What Tobren Operations does — features, in plain terms
In active development

What it does, in plain terms

Written for the person who will have to run it on a Saturday — capability by capability, with the gaps named rather than left out.

The whole surface

Capability by capability

Grouped the way the product groups itself, so this page maps onto the thing it describes.

Scheduling, Events and Business are switches — see “Modules” under Account.
CapabilityWhat it does
Every day
DashboardAircraft in fleet, crew on roster, what is flying today, and the alerts that are close enough to matter — as the first screen rather than something to go looking for.
Scan to airframePoint a phone camera at the tag on an airframe and land on its record. Uses the browser's own barcode support where it exists, with manual entry always available underneath — no app to install, and no camera permission required to use it.
Schedule
ViewsDay, week and a resources view with a lane per crew member, so double-booking a person is something you see rather than something you find out.
LifecycleCreate, edit, complete and cancel. Completing captures the actual takeoff and landing times, not the times you planned.
One press to startThe recorded start is stamped at the moment of the press, not when a confirmation dialog was dismissed.
GroupsSchedule an aircraft group and it stays one piece of work instead of becoming six entries to keep in step.
Calendar subscribeSubscribe to the schedule from the calendar you already use.
What a crew member seesA crew member with their own assignments sees theirs, not the whole roster.
Events
An event is the dayCrew roles, reserved airframes, and a state that moves as the work does — rather than twelve unrelated flight logs filed after the fact.
SparesReserve more airframes than you intend to fly and flag the difference. A spare stays reserved and visible, marked not-flying, and can be substituted into a slot mid-show.
Layout gridLay the airframes out as they are staged, and read readiness off the grid once a cell is occupied.
Live boardThe board for the person running the flightline while it is running.
Fan-outOne start on the event opens a flight log per flying airframe, each stamped with the real start time and tied to the event.
Fleet & crew
AircraftRegistration, category, status and history per airframe, with tags and groups for how you actually organise them.
BulkBring a fleet in without typing it in twice.
CrewThe roster, per-person detail, and invitations that let someone set their own password rather than you issuing one. Assignment emails carry a calendar invitation, and a reschedule or a cancellation updates it.
Currency§107.65 aeronautical knowledge recency every 24 calendar months, tracked per pilot; and the date each pilot last flew with your organization, flagged at 60 and 90 days.
MaintenanceManufacturer-spec thresholds, a template library across common commercial models, airframe history, thresholds that reset themselves on service, and a return-to-service sign-off on the maintenance record.
ChecklistsDefault pre- and post-flight checklists to start from, your own templates, a run against a specific airframe, item-by-item completion and sign-off — and interim checks that come due again for the next sortie.
Records & safety
ReportsPDF, a shareable link that needs no login, or straight to an inbox — scoped to fleet, aircraft, crew or client.
AlertsMaintenance coming due, certificates and insurance expiring, currency running out — with an in-app centre and delivery to email.
DocumentsRegistrations, insurance, waivers and certificates in one library, with expiry that is tracked rather than remembered.
Two aircraft, one pilotPut the same pilot on two airframes in the air at once and it says so. It warns; it does not block. There is an org setting for operators holding a §107.35 waiver.
ProvenanceEvery flight log records where it came from — typed on the flightline, imported from a file, or synced from an account.
Safety registerIncidents and near-misses against the flight, the aircraft and the crew. If one is the kind the FAA wants reported within ten days, it alerts while the ten days are still running.
WaiversEach waiver on file with its type, number and expiry, watched like any other document that runs out.
WeatherThe nearest station's METAR suggested for each flight log, the pre-flight weather assessment recorded with it, go/no-go minima you set for the organization, and an alert when a flight went ahead outside them.
AirspaceThe airspace class for each flight log, worked out from FAA data. No map and no LAANC — see below.
Activity logWho changed what in your organization, and when.
Business
ClientsContacts, site and access notes, billing details, and the history of everything you have flown for them.
JobsAttach a job to an event and its detail flows down: location, client contact and crew arrive already filled in on the draft logs.
Quotes & invoicesPDFs on your own letterhead, emailed, with sent-and-viewed tracking and a link the client can accept or decline without creating an account.
Lines from flightsInvoice lines fill themselves from the job's own flight data, so what you bill matches what you flew.
AnalyticsRevenue per aircraft and per client, in your own currency.
Import & migration
CSVAloft, AirData, DJI or a plain spreadsheet, with per-row validation so a bad row is a message rather than a mystery.
AirData syncConnect the account and let it sync, instead of exporting a file every week.
Amend, don't duplicateAn import lands against the schedule you already made, matched on aircraft and time, rather than creating a second copy of the same flight.
Account
OrganisationsShared aircraft and crew across more than one org, each org's data isolated at the database level.
ModulesScheduling, Events and Business are switches. Off hides; it never deletes, filters or blocks. Switch one back on and every screen returns with its data.
Sign-inEmail and password with two-factor and recovery codes, or Google and Apple sign-in. The organization can require two-factor for everyone, and anyone can sign themselves out of every device at once.
Your data outThe whole workspace as a ZIP, the registers as CSV, and each pilot's logbook as CSV or a PDF on your letterhead. The owner runs it.
Your domainPut the product on a domain of your own.
Questions

The ones that get asked in a demo

Is this ready to buy?

