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Hobbstack

Changelog

Release notes for Hobbstack. New features, improvements, and fixes — ordered by ship date.

For thematic shipped scope, see roadmap. Subscribe via RSS.

Improvement

Aircraft detail now surfaces live maintenance + fuel/oil status

Every aircraft tile and detail page now shows the last 100-hour and annual inspection dates, current Hobbs + Tach, fuel level in gallons, and oil level in quarts — pulled from the most recent flight session and squawk log. The maintenance row uses green/amber/red status pills so a dispatcher can scan the fleet for an airworthy aircraft in one glance instead of opening each card.

Improvement

Multi-station weather briefing on the dispatch tab

The weather briefing panel now defaults to a route view — type a departure ICAO and the panel automatically loads METAR + TAF for it plus the next two stations in your filed route, side-by-side with decoded wind, vis, temp, dewpoint, altimeter, and ceiling. The previous single-station view stripped most of the value out of a cross-country brief; now you see the whole leg at once.

Improvement

Cleaner auto-compiled dispatch packet

The PDF dispatch packet that gets emailed and stored on every confirmed flight now uses a tighter title block, an authentic 'Page X of Y' footer, and a stamped club brand line — and the squawks / discrepancies section is now always rendered (with a 'none open' line if applicable) so a pilot can sign off on the packet knowing the airworthiness story is complete.

Improvement

Admin audit log now shows the full spectrum of destructive actions

The platform audit log used to read like a stream of identical RESERVATION_CREATE rows. It now distinguishes flight session lifecycle (start, advance, cancel), aircraft updates (display name, ownership, rate changes), reservation cancellations, and member impersonation events — each with its own action verb and the originating actor, so compliance review can scan for anomalies instead of skimming a wall of sameness.

Improvement

Cleaner missing-feature pills on the pricing comparison

When the comparison calculator shows what a competitor doesn't include, those gaps now render as individual rounded chips instead of a comma-separated sentence — each chip leads with a white X in a danger-red circle so you can scan the list at a glance instead of reading prose.

New

Stage-check tracking on student progression

Chief instructors can now record stage-check results (pass, fail, or partial-with-retake) for each student, sign with their on-device signature, and move students between training phases — pre-solo, solo, cross-country, checkride prep, post-checkride. The student's progression view shows where they stand against the program's stage gates, and recent stage checks roll up under each student on the My Students screen.

New

Free Personal tier for individual pilots

A genuinely free plan ($0/mo, no card required) for individual pilots who want a personal logbook, currency tracking, weather briefings, and weight-and-balance for one owned aircraft — no organization required. Designed for the solo owner-pilot who doesn't need scheduling, billing, or a shared fleet.

New

Quantity-based Solo + Pro pricing — smooth curve from 1 to 50 aircraft

Replaced the old tier-step model with two adjacent plans priced by aircraft count: Solo at $19/mo for an organization operating a single aircraft, and Pro picking up at 2 aircraft and scaling smoothly to $619/mo at fifty via Stripe's graduated tiered pricing. The legacy Aero Club and Flight School tiers are consolidated into the Pro curve at the appropriate quantity — same price points at the boundaries, no surprise jumps in the middle.

New

Enterprise plan for 51+ aircraft

Operations running more than 50 aircraft, or any size operation that needs SSO/SAML, a custom SLA, white-label email, or extended audit-log retention, can now book a call for an Enterprise quote starting at $899/mo. Monthly or annual billing — your call. Everything in Pro plus the enterprise-specific capabilities.

Improvement

Rebuilt pricing page with split-layout calculator

The /pricing page now puts the configurator on the left (aircraft + CFI sliders, tier badge, price card, migration-discount eligibility pill) and the sorted competitor comparison chart on the right. Move a slider and both the price and the comparison update in real time. The footer carries the legal hedge and acronym footnote without crowding the main interaction.

