Aircraft maintenance tracking software for owners, clubs, and flight schools. Inspection due dates, Hobbs-based alerts, squawk-to-work-order workflow, and fleet airworthiness at a glance.
Keeping an aircraft airworthy is a compliance problem as much as a mechanical one. The FAA doesn't care that the spreadsheet was updated last week if the transponder check lapsed last month. Maintenance tracking software exists to make airworthiness systematic instead of dependent on whoever's tracking it remembering to check at the right time.
This walks through what to look for, what each feature actually does, and how the squawk-to-work-order workflow works in practice.
The free aircraft inspection due-date calculator is a way to see what's coming up across the standard inspection types without a signup.
A typical GA aircraft has a stack of recurring requirements, each on a different clock:
| Inspection | Interval |
|---|---|
| Annual | 12 calendar months |
| 100-hour | 100 hours of time-in-service |
| Transponder & altimeter | 24 calendar months (IFR) |
| Pitot-static | 24 calendar months (IFR) |
| ELT | 12 months + battery on use/expiry |
| ADs (Airworthiness Directives) | Varies — one-time, calendar, or hours-based |
| Engine TBO | Manufacturer hours (tach) |
Tracking that across multiple aircraft on paper or in a spreadsheet eventually breaks. The transponder check due in November gets missed because the annual was in September and October was busy. An AD with a 500-hour recurrence gets forgotten because nobody updated the sheet after the last compliance.
Good software makes the failure modes structural rather than accidental.
Each inspection record stores last completion date, Hobbs at completion (if hours-based), the interval, and the next-due, calculated automatically. The 100-hour fires off Hobbs. The annual fires off calendar months. ADs with hours-based recurrence fire off Hobbs. The platform shouldn't make you do the math.
Hours-based inspections have to alert against the aircraft's actual Hobbs total, not last week's number. That requires flight logging in the same system. When a flight is logged, the aircraft's running Hobbs updates immediately and the maintenance module recalculates due dates.
If your flight logs live in one tool and your maintenance tracking lives in another, your maintenance alerts will always be behind. The 100-hour will fire after you've already flown two extra hours past it.
A squawk is a defect report: pilot noticed something, mechanic needs to look at it. Squawks need a description, date, who found it, severity (airworthy with caveat, MEL deferral, or grounding), and a path from open to resolved.
The shared board is the bridge. Pilots write squawks after every flight; mechanics work the queue; when a squawk is resolved, it links to the work order that fixed it. Without a shared board, squawks live on sticky notes and disappear at shift change.
Where a squawk is the report, the work order is the documented repair. The platform should track:
This is the audit trail. It's what the IA looks at during an annual. It's what insurance asks for at renewal. It's what a buyer asks for during a pre-purchase inspection. Built up consistently over years, it's a real asset.
For multi-aircraft operations, the dashboard view is the most-used surface in the platform. Each aircraft shows green (current), yellow (due in 30 days or 10 hours), or red (overdue or grounded). It's not just operational housekeeping. It's a dispatch decision tool. A student walks in for a Saturday lesson, the dispatcher glances at the board, and a red aircraft is caught before someone walks out to the ramp.
For aircraft with a Minimum Equipment List, the platform should let you defer specific items per the MEL with the right placards, expiry dates, and operating procedures. A non-airworthy aircraft with a current MEL deferral is dispatchable; one without isn't. The platform needs to model that distinction.
The most useful workflow in a good maintenance platform looks like this:
Every step is documented. Nothing is "remembered" by anyone in particular. New mechanic, new front-desk hire, new pilot — they all see the same state and pick up from where the system says things are.
Generic maintenance software built for auto shops or general contractors. It doesn't understand aviation intervals, AD tracking, or Hobbs time. The customization to make it work is more time than going back to a spreadsheet.
Paper logbooks alone. Legally compliant, but no dashboard visibility, no alerts, no shared squawk board. Fine for a single aircraft you fly yourself. Doesn't scale.
Siloed tools. Separate apps for maintenance, scheduling, and flight logging guarantee data integrity problems. The maintenance tracker doesn't know the aircraft flew 12 hours last week unless someone enters it manually.
"Cheap" pricing that's missing the maintenance side. Some scheduling-first platforms charge low headline prices but require a separate maintenance subscription. Add it up before signing.
The tracking requirements are the same; the scale is just more manageable. The value of software for a one-airplane owner is alerts: 30 days before the annual, 10 hours before the next 100-hour, and a clean log when you sell the airplane.
Aloft360 Starter at $9/mo handles one aircraft with all inspection types, the squawk board, flight logging, and the maintenance dashboard. For occasional flyers, the cost of the software is nothing against the cost of one missed inspection.
The free inspection due-date calculator is a way to see your situation today without signing up for anything.
At 3–10 aircraft the case for software is significantly stronger. One missed transponder check on one aircraft is a compliance incident. Five aircraft without systematic tracking is a compliance problem that compounds quickly.
The questions to ask when evaluating options:
If "yes" to all five, you're in the right zip code. If "no" to any, the gaps will surface as compliance incidents within the first year.
For wider context: the flight school management software guide, flying club scheduling software, and the Aloft360 help documentation on inspection tracking setup.