Flightdocs (Booth N4409), a provider of cloud-based software for aircraft maintenance, regulatory compliance and inventory management has announced a new module that fits within and complements its “Software as a Service” product.

Flightdocs’ new product focuses on flight operations, becoming an important third leg within the company’s established Enterprise Suite.  Key features include drag-and-drop flight scheduling, leg-based trip planning, crew management, customizable flight logs, native mobile applications, and real-time communication tools.

Greg Heine, Flightdocs president, has been heavily involved in development. Heine said, “The development of Flightdocs Operations started about a year ago in response to our customers’ requests for a fully integrated flight department management system. They wanted a modern, mobile, real-time solution for flight ops.” 

Heine said development was built on feedback and consultation with customers’ fight departments, including corporate, medical transport, and charter and regional airlines, and was built to support both fixed-wing and rotor-wing aircraft. All Flightdocs development is done in house and is 100-percent U.S.-based, to which the company attributes the speed of product development and the high quality.

Systems Integration

The new module can function as a standalone system, but critically, Heine explained, “it’s built to complement and enhance the functionality of the other two modules—Maintenance and Inventory—within Flightdocs’s Enterprise Suite.”

Importantly, the new operations module links and integrates the two internal silos that frequently characterize a flight business organization: maintenance and operations. When in R&D, the Flightdocs team identified two high-level issues they wanted to solve with the Operations: breaks in the flow of data and disjointed interdepartmental communication.  

For example, consider the need for non-routine maintenance, say, if a pilot notices a discrepancy during flight. This is an operations issue, Heine explained, that needs to be reported to maintenance for resolution.

Under traditional procedures, Heine said, this reporting process can present numerous downfalls. It’s paper-intensive, and it requires duplication of data entry into multiple platforms and email chains, texts, and phone calls to notify stakeholders. The chance of errors is high. From its customers, Flightdocs knew there was demand for an electronic solution for day-to-day operations-maintenance integration. Flightdocs Enterprise is intended to make this reporting/tracking process seamless.

The new app works to eliminate inefficiencies and bring real-time visibility into the status of an operation. From a phone or iPad, a pilot can report a discrepancy along with pictures and video of the issue. All stakeholders are immediately notified, and the status of the aircraft is updated. Using Fd | Connect, a secure, encrypted messaging system built into the app, users communicate without the need for texts, emails or phone calls. This is meant to keep communication centralized and prevent details from falling through the cracks. Maintenance personnel can find a resolution, sign off the task electronically, and return the aircraft to service without a single sheet of paper, according to Flightdocs. Heine said that operators who have moved to a paperless workflow have reported time savings of more than 90 percent, faster aircraft turnaround times, and a significant reduction in data errors.

Flightdocs is offering incentive pricing on the Operations module through NBAA-BACE.  

Sidebar box:

Flightdocs has also recently announced the introduction of a new service called Flightdocs Custom Development Solutions (CDS). CDS provides business analysis and custom software solutions based on operators’ specific requirements. The service is applicable across FAR regs 91, 121, 135 and 145. “We are able to leverage the power of Flightdocs Enterprise and our best-in-class development team to create products that solve very specific business needs,” Heine said. “We have already partnered with major OEMs and several 135/121 operators to deliver customized solutions to their operation that can be supported long into the future.”