New

Migration discount: 50% off your first 12 months

Switching from another aviation platform earns 50% off Hobbstack for a full year — applied to either monthly or annual cadence, one per organization, verified via a quick proof-of-prior-subscription upload (an invoice, receipt, or screenshot of an active billing dashboard). Validation runs automatically; no sales call required.

Improvement

Pricing comparison rewrite — 'Missing features' instead of jargon

The competitor comparison now calls out exactly what each platform doesn't include, framed as a list of plain-English missing-features chips rather than the old 'you'd stack 4-6 tools' framing. Full-stack platforms like MyFBO that are structurally cheaper at scale now show their actual feature gaps — in-app weather, currency tracking, cycle-based maintenance forecast, modern mobile UI, QuickBooks sync, dispatch chaining — so the price-vs-value tradeoff is honest at a glance.

Improvement

Realistic CFI slider default in the calculator

The CFI count in the pricing calculator now defaults to a sensible ratio of your aircraft count (roughly 0.7 CFIs per aircraft) instead of starting at zero — closer to how a real club or school staffs up. Once you touch the slider yourself, your value sticks even as the aircraft slider moves.

Improvement

Site-wide content alignment to the new pricing structure

Terms of Service, About, FAQ, Privacy, and the global footer have all been refreshed to reflect the new Free Personal / Pro / Enterprise structure and the migration discount. The Terms supersession line points to today's date; the old launch-promo section is removed; FAQ entries covering cost, tier differences, and the Free-Personal-vs-Student distinction are rewritten. The footer's 'Made For' column now anchors correctly to /features instead of mis-routing to /pricing, and customer-service contact has consolidated on support@hobbstack.com.

Fix

Faster flight wizard click handlers

Action endpoints in the flight wizard (start, taxi, takeoff, land, etc.) no longer wait for the global session-context refresh to round-trip before unblocking the next click. The refresh still runs — it just runs in the background after the action has already returned. Real-world wins of 400 to 1500 milliseconds per click, compounding across a normal dispatch flow.

Fix

Welcome-email pacing fix — no more all-429 send storms

The welcome-email retry sweep was outpacing Resend's per-second send limit and getting rate-limited on every attempt. The sweep now paces itself comfortably under the limit, leaves headroom for concurrent auth and webhook emails, and a one-time migration backfills the sent-flag on existing active orgs so the queue starts clean.

Fix

Stripe checkout and subscription hardening

Closed four payment-handling gaps surfaced by a cross-product audit: checkout webhooks now verify Stripe's reported payment_status before granting access; welcome-email delivery is idempotent and audit-logged instead of silently swallowed; test-mode sessions arriving at the production webhook are quarantined safely without mutating live state; and canceling a subscription from inside Hobbstack now actually tells Stripe to cancel at period end, not just our local flag.

Improvement

Late-return countdown widget and cascade

The flight wizard now surfaces an in-context countdown when a reservation is approaching its scheduled return time. Pilots can request an extension on the spot; if the extension would collide with the next booking, the system automatically chains a cascade through the standby list with notifications, so the next pilot isn't left guessing. Dispatch sees a clear 'needs front-desk attention' badge when the cascade hits a wall.

New

Automated dispatch receipts

Every completed flight now generates a USAF-style dispatch receipt automatically — the same form aero clubs and flight schools have used for decades, but auto-filled from the wizard data your CFI already entered. No more standing at the dispatch computer typing Hobbs, Tach, landings, and instructor hours. Receipts email to the pilot and are stored permanently against the reservation; admins can reprint or resend at any time.

New

Org-level fuel pricing config

Admins can configure avgas, jet-A, and oil prices once and let the platform handle the rest — every dry-rate flight automatically bills fuel and oil at the rate that was effective on the flight date. Price changes carry an effective-from timestamp so historical receipts always reflect the correct rate, never today's.

