Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Hobbstack.
What is Hobbstack?
Hobbstack is an all-in-one aviation operations platform for flight schools, flying clubs, and aircraft partnerships. It handles scheduling, fleet management, billing, maintenance tracking, digital logbook, currency compliance, weather briefing, dispatch, automated dispatch receipts, and an offline-first flight wizard, all from one app that works on any device, even without internet.
Who is Hobbstack for?
Hobbstack is built for Part 61 and Part 141 flight schools, flying clubs, aircraft partnerships, USAF aero clubs, collegiate aviation programs, and any organization that manages a fleet of aircraft and a roster of pilots or students.
How much does Hobbstack cost?
Pilots, instructors, and students never pay individually — every paid plan includes unlimited members, instructors, and students. Personal flying is free forever on the Free Personal tier (your own logbook, currency, weather, and weight-and-balance for one personally-owned aircraft, with no organization required and no multi-user features). The moment you're operating inside an organization — even a single-aircraft partnership — you're on Solo at $19/mo, and Pro picks up at 2 aircraft and scales smoothly to $619/mo for fifty. Enterprise plans (for fleets above 50 aircraft, or any organization needing SSO/SAML, dedicated support, or a custom SLA) start from $899/mo with custom-quoted scope. Every paid plan includes a 30-day free trial (card on file at signup, no charge until day 30) and two months free on annual prepay. Migrating from another platform? 50% off your first 12 months on either monthly or annual — verified via proof upload.
What's the difference between tiers?
All paid plans (Solo, Pro, Enterprise) include every feature — scheduling, billing, logbook, weather briefing, dispatch authorization, maintenance forecasting, currency tracking, and the rest. The only difference between Solo, Pro, and Enterprise is the fleet size they cover and (for Enterprise) the availability of organization-level features like SSO/SAML, custom SLA, white-label email branding, and a dedicated support contact. Free Personal is a separate tier on a different axis: it's for individual pilots with no organization. It includes personal logbook, currency, weather, and weight-and-balance for one personally-owned aircraft, but excludes every multi-user feature — so 'aircraft count' is the wrong way to distinguish it from Solo. The right way: Free Personal has no org, Solo has an org with one aircraft.
What's the Student tier?
Student accounts are sponsored by a flight school or club that pays for the student's personal-tier access. Free Personal accounts (described above) are for individual pilots flying outside any organization. Both are free to the pilot; Student means a school is covering the bill, Free Personal means no one is.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. Every new organization gets a 30-day free trial with full features. We collect a card at signup (industry standard) but won't charge it until day 30 — and you can cancel anytime during the trial with one click and never see a charge. After the trial, plans are month-to-month with no forced annual contract; annual billing is offered as an optional discount, never a requirement.
How does dispatch chaining work?
When a pilot completes their flight checkout, Hobbstack automatically releases the aircraft and sends the dispatch packet to the next pilot on the schedule. This ensures the next pilot always gets fresh Hobbs, tach, and fuel readings without phone calls or paperwork. If checkout is overdue, staff are alerted and can manually override. This is uncommon in flight school software.
How does the weather briefing work?
Hobbstack fetches live METAR, TAF, NOTAMs, and TFR data for your airports and generates a plain-language weather summary with automated go/no-go recommendations. It produces full dispatch cards and pre-flight briefing packets as PDF, all without a single click. It's designed to supplement, not replace, an official FAA briefing from 1800WxBrief.
Does Hobbstack work offline?
Yes. Hobbstack is built offline-first for pilots at remote airfields with no cell signal. The flight wizard, schedule, fleet data, and dispatch packets are cached on your device using IndexedDB. Actions taken offline are queued and automatically sync when connectivity returns. You'll see a banner showing the last sync time and any pending items. This is uncommon in flight school software.
What is the flight wizard?
The flight wizard is a guided, step-by-step system for recording flights, from pre-flight checks through in-flight data to post-flight checkout and CFI sign-off. It works fully offline, tracks Hobbs, tach, fuel, oil, landings, and more, and automatically generates logbook entries, billing line items, and a USAF-style dispatch receipt PDF when you check in. If your phone dies mid-flight, the wizard picks up exactly where you left off when you reopen the app.
How does Hobbstack handle no-shows and cancellations?
When a flight doesn't start on time, Hobbstack pings the instructor to check in. From there, they can start the flight, report a no-show (which auto-bills the pilot per your org's policy), or mark a weather or mechanical cancellation (no charge). Late cancellations can also be configured to incur a fee. Every outcome is tracked on the reservation so nothing falls through the cracks.
Does Hobbstack work on mobile?
Yes. Hobbstack is a progressive web app (PWA) that works in any modern browser on iPhone, iPad, Android, and desktop. Add it to your home screen for an app-like experience. It also works offline after the first load.
How does billing work?
