Dan Trapp

Workflow solution / Aviation operations

FlightOps

A comprehensive flight-school operating system for scheduling, billing, instructor pay, aircraft utilization, and Part 141 training operations.

A comprehensive flight school management system that maps the daily operating workflow: students, instructors, aircraft, scheduling, maintenance, flight check-in/out, Hobbs/Tach validation, invoices, payments, instructor compensation, and Part 141 training progress.

Status

Prototype

Timeline

Built as a full operational workflow system

Domain

Aviation operations

Why

Workflow solution

FlightOps dashboard with flight school scheduling and billing metrics
Flight school operating dashboardPrototype

Stack

Languages, services, data sources, and operating pieces behind the build.

Next.jsTypeScriptPrismaPostgrestRPCClerkZod

Code Proof

What The Build Actually Contains

LOC

26k+

Source files

135

Auth

Clerk

Ops

Scheduling

Product proof

FlightOps dashboard with flight school scheduling and billing metrics
Flight school operating dashboard

Implementation

Code Behind The Surface

Protecting the schedule

ts

The core move behind the product surface.

const availableSlots = await findAvailability({
  aircraftType,
  instructorRating,
  dateRange,
  durationHours,
});

return rankByFit(availableSlots, studentPreference);

Product Model

ts

The useful answer has to be modeled before the UI can make it obvious.

type ProductSurface = {
  input: "Aviation operations";
  signal: "What would a flight school need if scheduling, aircraft availability, billing, instr";
  proof: string[];
};

const surface: ProductSurface = {
  input: "Aviation operations",
  signal: "Aircraft, instructors, students, billing, and pay in one operating loop.",
  proof: [
  "Weekly flight schedule",
  "Aircraft and instructor management",
  "Student roster and balances",
  "Flight check-in/check-out"
],
};

Hard Part

ts

Every build has a constraint: data quality, workflow shape, trust, speed, or operational risk.

const constraint = {
  project: "FlightOps",
  status: "Prototype",
  category: "Workflow solution",
  hardPart: "The business value is operational throughput. Cleaner scheduling, faster booking, accurate meter capture, conn...",
};

shipSurface(constraint);

Project Logic

Why This Exists

The point is not to show another screen. It is to show the gap, the build constraint, and the proof of work.

Mission

What would a flight school need if scheduling, aircraft availability, billing, instructor pay, maintenance, and Part 141 progress were treated as one operating workflow?

Flight schools run on scarce resources: aircraft, instructor hours, student availability, maintenance windows, training requirements, and billing accuracy. When those systems are disconnected, capacity leaks out of the business.

Build

What Had To Work

I built a management system with dashboards, weekly scheduling, aircraft and instructor management, student records, flight check-in/out, Hobbs/Tach validation, maintenance tracking, invoices, payments, instructor pay, natural-language availability search, and a Part 141 training tracker.

Why It Matters

Schedule -> flight -> invoice

Connects the operational layer that determines aircraft capacity, billing accuracy, instructor pay, and Part 141 progress.

Hard Parts

The Workflow Is Not One Screen

FlightOps had to connect scarce aircraft, instructor calendars, student progress, maintenance status, meter readings, billing, and pay records without turning the operator experience into a spreadsheet.

Meter Readings Drive Money And Maintenance

Hobbs and Tach entries affect invoices, instructor pay, utilization, and maintenance timing, so the system includes validation instead of treating flight check-out as a loose text form.

Part 141 Adds A Training Layer

The build includes Part 141 course tracking, lesson completion, instructor notes, and seeded Sporty's Private Pilot curriculum structure tied back into the student workflow.

Decisions

Model aircraft, instructors, students, flights, invoices, pay, maintenance, and training as one operating system.
Use Hobbs/Tach validation because meter errors create downstream billing and maintenance problems.
Include Part 141 tracking because training progress is part of the operational core, not an add-on.
Make natural-language availability search sit on top of real scheduling constraints.

Next Move

The next high-leverage layer is reliable OCR for pilot-captured Hobbs/Tach photos so flight logs become less manual without sacrificing accuracy.

Tell Me About Your Project

Bring Me The Bottleneck.
I’ll Build The Answer.

Tell me what people are trying to do, where the current path breaks, and what kind of useful answer should exist.

Market Gap

Demand exists, but the answer is missing.

Workflow Drag

The work is still too manual, slow, or scattered.

Product Wedge

A small surface could prove the larger opportunity.

Quick Note