New

Mechanic certification details on profile and sign-offs

Mechanics can now record their A&P and Inspection Authorization (IA) numbers and expiration dates on their profile. Those credentials surface automatically on the work-order sign-off form so the paper trail matches the technician's actual authority.

New

Assign squawks to yourself with one tap

Mechanics see an 'Assign to me' button on any unassigned squawk. Front-desk and dispatchers no longer have to triage tickets one by one — technicians grab work they have time for and the squawk shows up on their queue instantly.

New

Front-desk quick actions: No-Show, Reassign, Standby Override

Front-desk staff get one-click actions on the day's reservations: mark a flight as a no-show (auto-bills if your policy enables it), reassign to a different aircraft when something goes down, and override standby promotion when the wait-list shouldn't auto-fill.

New

Org-scoped audit log viewer

Owners and managers can browse a searchable history of everything that happened in their organization — bookings created, charges added, certificates issued, member roles changed. Filter by user, date range, or event type.

New

Scheduled email reports

Configure recurring email delivery of utilization, revenue, and currency reports — daily, weekly, or monthly to a list of recipients. Reports arrive as a PDF + CSV attachment so accounting and operations can pull data without logging in.

New

Multi-location support with aircraft transfers

Organizations operating from more than one base can now define each base as a location, assign aircraft to a primary base, and log official transfers when a tail moves. Reservations, fuel, and utilization roll up per base or combined.

New

Role-targeted required reading

Required-reading documents can now be scoped to specific roles — for example, only mechanics see the new shop SOP, only CFIs see the new training-standards memo. Acknowledgement tracking is per-role so compliance reports stay clean.

Improvement

Conflict resolution for offline edits

When two people edit the same record offline (a dispatch ticket, a logbook draft) and both come back online, the app now surfaces a side-by-side merge view instead of silently overwriting one side. Pick a field-by-field winner or keep both.

Improvement

QuickBooks tokens now encrypted at rest

QuickBooks Online OAuth tokens stored in our database are now encrypted with a per-environment key. If a backup ever leaked, the tokens would be unusable without the encryption key — closing a gap we found and fixed in the same review.

New

Recurring-reservation preview before you commit

When you set up a recurring reservation, you can now preview every date the series will expand to — including any slots that already conflict with another booking — before confirming. No more booking a 12-week ground school and discovering a holiday collision after the fact.

New

Multi-pilot dispatch roster

Reservations with more than one pilot on board (training flights, two-crew rentals, check rides) now show a complete dispatch-time roster: PIC plus every named occupant, with their currency status visible at a glance.

Improvement

Multi-hour preflight reminders

Preflight reminders can now fire on more than one schedule per reservation — for example, a 24-hour-out heads-up plus a 1-hour-out final reminder. Configure the bucket in org settings; each member's notification preference still controls whether they receive it.

New

Currency dashboard with per-member drill-down

Front-desk and managers get an organization-wide currency dashboard showing how many pilots are current vs expiring vs lapsed. Drill into any bucket to see exactly who, what's expiring, and when — much faster than running individual reports.

New

Year-over-year utilization and revenue summary

A single report endpoint that returns the current period, the same period last year, and the delta side-by-side. Drop it into your monthly board email or accounting workflow without juggling two separate report runs.

Improvement

Proper void + audit trail on staff-created charges

When staff void a manually-created charge, the line item is now soft-deleted with a timestamp and reason — not just marked paid. Voided charges still appear in audit history (admins can toggle them on) and the org balance math stays consistent.

New

Recurring dues v1 — admin UI for membership fees

Configure recurring membership dues at the org level (amount + frequency + which roles are billed), trigger a manual run from the admin panel, and see the run history with totals per member. Cron continues to fire on schedule.

Improvement

Discovery flight leads — kanban view and schedule-from-lead

Discovery flight inquiries now group into a status kanban (new → contacted → booked → completed). One click on a lead opens a 'schedule discovery flight' modal that pre-fills the prospect's details and creates the reservation without forcing them to create an account first.