Not yet — Operations is in active development and has no production customers. That is also why there are no testimonials on these pages and no customer logos at the bottom of them. Leave your email and we will tell you when it opens, rather than putting a signup button in front of something you cannot yet sign up for.

I fly on my own. Is this too much product for me?

Three of its parts are switches — Scheduling, Events and Business — set when you set the org up or later in Settings. Turn them off and what is left is a logbook, a maintenance record, currency tracking and the reports, which is the whole job for a lot of operators. Switching one off hides it and nothing else: no data is deleted, nothing is filtered out from underneath you, and turning it back on restores every screen with its data intact. The product is meant to be the size of your operation on the day, not the size of the biggest operation it can handle.

What happens on a day with twenty aircraft on the ground?

The day is one event rather than sixty-odd loose flights. Reserve the airframes, flag the ones held back as spares and assign the crew. Start it once and a flight log opens for every airframe flagged flying, each stamped with the real start time.

What is a spare, exactly?

An airframe reserved to the event but flagged not-flying. It stays visible in the event and on the grid — which is the point, because the spare you cannot see is the spare nobody walks to when a motor fails. Flip the flag and it flies; substitute it into a slot mid-show and the record follows.

How do the flight logs come out?

One pilot, one aircraft, per log — the shape the paperwork wants — even when the day they belong to had four pilots and twenty-two airframes. The event is what holds them together, so nobody has to file the same day twelve times to make the records come out right.

We use AirData already. Do we have to stop?

No. Connect the account and let it sync, or export CSV and import that. Aloft, AirData and DJI exports are all understood, as is a plain spreadsheet, and every row is validated on the way in so a bad line is a message rather than a mystery three weeks later.

Will importing create duplicates of flights I already scheduled?

No — that is the specific thing it is built not to do. An import is matched against the schedule you already made, on aircraft and time, and amends it rather than laying a second copy beside it. Every log also records where it came from, so a file import and a flightline entry are told apart afterwards.

Does the FAA audit Part 107 operators? Is that what this is for?

No, and we would rather say so on our own website than have you work it out later. Part 107 does not require you to keep a flight log at all — there is no recurring FAA records audit of a small operator to be ready for. An operator who has been flying commercially for five years knows this, and a compliance product that leans on the fear of an audit that does not happen tells that operator exactly how much its makers know about the job.

Then who actually asks for this stuff?

Three people, and all of them have leverage. Your insurer, at renewal and after a claim: renewal questionnaires and claims both ask what you fly, who flew it, the hours on it and how it has been maintained. Whether keeping good records moves your premium is a conversation for you and your broker, and we are not going to promise you it does — what is certain is that you get asked. Your client's procurement or safety team, before you are cleared onto the site: utilities, energy and construction increasingly run vendor prequalification, and evidence is the entry fee. And the prime contractor whose portal wants documents uploaded by Friday. None of them are the FAA, and all of them can stop you flying the job.

What does 'audit-ready in one click' actually mean, then?

A report, scoped to your whole fleet or to one aircraft, one crew member or one client, produced as a PDF, as a link that needs no login, or sent straight to an inbox. The value is the deadline, not the document: the request usually arrives while you are on a roof somewhere, and the useful version is the one you can send from your phone while they are still on the phone.

So there is no regulatory angle at all?

There is, but it is honest to say it is not today's routine paperwork. The FAA does still enforce — certificate and record production on request, accident reporting inside ten days, and a genuinely more active enforcement posture since 2026. And Part 108, when it lands, is the first rule that would make this recordkeeping mandatory rather than commercially useful. We think the records are worth keeping for the insurer and the client today, and that the regulation is a reason they will be worth more later, not the reason to start.

Does it track pilot currency the way the FAA does?

It tracks the one recency rule Part 107 has: aeronautical knowledge recency — recurrent training every 24 calendar months under §107.65 — per pilot, with the next due date carried forward for you. Part 107 has no flight-recency requirement. Operations also shows the date each pilot last flew with your organization, flagged at 60 and 90 days. It sees only your organization's logs, so a pilot who also flies elsewhere may be more current than it shows.

One of my pilots is PIC on two aircraft at once. What does it do?

