Post-Oshkosh Update: Flight Editing, Search, and More

Fleet Watch: What Changed in the FAA Registry

Our aviation data project, The Small Planes, tracks monthly changes to the FAA Aircraft Registry. Here are the highlights from the latest period (July 10 to August 7):

• The US light aircraft fleet stands at 268,583 registered aircraft
• Cessna, Piper, Cirrus hold the top three manufacturer spots
• Cirrus had 46 new registrations, though the SR22T dropped to 15 (down from 31 last month)
• Diamond Aircraft saw more removals than registrations (net -2)
• Experimental share dropped from 27% to 20%, still above the total registry average
• The oldest aircraft to return to service: a 1946 Cessna 140, 80 years old
• Top states for new registrations: Florida (62), Minnesota (44), Texas (40)

Flight Record Editing

You can now log a past flight you missed, edit any existing record (tach readings, fuel, destination, notes, date), or remove one entered by mistake. The app pre-fills tach readings and cross-checks them against neighboring flights so your records stay in sequence. Every edit is tracked in an internal audit trail, and removing a flight preserves linked oil records so your consumption rates stay accurate.

Finally able to edit past flight records.

Logbook Search

The search experience from the last update was basic: type a word, get results. It’s now a proper search tool.

• Sort results by newest, oldest, or best match
• Filter by logbook type (“All airframe,” “All engine”) or by a specific logbook volume
• Search within one logbook using the search button on the logbook screen
• Partial-term matching: type “diap” to find “diaphragm,” or search AD and part numbers like 88-93-03
• Quoted exact match: put a word in quotes so “AD” finds airworthiness directives without matching “added”
• Recent searches: your last searches appear as tappable chips, ready to re-run

Sort by date or relevance, filter by logbook type or a specific volume, and search by partial words or exact AD numbers.

Engine Compression Tracking

Quite a few folks had reached out to request even a simple version of this, so we’re glad to get this out there even in its basic form. This was in beta in the last update. This first version is now rolled out to all users, and will have several more improvements in the coming months. If you have ideas for improvements, add your voice to the feature request board in the app.

Record per-cylinder differential compression readings from each annual. The app tracks them over time so you can see how each cylinder is trending. You can edit past records, and export the full history as CSV from the engine component detail screen.

Web App

BetterPlane has had a web app in Beta for a few months now, but it’s been improved and is now generally available. We’re keeping the Beta tag due to a few outstanding features and incompatibilities compared to the mobile app. Feature parity is nearly complete, and you can access your aircraft, logbooks, documents, and flight data from any computer at app.betterplane.com.

Sign up on the mobile app first, then log in on the web to access your data.

Smaller Improvements

• Corrected Out and In labels: flight details now label the start-of-flight reading as Out and the end-of-flight reading as In, the standard convention
• Logbooks hold their place while loading: the list no longer blanks to a spinner on refresh, and failed refreshes are handled better
• Faster flight-log browsing: a flight you just viewed reopens immediately, and moving between flights loads faster
• Self-repairing logbook thumbnails: a missing page preview rebuilds itself the next time you open the logbook
• iPad tap feedback: taps now play the system click sound on iPad, matching the feel on iPhone and Android
• Resilient uploads: a page upload interrupted in the background retries automatically instead of failing
• Readable validation messages: when a reading is out of bounds, the full explanation shows below the field instead of getting cut off
• Dozens of stability fixes and performance improvements across both platforms

For Sale: Customer Cessna 182

BetterPlane customer Nate G. reached out to tell us he was using the app to sell his Cessna 182. He scanned in his logbooks and used the PDF export to share them with prospective buyers.

“I love it so far. I was able to upload 60+ years of logs in about an hour. I’m actually using your PDF function to post them on a publicly accessible Google Drive that I am using to sell our plane.”

We’re trying something new. When a BetterPlane customer has an aircraft for sale, we’ll help get the word out. Nate’s 182 is the first.

See Nate’s 182 listing →

In Cessna Flyer and Piper Flyer

BetterPlane is being featured in the sidebar of an upcoming Cessna Flyer and Piper Flyer article on getting your paperwork together before an annual inspection. The sidebar covers how BetterPlane can help your mechanic get a head start on the records review before your airplane reaches the shop.

Coming Soon: Squawk Tracking (1.15.0)

The next release adds squawk tracking. Log open squawks against your aircraft, track their status, and close them when the work is done. Version 1.15.0 is expected next week.

Current Version: 1.14.3

The current public release is version 1.14.3 on iOS and Android. If you’re on an older version, update to get everything above.