Improvement

QBO sync logs and mapping auto-detect

When a QuickBooks sync fails, you can now drill into the per-invoice attempt history directly from the integration dashboard. There's also a mapping wizard that analyzes recent invoices and proposes account mappings — accept the suggestion or override it without leaving the integration page.

Improvement

Scheduled report templates, run-now, and preview

Scheduled report configurations now include a 'preview' button (see what the next email will contain without waiting) and 'run now' (deliver immediately for ad-hoc requests). Pre-built templates cover utilization, revenue, and currency rollups.

Improvement

'Me' tab renamed to 'Profile'

The bottom-tab and sidebar label for your personal settings now reads 'Profile' — clearer for everyone, especially first-time members.

Improvement

Accessibility pass across app and marketing site

Added keyboard-visible focus rings on every interactive element on hobbstack.com, accessible labels on icon-only buttons throughout the app, role tagging on radio groups and toggles, and a 'skip to main' affordance on long pages. Tested with VoiceOver and Narrator end-to-end.

Improvement

Print-friendly legal pages

Privacy and Terms now have a dedicated print stylesheet — section IDs preserved, link URLs surfaced inline, sticky header and footer stripped — so legal counsel and procurement teams can save a clean PDF straight from the browser.

Improvement

Better unfurls when you share Hobbstack links

Every marketing page (pricing, FAQ, about, contact, roadmap, changelog) now has its own social-share card and description. Sharing a deep link in Slack, iMessage, or LinkedIn produces a card that reflects the actual page you're sending, not a generic landing-page snippet.

New

Branded 404 page

Mistyped URLs now land on a branded 'page not found' screen with quick links back into the docs and home page — and it tells search engines not to index it.

New

Founder section on the About page

Added a personal section on hobbstack.com/about introducing the founder, the aviation background behind the product, and why Hobbstack exists. Helps prospects understand who's behind the platform before they sign up.

Improvement

Platform-wide UX and accessibility polish

Completed a sweep across every screen tightening up spacing, color contrast, focus states, keyboard navigation, and mobile touch targets. Hundreds of small refinements that add up to a noticeably calmer, faster product.

New

Discovery Flight Processor with three landing modes

Capture and convert discovery-flight prospects with a hosted landing page. Pick the mode that fits your sales motion: show contact info only, capture a lead form, or require registration before revealing details. Includes a preview carousel of finished pages.

New

Required Reading acknowledgements

Owners can now upload policies, SOPs, and important notices and require members to acknowledge them. Configure whether acknowledgement is one-time or annual, whether it blocks booking, and which roles must read each document.

Improvement

Bot protection on registration, login, and password reset

Added Cloudflare Turnstile (a frictionless, privacy-friendly alternative to traditional CAPTCHA) to the registration, login, and password-reset forms. Stops bot signups and credential-stuffing attempts without making real users click on traffic lights.

Improvement

Mobile hero animation polish on the home page

Refined the marketing-site hero animation for small screens — tighter timing, sharper transitions, and smaller payload so the page loads fast on a phone. The motion now reads as confident, not busy.

New

QuickBooks Online integration for invoice sync

Connect your QuickBooks Online account and Hobbstack will push invoices, payments, and customer records directly into your books — no more re-keying. Map your charge categories to QBO income accounts once and forget about it.

New

Cycle-based maintenance tracking

Piston and turbine fleets can now track maintenance items that age by engine cycles in addition to hours and calendar dates. Forecasts surface both 'this part is due in X hours' and 'this part is due in Y cycles' so nothing slips through.

New

Bookable simulators, briefing rooms, and equipment

Add simulators (BATD / AATD / FTD / FFS), briefing rooms, and other shared resources from the Fleet page. Sims schedule and bill like aircraft; rooms and equipment have a separate facility cap on every plan at no extra cost.

