Web-based program gives Part 91/135 operators OK to go

If the FAA’s crackdown on charter operational control has taught operators anything, it’s that the number of compliance items that a Part 135 certificate holder must monitor, manage and triple-check has exploded. To help charter and even Part 91 and fractional operators meet all the requirements to ensure a flight is legal, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has developed a new Web-based software program call IC Check (in-compliance check).

For general aviation operators, IC Check is like an airline’s pre-release package, which is delivered to pilots before they take off. Under Parts 135 and 91, four fundamental criteria must be met for any flight to be legal, according to Dennis Keith, president of charter company JetSolutions, of Richardson, Texas. “It’s the ability of an air carrier to demonstrate that it can present a legal airplane, crew, flight and passengers,” he said. “It’s easy to let things slip through the cracks.” Too much information is on separate pieces of paper, and operators often have to dig through different piles to make sure a flight is legal, he said. “You don’t have to do that with IC Check.”

Keith was instrumental in helping develop IC Check and provided feedback and advice to David Vernon, the programmer who wrote the software and now works for NATA as director of technology initiatives. “It allows a small operator to have what a big airline has as operational control software,” Keith said. “It’s a powerful tool able to demonstrate compliance before every flight.” IC Check can also help Part 91 operators achieve consistent standards for releasing airplanes and a high level of compliance with regulations and company procedures. “It has as much power for a Part 91 operator as for [a Part] 135,” he said. “The way it’s designed, operators can make their own customized rule as long as it is more restrictive than the regulations.”

While there is no regulatory requirement for an official flight release, even in Part 121, such a system does make it easier to ensure that all elements for a flight are legal. Three years ago, Keith and Vernon surveyed the market to see if there was any software that incorporated all the requirements for a legal flight, but while some programs captured some elements, they found nothing was all-inclusive, spurring them to create IC Check.

The goal is to make the Web-based program a formal part of any operation. Part 135 charter operators, for example, are making IC Check part of their operations manuals, so the flight release system must be used for every flight.

What IC Check does is verify compliance or non-compliance with about 300 rules, including government regulations, company and industry standards, customer desires and insurance requirements. The regulatory elements can’t be modified, but users can customize any of the other rules to fit their particular operation.

Some of the rules that IC Check verifies include maintenance status, RVSM currency, runway minimums, duty and rest times, 90-day currency, medical and check-ride status, airport and weather requirements and passengers cleared against the TSA no-fly list.

When IC Check is used to generate a flight release, the software checks the proposed flight against all the rules that apply to that operator and the particular flight and lights up five green checkmarks to signify that the flight, crew, airplane, passengers and “other” elements meet the regulations and standards set by the operator.

If something shows up red or yellow, the user can drill down to see what caused IC Check to flag the item. A yellow flag doesn’t prevent issuance of a flight release but warns about something that might be marginal, such as higher minimums than normal applying at the destination airport. To turn the yellow item to green, the dispatcher needs to ensure that pilots know about the problem. Red items must be cleared for the flight release to occur.

Off-Site Analysis

FAA inspectors and auditors will appreciate IC Check’s Observation Deck, which allows operators to provide read-only access to certain parts of the system. Inspectors and auditors can monitor an operator’s compliance status from long distance, freeing up resources for other activities.

IC Check also includes a risk-assessment tool based on the FAA’s Turbine Aircraft Operations Subgroup formula. The tool weighs risk for each flight using 38 criteria and helps operators develop mitigation strategies to have a lower risk score. Operators that use the risk tool regularly will be able to use the scores for benchmarking purposes within the organization. They might also find that insurance underwriters appreciate the company’s approach to risk management, according to Vernon. “We’ve shown this to the insurance companies,” he said, “and they were really intrigued.”

IC Check interfaces with two software vendors’ products for now, CTA FOS/NT and SkyBooks, but others are planned, including NATA Compliance Services, Avtrak, Camp Systems, SeaGil’s Bart, Navpak, CharterX/Wyvern, ARG/US and AVSiS. NATA is planning to develop PDA functionality for IC Check, too.

NATA offers IC Check on a per-aircraft per-month pricing system. Prices range from $129.95 per aircraft per month for non-members ($99.95 for members) to $79.95 per aircraft for 11 to 30 aircraft for non-members ($59.95 for members).