What a year it’s been already. From adding other members to your hangar to blazing‑fast full‑text search, I’ve shipped a ton of improvements that I hope will make caring for your airplane easier, faster, and more delightful. And yes — AirVenture Oshkosh was absolutely incredible. More on that below!

It’s been wonderful onboarding new beta testers, and the app has evolved thanks to your feedback. Since starting the iOS TestFlight journey, BetterPlane has shipped 26 new releases so far. Let’s walk through some of my favorite things I’ve added since the last update.

Invite and Manage Hangar Members

In BetterPlane, hangars are your organizational home base. Now you can add your mechanic, co‑owner, or anyone you wish. Once they’re in, you can see everyone at a glance with clear roles (Officer, Manager, Member). Heads up: while we’re in beta, I need to add anyone you invite as a BetterPlane beta tester first if they aren’t already. More hangar management capabilities are on the way.

Tablet Layout Improvements

I’ve tweaked the aircraft home and logbook screens to be a bit more organized for tablets, so more information fits comfortably on‑screen, with cleaner spacing and better scaling. It’s still evolving!

Aircraft Profile Photo

You can now add a profile photo of your aircraft to its overview screen. We all know we could look at our airplanes for hours—now you can every time you open BetterPlane.

Reliability You Can Count On

Behind the scenes, I’ve expanded automated testing and added smarter monitoring so issues are caught early and resolved quickly. The benefit for you: smoother updates, fewer hiccups, and more confidence every time you open BetterPlane.

Share Docs and Logbook Pages Anywhere

Need to send a document or a specific logbook page out of BetterPlane? Tap share and go. Images and PDFs move easily to your preferred apps.

Update Hours‑Tracked Components Anytime

You can now add or update time‑based component values (tach, AFTT, engine, etc.) anytime after onboarding—no need to do it during setup. Keep your component hours accurate as you fly.

Faster Multi‑Image Uploads

I’ve streamlined the logbook scanning flow so you can add multiple images in one go with fewer taps. That triggers a custom logbook page extraction process that even handles handwritten entries. I’ve put a lot of focus this year into improving the speed and accuracy of those extracted entries, and I’m excited with how well it’s currently working! Check out this low-resolution screen-recording captured on an older iPad Mini:

Full‑Text Logbook Search

Thanks to the improved entry extraction, you can now search your digitized logbooks near instantly! Find entries by keyword, part number, AD number, mechanic certificate number, dates — whatever you remember. It’s like a spotlight for your maintenance history.

Alerts That Meet You Where You Are

Get notified by text message, push notification, or email — and choose what’s right for you. Forgot when your FAA registration expires? We’ve got you covered. You can adjust how often you’re notified and toggle each channel you’ve signed in with. Right now, you can enable email or text message alerts based on the sign‑in method you used; the ability to enable both is coming soon.

Notification preferences (are set at the Hangar level):

Push notification example (account with multiple hangars with alerts):

Text message alert:

AirVenture Oshkosh 2025

Oshkosh was amazing as usual (it was my third consecutive OSH!). I met owners, mechanics, and builders from every corner of GA — and hearing your real-world challenges has shaped everything I’m building. Whether you were dealing with scattered maintenance records, trying to track down that one logbook entry from ten years ago, or just wanting a better way to collaborate with your A&P, those conversations showed me we’re solving the right problems. If we chatted in the hangars or by the flight line: thank you!

If you grabbed a BetterPlane sticker from these flyers that you may have seen around OSH, thank you!

I’m happy with the momentum so far in 2025, and there’s still plenty in the pipeline. If you have feedback — positive or negative — I’m listening. One request: follow BetterPlane on Facebook (or shoot me an email) and keep the ideas coming!

P.S. For a limited time, I’m still onboarding beta testers!

P.S. #2… What was your favorite thing at OSH this year? I think one of my favorite’s was a beautiful Cub Yellow PA-12 amphib seaplane with an anvil strapped down in the baggage area! I think it was parked near the Javron booth.

• Jason