1. Mary a hobbyist pilot needs to spend less time before a flight filling out outdated navigation log sheets in order to spend more time actually enjoying being in the air.
  2. Louise her right-seat pilot needs to know that she can make travel arrangements that will work out for them once they land so that they have a stress free positive trip

Brainstorm Ideas

 

Idea I would move forward with would be idea 4, to fix the entire pilot user needs profile, you would need to do 2 things, minimize their time filling in the navigation log documentation and having to do hours of fight planning PLUS ending the repetition of the process by doing it the day before flight , plus the day of the flight – EVERY SINGLE time they take the same flight to their second homes or places that they frequently fly to.

I love this idea as it takes a close look first at the old nav log form and notices that there are only 4 fields that the pilots are expected to fill in.

Their plane number/identifier.  Their check in points, and their desired compass course direction and the distance they are traveling each leg of the journey.

Then it considers the repetition issues our user has,

Does the pilot actually need to figure out the course correction information the night before AND the day they fly?

Chances are the wind will have changed.

Could the web app figure it out for them?

There is a lot of various wind strengths and directions, but probably it is a finite list even if it is a big one, of speeds that would be acceptable for flight. And there is a finite compass list size of directions the wind direction could be coming from.

SO I am confident that an algorithm could be written to do this course correction automatically for the pilot.  IF THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE, then the computer app could estimate the original inputs the night before, based on a smaller interval of options (8 wind directions and speeds every 10Knots between 0-30)  and then the day of the flight the pilot would enter exact number into the app, go down and check the plane for pre-flight safety check list and then go.

Then the app would save their PREFERRED TRIP data so the pilot would not need to enter the checkpoints, or the airports again, only need to figure out the wind variances on all follow up trips. Or edit a checkpoint if they decided to fly somewhere else first, or take a different route.

The app would let them save 10 of their favorite trips, and have a field to solve the right-seat pilots needs statement too about viable transportation to their accommodations and take-out food for after hours dinners.

The AOPA could commission a company to do this job for them, and then SELL THE APP to their members of armature and hobby pilots for $19.99.  It would be a great extra source of income.  PLUS their members would find a huge extra value and “buy in” to their organization for listening to their clients needs and solving them.  They may even tell friends about how great the AOPA is now, how progressive they are, and may peek interest in more people to get into flying.