BreezyLog

"What we've developed, is the result of collaboration between an aviation professional and a developer, to address the challenges in managing aircraft records in what you might call an 'analogue environment'," says Paul Strike, an industry veteran with over thirty years aviation experience. "My initial conversations with Carl were borne out of frustration I guess and a bit of a quest to find a better solution. Given that I'm an aircraft owner, Commercial Pilot/Operator and LAME, I'm sitting on all sides of the fence, so I see the shortfalls in the current system from all perspectives. Carl's experience as a developer, made him a pretty sensible "first port of call", because we had worked together on a couple of projects before and I knew the best way to solve the issues I was experiencing, was to use the embedded efficiencies that exist in digital solutions to rationalise and simplify what I saw as an incredibility complex and time consuming manual process".

Having agreed on the need to find a workable solution, Paul and Carl began a lengthy process of consultation with aircraft owners, LAMEs and pilots. "I wanted my feelings validated and I wanted Carl to experience first-hand what the issues were," says Paul Strike. "I wanted him to hear from aviators with decades of experience, people that had the desire to 'do it right' and I wanted them to articulate the compliance challenges they felt they had. As it happens, there was a great deal of consistency in the feedback we received. What they needed was a system that made aircraft record keeping easy, less confusing and affordable."

"From the number of years I spent involved in volunteer rescue, I know the importance of having well maintained equipment and that poorly maintained equipment can cost lives," says Carl Painter. "The requirement to keep aircraft records up-to-date, has become even more vitally important in this digital, computer-based era, as evidenced by the volume of feedback we received from LAMEs, owners and Pilots, as well as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, who all made the importance of the responsibility and genuine need for an easier, yet efficient way, very clear to me. Many aircraft owners also told us they had been looking for a digital solution, but the ones they found were either too expensive, complicated and 'over the top' for their needs or just a scanning service. I can also tell you, I found out how difficult Airworthiness Directives can be to keep track of, after the many months that went into working out how to manage, track and forecast them in BreezyLog."

In developing the BreezyLog solution, Paul and Carl identified four principal objectives:

• It should contribute to the safety of an aircraft, its crew, passengers and the general public.
• It should provide proof of compliance with Civil Aviation Regulations.
• It should enhance the value of an aircraft by producing accurate and easy to read records.
• It should be easy for any aircraft owner to manage their logbook, track and forecast schedules and AD's.

What they initially thought would be a six to twelve month project, became four years of blood, sweat, tears, long days and nights, and there were a number of times, when either project partner would think of giving up, as many others have done in trying to develop a similar system. However, with the belief that what they were doing was something that was sorely needed and could be affordable for the average small aircraft owner and help to make for safer skies and possibly save lives, they kept pushing on.

The result of their efforts is now released as Version 1 and is in the process of being endorsed by CASA, with plans to improve and expand on its features and functionality, including the addition of FAA Airworthiness Directives and more features for LAMEs and approved maintenance organisations, along with a version for the USA and Canada, and eventually Europe. We believe it will go hand-in-hand with other applications that people are already using on their tablets, such as OzRunways.

So what is BreezyLog essentially?

"BreezyLog is a REAL-TIME, interactive, aircraft records system for aircraft owners, designed to be used primarily on computers and tablets, with an easy to use web-based mobile app for entering flight data," says Carl Painter. "It offers a comprehensive aircraft record keeping, maintenance forecasting/tracking and component log system, and flight data entry program, that meets the requirements of Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR) 50A & 50B, as an acceptable alternative for aircraft records. BreezyLog enables the operator to control, input, record and search everything from flight times, fuel and oil uplifts, right through to Airworthiness Directives, component history, engine changes and everything in-between. We decided on making it fully web-based, rather than go the route of developing for specific platforms, because then it can be used on any desktop, tablet or mobile phone, whether it's Windows, Android, IOS, Blackberry, etc."

We welcome feedback and suggestions from the aviation community, as to how we may improve BreezyLog and perhaps incorporate additional features in later versions.

FLY SAFE!