Every pilot has a version of this story. You're filling out an IACRA application and you need your total cross-country PIC time. You're staring at hundreds of handwritten entries, a calculator, and a growing sense of dread. Or you're prepping for a checkride and can't remember if your night currency lapsed. Or your logbook gets water damage and years of flight history vanish.
Christopher Veith — a CFI who's spent years in the cockpit and the classroom — had been living this problem daily. He watched his students struggle with paper logbooks, saw endorsements get lost, and dealt with the compliance headaches that come with managing a training operation on paper. He had the vision for what a modern pilot data platform should look like. What it should actually solve.
I came on as CTO and Founding Software Engineer. My job was to take that vision — informed by real flight training operations and FAA regulatory knowledge — and build it. When I looked at what existed in the market, every "digital logbook" was basically a spreadsheet with a login screen. None of them understood aviation. None of them could read a handwritten logbook page. None of them tracked whether you were actually legal to fly.
So we built aiViator Vault. And it turned into something much bigger than a logbook app.
What aiViator Vault Actually Is
aiViator Vault is a pilot data vault — a single platform where everything about your flying life is stored, tracked, analyzed, and kept current. Logbook entries are just the starting point. Here's what it actually does:
AI-Powered Logbook Extraction
Photograph your paper logbook pages. The system uses AI with deep aviation domain knowledge to read them — handwriting, printed text, faded ink, all of it — and converts them into structured digital flight entries. This isn't basic OCR. The AI understands aviation context: it knows "C172" is a Cessna 172, that "KDEN" is Denver International, that "3 TnG" means three touch-and-go landings, and that a route like "KAPA-KDEN-KAPA" is a round trip.
Every extraction goes through a human review step — you see what the AI found, correct anything it missed, and confirm before it's committed. No AI is perfect, and in aviation we don't accept "close enough."
Extraction is tiered by subscription: Novice gets 1 extraction per month, Pro gets 5, and Ace gets 10.
FAA Currency and Compliance Tracking
This is where the platform separates from everything else on the market. aiViator Vault implements actual FAA regulatory logic — not simplified date math.
The currency engine tracks passenger currency under FAR 61.57(a) (three takeoffs and landings in 90 days, with tailwheel-specific full-stop requirements), night currency under 61.57(b) (three full-stop landings at night in 90 days), instrument currency under 61.57(c) (six approaches, holding, and intercepting/tracking within six calendar months, plus the grace period for IPC), flight review requirements under 61.56 (24 calendar months), and medical certificate validity with the correct duration calculations based on age, class, and privilege being exercised.
The Pilot Status Dashboard gives you a real-time view of everything — what's current, what's expiring, and what's lapsed. It updates the moment you log a flight. No manual counting.
Duty Time Tracking
For Part 135 and Part 121 pilots, the platform tracks duty periods, rest requirements, and flight time limitations. It calculates daily, 7-day, monthly, and annual flight time against regulatory limits and flags when you're approaching maximums. Rest compliance tracking ensures you're meeting minimum consecutive rest requirements.
Certificate and Endorsement Management
Track every certificate — student, private, instrument, commercial, ATP, CFI, and all associated ratings. Medical certificates calculate expiration correctly based on age at examination and certificate class, with different durations depending on whether you're exercising private or commercial privileges.
The endorsement system follows AC 61-65K standards with prerequisite tracking. The platform understands that a solo cross-country endorsement requires a solo endorsement first. Instructors issue endorsements digitally, students receive and view them, and school admins can audit everything. There's also an automatic endorsement suggestion engine that recommends endorsements based on a student's progress and upcoming milestones.
Career Path and Milestone Tracking
aiViator Vault maps your progress against defined career paths — private, commercial, ATP, and instructor tracks. Each path breaks down into milestones with specific hour requirements (total, PIC, cross-country, night, instrument, solo) pulled directly from FAR Part 61 minimums. The system calculates your progress percentage against each milestone based on your actual logged flight data.
You can share milestone achievements and track your progression from student pilot through ATP.
AI Aviation Assistant
The Ace tier includes an AI chat assistant with aviation domain knowledge. It understands your flight data context and can answer questions about currency requirements, BFR requirements, medical certificate rules, endorsement needs, complex aircraft requirements, and cross-country time logging. You can attach images and files to conversations, and the assistant maintains conversation history.
Flight School and Instructor Operations
This is where the platform goes well beyond individual pilot tools. Flight schools get a full operational suite:
A student management portal with progress tracking, currency monitoring, and endorsement status across every student. An instructor dashboard where CFIs manage their student rosters, review flights, issue endorsements, and track dual given time. Course requirements tracking so schools can define training syllabi and monitor student completion.
Document signing workflows handle NDAs, training agreements, enrollment contracts, and any other paperwork. Schools build document templates with a drag-and-drop editor, create signing workflows with multiple signers, send documents in bulk, and track completion with a status board. Documents get watermarked and stored with full audit trails.
Contract packages bundle multiple documents together for streamlined student onboarding. Fleet management tracks aircraft in the school's inventory. Analytics dashboards show school-wide metrics, student progression trends, and operational data. Schools can configure webhooks for integration with external systems.
The messaging system enables encrypted communication between instructors and students within the platform.
Data Export and Integration
Export logbook data to IACRA format for FAA certificate applications. Two-way Google Sheets sync keeps your existing spreadsheets updated automatically (Ace tier). CSV and JSON export for backup and portability. An AI-powered resume builder pulls directly from your flight data to generate professional pilot resumes formatted for airline applications. Insurance report generation produces PDF documentation.
Import flights from CSV files with field mapping, or bring in data from other digital logbook platforms.
Built as a Progressive Web App
aiViator Vault works on any device — desktop, tablet, or phone. It installs like a native app with offline capability, push notifications for currency expirations and endorsement updates, and pull-to-refresh. The interface adapts between desktop and mobile layouts.
Pricing That Makes Sense
Three tiers, no hidden fees:
- Novice: $0/month — 1 AI extraction, 1 flight entry per month. Good for trying it out.
- Pro: $5/month — 5 extractions, 50 flights. Covers most active pilots.
- Ace: $10/month — 10 extractions, 100 flights, Google Sheets sync, AI chat assistant.
Flight school organizational features are available for schools that need student management, document signing, and instructor tools.
Why Now
The aviation industry is training new pilots at record rates. Flight schools are expanding. Airlines are hiring. Every one of these pilots needs accurate, accessible flight records — and the schools training them need modern tools to manage compliance at scale.
Paper logbooks served us for decades, but they don't search, they don't sync, they don't alert you when your medical expires, and they don't help your flight school track which students need a stage check.
aiViator Vault bridges that gap. It respects the data pilots have been keeping for years by digitizing existing paper logbooks, while providing the intelligence layer that the industry needs going forward — career tracking, compliance automation, document workflows, and AI-powered tools that actually understand aviation.
Christopher Veith had the vision. I built the platform. Together, we're giving pilots and flight schools the tools they should have had years ago.
Your pilot data deserves a vault, not a filing cabinet.