Considering its in-house flight department as a customer has been integral to the evolution of product development at Satcom Direct (SD), the business aviation solutions provider. The global business has offices in 15 different locations, and its corporate flight department operates a busy but small fleet, including a Gulfstream G350 and Cessna Citation Sovereign. The fleet, which is entirely reliant on the SD Pro® platform for operations, is used to support business travel and to trial and validate the effectiveness and functionality of new products.

SD Pro communicates accurate, comprehensive data for all phases of flight to the entire operations team. Throughout the mission, from scheduling to post-flight administration, critical information is visible in realtime across the team from the centralized platform. The SD Flight Department depends upon SD Pro to safely and securely facilitate all its flight operations.

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PreFlight and PostFlight in SD Pro

Fundamental to the centralized flight operations are the recently enhanced PreFlight and PostFlight modules in SD Pro, enabling flight departments to manage all phases of flight from a single, synchronized dashboard.  The detailed scheduling and automated digital flight log capabilities improve efficiencies across the entire flight operation by optimizing work-flows and simplifying communication.

"Everything we develop has its genesis in our own flight department.  We are committed to developing products for business aviation and by being our own customer, we can create solutions that enhance business aviation flight operations and efficiency," says Satcom Direct Founder and CEO Jim Jensen. "We develop solutions from the ground up, which are dedicated to meeting the specific needs of global business aviation operators."

SD PreFlight generates crew profiles, aircraft operational status, and fleet availability helping the scheduler to make informed decisions for each mission. The system's integration with third-party vendors enables the filing of a flight plan within the intuitive graphic interface. Once submitted, alerts are automatically sent to relevant crewmembers for up to the minute changes.

Satcom Direct
SD Pro lets you view and manage flight logs, performance data, scheduling, trip planning, maintenance information, operating history, and more. Photo: Satcom Direct

SD PostFlight autonomously and accurately populates the flight log with aircraft and engine times and cycles, with accuracy to the minute. The open architecture system shares this information with third party maintenance providers and OEM engine warranty programs if desired.

 "Our pilots like the way our automated data feeds SD PostFlight. It is accurate, efficient, and timely as it allows aircrew to log flights immediately after landing. No pilot calculations are required, and the data is easily submitted via our SD Crew App. SD Pro gives our flight department increased visibility, which results in more efficient aircraft maintenance scheduling," says Jensen.

Satcom Direct
SD PostFlight is the industry's first realtime automated flight reporting software. Photo: Satcom Direct

Managed through the Data Center

Throughout every phase, all data is managed through SD's Tier III Data Center, ensuring sensitive Personal Identifying Information (PII), as well as aircraft data, is kept secure and compliant with global data privacy regulations.

For the SD Flight Department, and more importantly for SD customers, the cohesive suite of SD Pro modules streamlines operating procedures and enables the user to manage its assets in a dynamic aviation landscape efficiently. SD is committed to innovating products and systems that optimize work-flows and simplify communications across all parts of the flight operation, to effectively define new standards for business aviation flight management.

This article is sponsored by Satcom Direct


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