run the same thing as plain Python source you can read first.
If your antivirus removes it
Some antivirus programs, Norton in particular, are wary of any new program that is not signed and has not yet been seen on many PCs. Norton calls this FileRepMalware: it is a judgement about how rare the file is, not something found inside it. Such programs can move ThreeFlights.exe into quarantine, sometimes days after it first ran. When that happens the recorder simply stops, and flights are not recorded.
In Norton: open Norton, click Security, then Quarantine. Tick ThreeFlights.exe and choose Restore, and say yes if Norton offers to leave it alone in future scans. Some versions of Norton keep it under Security History instead, with Quarantine chosen from the drop-down at the top. Then double-click ThreeFlights.exe in C:\ThreeFlights again. Other antivirus programs have the same option under a similar name, usually Restore and Allow or Exclude.
We report every false alarm to the antivirus company so it is fixed for everyone. If it happens to you, a screenshot of the alert to sll001@icloud.com helps, because it names exactly what was flagged.
Setting it up, once
Five steps, all on this page — you never have to go looking anywhere else. Best done in a browser on the sim PC itself, so the download and the code are both in front of you.
- Put
ThreeFlights.exein a folder of its own, for exampleC:\ThreeFlights. It keeps a small file beside itself, so it is happier not sitting loose on the Desktop. - Double-click it. Windows warns the first time — More info, then Run anyway. It will ask for a link code.
- Your code is right here:
- Say yes when it offers to start with Windows.
- Put Three Flights on your desktop. The recorder itself sits quietly in the taskbar and puts nothing on the desktop — this is where your flights, reviews and logbook appear:
In Edge: click … at the top right, then Apps, then Install Three Flights. In Chrome: click the small install icon at the right of the address bar, then Install.
Leave this window open or minimise it. Close it and nothing records until the PC restarts.
That is the whole setup. From then on it starts quietly with the PC, waits for the simulator, records each flight and sends it. There is no code to enter per flight and nothing to remember before you fly.
Done? Your flights, reviews and logbook live in Three Flights itself — not on this page.
Open Three FlightsWhat it sends, and what it never sees
It sends a summary of the flight: departure and arrival, times, aircraft, maximum altitude, the touchdown rate and g, bank angle on short final, speeds and descent rate at the 1,000 ft and 500 ft gates, gear and flap configuration, go-arounds, bounces, the wind, and a coarse track for the map.
It holds a device token, not your account. There is no password on your simulator PC, nothing is read from the machine other than the simulator, and you can revoke the link from your profile at any time without touching the PC. Time spent paused is never counted as flying.
If you would rather read the code
The program is exactly one Python file, frozen so it can run without Python installed. You are welcome to skip the .exe entirely, read the source, and run it yourself:
pip install SimConnect requests python three_flights_agent.py --link ABC123
Download the source — the same file that went into the program above, nothing added and nothing hidden.
Removing it
Run ThreeFlights.exe --uninstall to stop it starting with Windows, then delete the folder. Nothing is installed anywhere else on the machine and nothing is left in the registry. To cut the PC off from your account as well, go to Settings & sim PC → Your sim PC and press Remove beside it.
On Xbox or PS5? Skip this page entirely
Consoles do not allow anything to be installed beside the simulator — not by us, not by anyone — so there is no recorder to download and nothing to set up. That is not a missing feature to hunt for; it is the platform. Plan on a phone or tablet beside the television, fly, and answer the sixty-second debrief afterwards — your review is built from what you confirm, every mark still shows its reason and weight, and the logbook, passport, ranks, stamps, Journeys and the Challenge all work exactly as they do on PC. The measured, wheels-on-the-runway review is the one thing that is PC-only, because only a PC can run the recorder.