Central Flying Invites Customers To View Mx Status

Little Rock, Arkansas-based Central Flying Service has added MX Tailwinds, a maintenance visibility platform, to its redesigned website, allowing customers to access information on maintenance requirements along with the team that maintains their aircraft. 

MX Tailwinds integrates with Central’s Corridor maintenance management software and other company software platforms such as Sage and Microsoft Teams, as well as its VoIP telephone system. According to Central, MX Tailwinds provides “a single, continuously updated picture” of the aircraft’s status— including due items, estimated costs, and what maintenance is coming—“before it disrupts a planned trip.”

MX Tailwinds is accessible via the web, a mobile app, scheduled reports, or text updates. Central’s maintenance analysts monitor aircraft activity and upcoming requirements in MX Tailwinds and can contact customers when a decision about a maintenance action is needed. “An owner, a pilot, and a manager can look at the same airplane and need three different answers,” said Central Flying Service president and CEO Phil Jordan. “Because MX Tailwinds runs on the same data our technicians use, each of them gets their answer, and it’s always current.” 

These answers serve aircraft owners, to help them track cost and timing of maintenance events; operators who are planning trips when the aircraft is available; pilots who need to review the techlog before a flight; and directors of maintenance who coordinate the work, according to Central Flying Service. “Each sees the same underlying picture, tailored to what their role requires,” the company said.

Central Flying Service developed MX Tailwinds in-house, and there is no extra charge for customers. “Aviation maintenance produces an enormous amount of data,” Jordan said, “including every squawk, work order, part, and labor hour, and most of it gets filed away and forgotten. We saw that as an untapped asset. MX Tailwinds connects every step of our process and uses AI and predictive forecasting to turn that data into what’s coming next: what will be due, when, and what it will cost, well before it grounds an airplane. We’ve been maintaining aircraft since 1939, and we think the next big advances in this industry will come from using the information we already have.”