Tobren Operations as a DroneLogbook alternative
A logbook is the record of what flew. Tobren Operations starts one step earlier — with the day, the airframes and the crew that are about to fly — and ends one step later, with the client's invoice built from the same flights. The log is still the centre of it; it just arrives with the rest of the operation attached.
Here is what Tobren Operations does. We have deliberately not restated anyone else's pricing or limits on this page: those change, and a comparison table that goes stale is worse than no table. Their pricing page is linked at the bottom with the date we last read it. And one thing first: Operations is not for sale yet. It is in test ahead of a commercial launch, and the honest call to action on this page is the waitlist, not a checkout.
The day is one event
A day on site is one thing, not twelve loose flight logs. Reserve the airframes, flag the ones held back as spares — reserved and visible, marked not-flying — assign the crew, lay the field out the way it is staged, and start the event once. A flight log opens for every airframe marked flying, stamped with the real start time and tied to the day it came from. The spare you cannot see is the one nobody walks to when a motor fails, so spares stay on the board.
What flew, imported rather than retyped
Flight logs are aircraft-first — one pilot, one aircraft, per log, the shape the paperwork wants — with the crew manifest and the client on each. Bring history in from Aloft, AirData, DJI or a plain spreadsheet by CSV, with per-row validation so a bad row is a message rather than a mystery, or connect an AirData account and let it sync instead of exporting a file every week. An import lands against the schedule you already made, matched on aircraft and time, rather than creating a second copy of the same flight. Every log records where it came from: typed on the flightline, imported from a file, or synced from an account.
Each log also carries the weather — the nearest station's METAR is suggested for you, and your organisation's own go/no-go minima raise an alert when a flight went ahead outside them — and the airspace class, worked out from FAA data.
The aircraft and the people
Maintenance runs on manufacturer-spec thresholds with a template library across common commercial models, airframe history, thresholds that reset themselves on service, and a return-to-service sign-off on the record. Certificates, insurance, registrations and waivers sit in one library with expiry that is tracked rather than remembered. Pilot currency is the one recency rule Part 107 has — aeronautical knowledge recency every 24 calendar months under §107.65 — plus the date each pilot last flew with your organisation, flagged at 60 and 90 days as a fact from your own records, not an FAA verdict.
The records people actually ask for
Part 107 does not require a flight log. Your insurer asks for records when you claim, and some price on them; the client's procurement team asks before the job. Operations produces the packet: a PDF, a shareable link that needs no login, or straight to an inbox, scoped to fleet, aircraft, crew or client, on your own letterhead. A safety register holds hazards, near misses and incidents against the flight, the aircraft and the crew, and says so while the ten-day FAA reporting window is still running. An activity log records who changed what. And the whole workspace exports — a ZIP, the registers as CSV, each pilot's logbook as CSV or PDF — so the records are yours whatever you decide about the software.
Quote to paid, with the day in the middle
Clients, jobs, quotes and invoices on your letterhead, with sent-and-viewed tracking and a link the client can accept or decline without creating an account. Invoice lines fill themselves from the job's own flight data, so what you bill matches what you flew. Operations does not take the client's card: it produces the paperwork, and the money arrives however it arrives today. The whole business layer is a switch; turn it off and what is left runs the flying.
What we do not do yet
Worth knowing before you move your fleet's history:
- No LAANC, no airspace map, no forecast. Operations records the weather and the airspace class on each log; it does not file authorisations, draw the map or forecast the day. The tools you use for that stay in your workflow.
- No released mobile app. There is one in internal testing; it is not in either store and cannot be bought. The web app on a phone is the flightline story today.
- No client card payments, and no accounting. Quotes and invoices, yes; a ledger, reconciliation, payroll or tax handling, no.
- No Part 108 reporting. There is no Part 108 rule yet, and nothing here claims to be ready for one.
- No public price yet. Operations is not for sale.
If your workflow depends on any of those, we are not the right move today, and we would rather you read that here than find out afterwards.
When it launches
Operations is built by a Part 107 operator and is in test ahead of a commercial launch. If you want to know the day it goes on sale, the Operations page will take your email; the feature detail and the tour show what is built today.
We describe only what Tobren Operations does. For DroneLogbook’s own current pricing and limits, see their pricing page — last checked .