More than a tattletale
FlySto is a logbook on steroids
From engine start to shut down, the free web-based tool tracks aircraft and engine performance, and highlights temperatures, pressures, pitch and bank angles, or acceleration units that exceed pre-set limits, as well as weather, traffic, and terrain. It notes the amount of runway used on every takeoff as well as the placement and firmness of each landing.
But FlySto is more than a tattletale.
It gives pilots a powerful tool to self-critique every flight in detail and at their own pace; it’s a logbook on steroids that lets pilots replay and share highlights of their trips using 3D graphics, and it’s an engine monitor that can identify troublesome trends before they become critical.
For flight schools and aircraft managers, FlySto provides unique insights into the way every flight is conducted and how each airplane performs. If cylinders are getting too hot or cold, or oil pressure is too high or too low, or fuel flow is out of tolerance, or acceleration units are exceeded, the software takes note.
FlySto was founded three years ago by a Russian-born software engineer who lives in the European Union and started learning to fly.
“He was looking for a better way and came up with this elegant software,” said Patrick Leinhart, a principal in the nine-employee firm with offices in Austria and Cyprus. “Word started to spread, and now we’ve got 10,000 users.”
FlySto is free for individual users, and the company plans to charge for commercial operators. One large university flight school is using it, he said, and so are charter managers. An aviation insurance start-up firm is exploring the possibility of having policy holders share their FlySto data in much the same way that car insurance companies use dashboard cameras: to monitor driver behavior and proficiency.
FlySto’s tagline is “Flying stories you can trust.”I downloaded flight data from the Dynon HDX in my personal RV–4 as well as a Garmin G500 in the Beech A36 Bonanza that AOPA uses for photography flights, and reviewing the results was an eye-opener.
In the RV–4, loops entered at 160 KIAS were almost exactly 1,000 feet in diameter, and each one began and ended with a 3-G pull. Overhead approaches had a max bank angle of 55 degrees, and takeoff rolls and landings consistently used less than 800 feet of runway.
In the Bonanza, the number three cylinder runs hottest and regularly flirts with the upper limit of 380 degrees F during sustained climbs. Its actual ground roll usually is about 1,400 feet (about 200 feet more than the book estimate of 1,200 feet), and the airplane reaches a height of 50 feet agl in 2,300 feet (about 100 feet more than the book estimate of 2,200 feet).
On a two-hour flight at 7,500 feet and warmer-than-standard temperatures, the Bonanza averaged 168 KTAS while consuming 16.8 gallons of avgas per hour at a rich-of-peak power setting. The IFR approach flown on autopilot at the destination airport was on localizer and glideslope, and the touchdown took place on centerline at 69 KIAS and a 6-degree pitch attitude.
As in so many other aspects of our highly scrutinized lives, whether all this data is used for good or ill is an open question.
On the bright side, real information about the ways we actually fly can lead to pilots flying more predictably, precisely, and safely based on real observations. We can build community by measuring our own performance, and that of our airplanes, against our peers. We can spot unsafe trends and learn about engine anomalies before they result in costly repairs or failures.
The downside, of course, is that knowing our flying is being observed and monitored pretty much all the time feels at times like driving down the highway with a state trooper filling your rearview mirror. Even if you’re observing the speed limit and your license and registration are tucked neatly in the glove box, that level of supervision just isn’t enjoyable. There’s no indication FlySto data has ever been used for enforcement, but the data exists.
FlySto’s tagline is “Flying stories you can trust.”
That’s interesting but it misses the bigger point. FlySto has built an exceptional tool that can help pilots learn, master their craft, and fly with greater precision and safety. The data can also be aggregated, and that can help general aviation business owners make more informed decisions.
FlySto is much more than a way to share flying stories. It has the power to shape them.