When a flight is checked in, Hobbstack auto-generates a USAF-style dispatch receipt with separate line items for aircraft rental (wet, dry, block, or tach-based), instructor flight time, ground instruction (separate rate), fuel, and oil. Members can view their balance and download PDF receipts; admins can generate statements and bulk-charge open balances. Optional integrations include QuickBooks Online sync (push invoices, payments, and customers to your QBO ledger), per-line-type tax overrides (different tax rate for rental vs. instruction vs. fuel), and recurring membership dues. Balance enforcement is also optional — automatically block new bookings for members whose balance exceeds a threshold. Partnerships use the same line-item engine for the cost-split cron that allocates each flight's true cost across co-owners, and solo-owner orgs typically skip billing setup entirely since there's no one to invoice.
Can my members pay me through Hobbstack?
Yes — optional, off by default. Once your org links a Stripe Connect Express account, members can save a card via Stripe's hosted checkout (Hobbstack never sees the card data) and your front-desk staff can charge open balances per-flight or in bulk. Funds settle directly into your org's bank account on Stripe's normal payout schedule — Hobbstack never holds the money. Your org's name (not Hobbstack) shows on the member's bank statement; you choose the descriptor. PCI scope stays at SAQ-A since cards are entered on Stripe's domain, never ours.
What's a dispatch receipt?
A printable, USAF-style receipt auto-generated when each flight completes. Faithful to the form aero clubs and flight schools have used for decades — Hobbs/tach begin and end, day/night takeoffs and landings, precision and non-precision approaches, training type (T1/T2/T3), instructor name, line items, totals, signature line, and your org's branding. Email-delivered to the pilot, downloadable on demand, and printable either single (portrait, member only) or double-up (landscape, accounting copy + member copy with a perforated cut guide). Eliminates the manual dispatch-computer entry step CFIs would otherwise do at the front desk after every flight.
How does maintenance tracking work?
Hobbstack monitors 100-hour inspections, annual inspections, and oil changes using your actual flight data — not a static schedule. The forecast accounts for completion rate (how many bookings actually fly), per-cause cancellation patterns (weather vs. no-show vs. mechanical), variance over time, and even seasonal trends. Instead of saying "due June 17" it shows a confidence window like "expected June 8 – June 24 (80% confidence)" so you can prep with realistic lead time. Cycle-based maintenance (parts that wear on landing count, not hours) is tracked separately, Airworthiness Directives (ADs) and Minimum Equipment List (MEL) deferrals are first-class, and a full work order system handles labor time-clock, parts, costs, and IA sign-off.
Can I import a student's paper logbook?
Yes. Hobbstack's paper logbook OCR lets a CFI photograph or scan a paper logbook (PDF or images), automatically transcribes the entries with confidence-scored field detection, and stages them for the CFI's review before import. Each imported entry is tagged so you can audit the source later. Plan on roughly 10-15 minutes of CFI review per page for messy logbooks; type-set ATP-style logbooks come in nearly clean.
What happens to my reservation if an aircraft gets grounded?
When a squawk is filed with a grounding flag, Hobbstack auto-cancels future reservations on that aircraft and notifies the affected pilots. When the squawk is later resolved, the cancelled reservations auto-restore (unless the pilot has opted out of auto-restore in their profile, or another pilot has booked the slot in the meantime). Any conflicting reservation made during the grounding window is left alone. The standby waitlist works the same way — if an aircraft becomes available, the next pilot on standby is offered the slot via push notification.
Is my data secure?
Yes. Hobbstack uses httpOnly JWT cookies (no tokens in local storage), capability-based access control, encrypted data in transit and at rest, rate-limited authentication, and automated backups. Third-party API tokens (QuickBooks Online OAuth, for example) are encrypted with a per-environment key — a leaked database backup alone can't be used to charge cards or push invoices. For online payments, cards are entered on Stripe's hosted checkout — Hobbstack never sees PAN, CVV, or expiration data, keeping us at PCI SAQ-A scope (the lowest tier). Offline data is stored in your browser's IndexedDB with persistent storage.
Can I customize roles and permissions?
Absolutely. Hobbstack uses capability-based permissions. You can create custom roles with specific capabilities (scheduling, billing, fleet management, etc.) and assign them to your team members. CFIs can approve reservations made by their students.
Can I migrate from my current system?
Yes. We support CSV import for aircraft, member lists, and logbook entries. Our team can also assist with data migration from other platforms.
Is there a REST API or webhooks?
Yes. Hobbstack exposes a public REST API with scoped keys, an OpenAPI specification, per-key rate limits (60 req/min by default), and outbound webhooks for reservation, squawk, aircraft-grounded, and MEL events. Webhook deliveries are HMAC-signed and retry with exponential backoff. iCal subscription URLs are also available so members can subscribe to their flights from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or any iCal-compatible app. API access is included on every paid tier.
What kind of support do you offer?
All plans include email support. Enterprise subscribers get a dedicated success contact. We're building a knowledge base and help center to help you get the most out of Hobbstack.
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