MyGoFlight CEO Charlie Schneider Dies after SR22 Crash
Schneider had been traveling on business in a Cirrus SR22 when the aircraft crashed in Knoxville, Tennessee, on December 16.
After receiving FAA certification for his MyGoFlight HUD, Charlie Schneider brought his newest invention, a low-cost head-wearable display, to last year's NBAA-BACE, where he proudly demonstrated it to attendees. (Photo: Matt Thurber/AIN)

Charles Schneider, a software engineer who co-founded MyGoFlight in 2010, died on Friday after being in an aircraft crash the previous day near McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee, the company confirmed on a Facebook post.


Schneider, who served as CEO of MyGoFlight, had been traveling on business in a Cirrus SR22 piston single when the aircraft crashed at 9:20 a.m., the company said, adding the cause of the accident is unknown. According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the CAPS ballistic parachute was deployed, but the aircraft crashed and was destroyed in the accident. MyGoFlight posted on Friday that Schneider had died that morning at UT Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Another occupant onboard the aircraft survived but was injured, AOPA added.


Schneider—who had a background that included leadership roles at companies such as Booz Allen & Hamilton, Oracle, MDC Holdings, and Builder Sourcing—founded MyGoFlight after obtaining his pilot license and deciding he did not want to use paper charts, the company said. Instead, he decided to use a computer but had a difficult time keeping it on his lap. Shifting to an iPad, he determined a need to secure it and, MyGoFlight said, “Our first product, the iPad Kneeboard, received so much attention and demand, a business was born.”


The business has since expanded to numerous mounts, cases, cradles, flight bags, luggage, anti-glare glass, and into the first certified head-up display for general aviation.


“A driven inventor, Schneider was as soft-spoken and genteel as he was prolific,” AOPA said in an article about his passing. “His death is a loss to those of us here at AOPA as well as the entire general aviation community.”