New

Per-line tax overrides

Flight schools in mixed-tax states can now apply different sales-tax rates per category — aircraft rental, instructor time, ground school, fees, no-show charges. Override any category, leave the rest on the default rate.

New

Year-over-year report comparisons

Utilization and revenue reports gain a 'Compare to prior year' toggle. Totals get colored up/down delta badges so you can read at-a-glance whether this month is better or worse than the same window last year.

New

Work-order labor time-clock

Mechanics can punch in and out on individual work orders. Multiple technicians can be clocked in on the same job simultaneously (annual with A&P and IA, for example). Elapsed hours auto-roll into the work order for labor cost reporting.

New

Recurring reservations

Standing weekly lessons, monthly currency flights, and regular check rides can be booked as a recurring series. Edit any single instance independently or change the whole series at once.

New

Multi-pilot reservations

Reservations can now have multiple pilots — useful for shared cross-country flights, multi-crew training, and any situation where more than one person is operating the aircraft. Each pilot gets their own logbook draft.

Improvement

Pipeline-aware maintenance forecasts

The maintenance forecast now factors in upcoming reservations, not just historical fly rate. If you have a heavy week booked, the next due-date moves up accordingly so you can plan the shop schedule with real expected usage.

New

24-hour reservation reminders

Pilots and instructors get an automated reminder before every flight so no-shows go down. Owners can customize how far ahead the reminder fires (1 to 168 hours, default 24) or disable reminders entirely from Operations settings.

New

Front-desk currency dashboard

Front-desk staff see every member's currency status — current, expiring, expired — at a glance with colored count badges. Tap any row to drill into the audit trail (when it was recorded, who entered it, and the source).

New

Public changelog launched

This page! Going forward, every meaningful release lands here with a date and a plain-English description of what changed. Bookmark hobbstack.com/changelog or subscribe via the monthly roadmap email.

Improvement

Background-task progress visibility

Long-running operations (large PDF exports, bulk imports, fleet data migrations) now show a live progress indicator so you know it's working and roughly how long it'll take. Cancel anytime.

New

Smarter weather briefings with go/no-go rules

Briefings now run your reported personal or fleet minimums (ceiling, visibility, wind, crosswind, gust factor) against the latest METAR/TAF and surface a clear green / yellow / red verdict per leg, with the exact rule that triggered.

New

Standby cascade with auto-promote

When a reservation gets canceled, the standby list automatically promotes the next eligible member, books the aircraft, and notifies them. Owners can configure how aggressively to cascade or require manual confirmation.

New

Recurring dues for memberships

Bill members on a monthly, quarterly, or annual cadence for club dues, tie-down fees, or training subscriptions. Charges generate automatically on the schedule you set and flow through your normal billing.

New

Account balance enforcement controls

Owners decide how the platform reacts to members with an outstanding balance — warn at booking, block booking past a threshold, or block flight start. Configure per-org with sensible defaults.

New

Partnership cost-split for shared ownership

Partners on a shared aircraft can split fuel, maintenance, and reservation charges by percentage, by hours flown, or by a custom rule. Each partner sees their own statement with the split already applied.

New

Logbook description templates

Save common flight descriptions as one-tap templates — 'pattern work', 'cross-country to KXYZ', 'instrument approaches', etc. Pick a template, tweak the specifics, save the entry.

New

Templated invoices and charge modals

Build reusable charge templates for common line items (rental, instruction, fuel surcharge, lesson fee) and apply them in one click when invoicing. Cuts time spent on routine billing by a lot.

New

Multi-org support

One Hobbstack account can now belong to more than one organization — useful for instructors who teach at two schools, mechanics who consult for multiple shops, or owners running multiple operations. Switch orgs from the header in one tap.

Improvement

Refined onboarding wizard

New organizations land in a streamlined setup wizard that walks through fleet, members, rates, and policies in a sensible order — with sensible defaults at every step so you can get to your first booking fast.

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