Pilots & Ops folks—What’s your honest take on SMS tools?

T

twrightflyer

New Member
Hey folks—I'm a former Army pilot and now work in aviation consulting. I'm considering building a lightweight, modern SMS platform for smaller Part 91 and 135 operators.

Before writing a single line of code, I’m gathering input from pilots, ops directors, and safety managers to understand what really works and what doesn’t in your current system.

👉 Survey link (3 minutes, anonymous) or copy/paste: Part 91/135 Operator SMS Survey

I’ll gladly share back a summary of insights for anyone curious.

Really appreciate any time you can give!
 
We are a 91 “Small” department as you will.

I’ll be 100% honest, and SMS system which is not directly tied to our dispatch and planning software is not of interest to us. We have an SMS/TEM program but most off the shelf programs require more positions than we have for effective management.

I anticipate AI analysis of our QAR/DFDR tied to sms/ reporting will eventually be a thing, but until then it often feels like the work involved doesn’t justify the returns honestly.
 
twrightflyer said:
Hey folks—I'm a former Army pilot and now work in aviation consulting. I'm considering building a lightweight, modern SMS platform for smaller Part 91 and 135 operators.

Before writing a single line of code, I’m gathering input from pilots, ops directors, and safety managers to understand what really works and what doesn’t in your current system.

👉 Survey link (3 minutes, anonymous) or copy/paste: Part 91/135 Operator SMS Survey

I’ll gladly share back a summary of insights for anyone curious.

Really appreciate any time you can give!
Click to expand...
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twrightflyer said:
Hey folks—I'm a former Army pilot and now work in aviation consulting. I'm considering building a lightweight, modern SMS platform for smaller Part 91 and 135 operators.

Before writing a single line of code, I’m gathering input from pilots, ops directors, and safety managers to understand what really works and what doesn’t in your current system.

👉 Survey link (3 minutes, anonymous) or copy/paste: Part 91/135 Operator SMS Survey

I’ll gladly share back a summary of insights for anyone curious.

Really appreciate any time you can give!
Click to expand...
I don't fly anymore (I also write code for money), but I found most of the ops software and SMS tools were either too general or too bespoke to some other customer's needs. I don't really think there's a "one size fits all" solution to this problem because so many operations are so different. If it were me (and I guess maybe it should be), I'd be building these tools for individual operations.

"Hey, let me build you this, I'll build it the way your operation works, and when I am done, the only monthly costs will be to host it." Some of these products are hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month. That's absurd for what most of them are offering.
 
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