It tells you, and then it lets you carry on. Operations under §107.35 are a real thing with a real waiver process, so blocking the schedule would be the software substituting its judgement for yours in the middle of a job. There is an org setting for holding a waiver on file, and the warning is on the record either way.

Can crew see the whole roster?

Not unless you want them to. A crew member scoped to their own assignments sees their own work — their flights, their logs — rather than the entire organisation's schedule.

How does someone find an airframe on the flightline?

Point a phone at the tag on it. The camera resolves the tag and lands on that airframe's record. Where the browser has no barcode support, or the camera is refused, typing the value does the same thing — the manual path is always there rather than being the degraded fallback nobody tested.

Do I have to use the invoicing?

No, and it is a switch, so you can turn the whole Business section off and never see it. If you do use it: branded quotes and invoices as PDFs, emailed, with sent-and-viewed tracking and a link the client can accept or decline without creating an account, and invoice lines that fill themselves in from the job's own flight data. It is deliberately not accounting — no ledger, no reconciliation, no payroll. If you have a bookkeeper you like, keep them.

Where does client money go?

Wherever it goes today. Operations produces the quote and the invoice; it is not in the middle of the payment. Mark it paid when the money lands.

Is my data separated from other operators'?

At the database level, not by a filter in the application that someone can forget to write. Each organisation's rows are isolated by the database itself, and the isolation is tested against the same restricted database role the deployed environments use — testing it as a superuser would make every check pass whether or not the isolation worked.

Can I run more than one organisation?

Yes — shared aircraft and crew across more than one org, which is the shape a lot of operators are actually in.

Can I make it look like my business?

You can put it on a domain of your own, and quotes, invoices, shared reports and pilot logbooks carry your letterhead.

Something went wrong on a flight. Where does that go?

In the safety register, against the flight, the aircraft and the crew involved — incidents and near-misses both. If it is the kind of accident the FAA wants reported within ten days, the register says so and alerts while the ten days are still running. Operations records and reminds; filing the report with the FAA stays yours.

Can I get my data out?

Yes, all of it. The owner can export the whole workspace as a ZIP, the registers as CSV, and each pilot's logbook as a CSV or a PDF on your letterhead. The records are yours whatever you decide about the software.

Is there a mobile app?

Not one you can install today. There is a mobile app in internal testing; it is not in either store, it cannot be bought, and nothing on this page depends on it. The web app works on a phone, and the flightline flows — scanning to an airframe, running a checklist — are built for a phone or a tablet in someone's hands. When the app is worth releasing, it will be on this page.

What about Part 108 and BVLOS?

We are not going to tell you this product is “Part 108-ready,” because there is no Part 108 rule to be ready for. The FAA published the proposed rule in August 2025, the comment period closed and was briefly reopened on three narrow questions, and the draft final rule has been in OIRA review since July 2026 without being published. Nobody outside the FAA knows the date. Until it publishes, anyone selling you Part 108 compliance is selling you a rule that does not exist. What we will say is that the record-keeping the proposal describes — flight records you can produce on demand, checklist runs that were signed, credentials and expiries that are tracked rather than remembered, corrections that append rather than overwrite — is the shape this product already keeps records in, for Part 107. The packets it produces today are Part 107-shaped. We are tracking the rule closely enough to know what changes when it lands.

What is not built yet?

Kept as its own list further down this page, rather than left for you to discover. We would rather you read it here than find out after moving a season of records across.

The honest list

What it doesn’t do

Kept on the page rather than discovered after you have moved a season of records across.

  • A released mobile appThere is no app in either store. The one in internal testing is not for sale, and nothing on this page depends on it. The web app on a phone is the flightline story today.
  • LAANC, airspace maps and forecastsEach flight log records the weather — the nearest station's METAR is suggested for you — and the airspace class, worked out from FAA data. Operations does not file authorisations, draw an airspace map or forecast weather. The tools you use for that stay in your workflow; we do not pretend to replace them.
  • AccountingQuotes and invoices, yes. A ledger, reconciliation, payroll or tax handling, no — and we would rather say so than let you find the edge of it at year end.
  • Taking the client's paymentOperations does not process card payments from your clients. It produces the paperwork; the money arrives however it arrives today.
  • Part 108 reportingPart 108 would be the first rule that makes operators push records outward on a clock — incident reports inside a deadline, monthly aggregates, an annual fleet report. Operations holds records well; it does not yet generate and track those submissions, and it will not claim to until there is a final rule to build against.
  • Public pricingThere is no price on this page because the product is not yet for sale. When it is, the pricing will be published here rather than quoted privately.

Want in when Operations launches?

The fleet and flight records, the event day and the business layer are built and in test ahead of commercial launch.

Notify me when it’s ready →