Flying & Logbook

Airbly and AirSync Data Recorders

The recorder in the panel already knows how long the engine ran. Connect it, and that number is on the return form before the pilot types anything.

What the recorder sends

An aircraft data recorder records each flight that it sees: when the engine started and stopped, how long it ran, and the departure and landing airports. Resyrv reads these flights and uses them for two things. It fills in the return readings before the pilot enters them. It also tells your admins about a flight that had no reservation.

Resyrv works with two recorders. Airbly is a device that monitors the engine from outside and reports engine time and tach time. AirSync gets the flight log from the avionics. Thus it reports Hobbs and airborne time, but no tach. The information below is the same for the two recorders, except where it tells you differently.

Connect Airbly

Flight Data is under Organization Settings, in the Operations group. To see it, you need the aircraft management permission. Owners and admins already have it.

Flight data page in Organization settings with the settings rail on the left and three How it works cards: connect the recorder, match aircraft to your fleet, readings arrive at return, plus a note that aircraft without a recorder are still watched on ADS-B
Flight Data is under Operations in the settings rail. The three cards at the top show the full process, from start to end.
  1. In the Airbly web app, an Administrator opens the group settings and generates the group API key. Do this one time only. A new key makes the old key invalid, and Resyrv stops the sync until you paste the new key.
  2. Paste the key into the Airbly card in Resyrv. Click Connect.
  3. The card then shows a webhook URL. Copy it into the Airbly group settings as the webhook endpoint.
Airbly card marked Not connected with its three steps: generate a group API key in Airbly, paste it into the empty key field and click Connect, then paste the webhook URL back into Airbly
The card before you paste a key. The webhook URL in step three is blank until Connect succeeds. Thus, do the steps from top to bottom.

Connect AirSync

AirSync works in the opposite direction. Resyrv has one partner account with AirSync, and each organization does not have its own account. Thus you do not generate a key, and you do not copy anything.

AirSync card marked Not connected: step 1, enter one of your tail numbers and click Connect, and step 2, flights start arriving on their own, noting AirSync reports Hobbs and airborne time but no tach
The AirSync card before you connect. It asks only for one tail number.
  1. In AirSync, turn on Resyrv for each aircraft that you want to report.
  2. Open the AirSync card in Resyrv. If AirSync already offered your aircraft to Resyrv, the card shows its name, and you connect with one click. If not, type one of your tail numbers and click Connect.
  3. There is no third step. Resyrv subscribes to each aircraft directly with AirSync.

The tail number that you type must be an aircraft that is already in your Resyrv fleet. AirSync must also show that the aircraft reports to Resyrv. When you connect one aircraft, you also connect the AirSync account behind it. Thus your other AirSync aircraft also connect, and Resyrv matches them to your fleet by tail number, the same as Airbly aircraft.

An AirSync account connects to one Resyrv organization. If a different organization already connected an aircraft, the second attempt tells you. Resyrv does not split the flights of the aircraft between two organizations.

How Resyrv matches aircraft to your fleet

When you connect, Resyrv gets the aircraft on your recorder account. It matches each aircraft to your fleet by tail number. Resyrv marks the rows that it matched itself as auto.

If the tail number does not resolve an aircraft, Resyrv leaves it unlinked. For example, a device can have an old registration, or a name that is not the N-number. Use the picker in the Resyrv aircraft column to correct it. Resyrv marks a row that you set by hand as manual, and does not change it.

Resyrv keeps the flights of an unlinked recorder aircraft, but they have no place to go. When you link the aircraft, Resyrv matches the flights that it already has again. Thus you do not lose the flights that arrived before you corrected the link.

The Airbly webhook and hourly sync

With the webhook URL in place, Airbly tells Resyrv about one minute after engine shutdown. Thus the reading is ready when the pilot comes in. Without the webhook, nothing breaks. Resyrv gets the data from Airbly one time each hour. The Sync now button on the card does the same pull immediately.

AirSync does not need a webhook. Resyrv subscribed for you when you connected. Thus pushes start automatically, and the card shows when the last push arrived. The hourly pull and the Sync now button work the same for the two recorders.

What the pilot sees at return

When a pilot opens Return on a reservation that the recorder flew, the meter boxes are already full. A line below them shows the recorder name and the hours that it measured. The pilot examines the panel and confirms, or types the values on the gauges. On an Airbly aircraft, this is Hobbs In and Tach In. On an AirSync aircraft, it is Hobbs In only, and the pilot types the tach.

The pilot must still submit the return. Resyrv bills from the values that are in the fields when the pilot submits.

If the pilot left the departure or arrival airport blank on the flight log, Resyrv fills in the airports that the recorder saw. Resyrv never overwrites an airport that the pilot typed.

When the reading and the recorder disagree

The tolerance is one tenth of an hour. It applies only to a reading that the recorder measured. Thus Resyrv never checks tach on an AirSync aircraft. If the difference is more than the tolerance, the return still posts, so nobody must wait at the desk. Resyrv also opens a return meter exception on the Schedule exceptions page, Meter integrity tab (Meter exceptions under Schedule in the sidebar). The exception shows the reading of the pilot next to the reading of the recorder.

A reviewer then makes the decision. If the reviewer accepts the exception, Resyrv keeps the reading of the pilot and the billing from it. Return correction bills the flight again with the corrected numbers.

Dispatch & Returnmeter exceptions at dispatch, and the remainder of the out-and-in process.

Flights that nobody booked

If a recorded flight matches no dispatched reservation, Resyrv tells your admins. The notice shows the aircraft, the date, and how long the engine ran. Frequently, it is a maintenance run that a person did not book.

The event is “Recorded flight with no reservation” under Organization Settings, Notifications. By default, it is on for owners, administrators, and managers.

Announcements & Notificationshow to select which events send, and who gets them.

Disconnect

Disconnect removes the connection, the aircraft links, and the recorder flights that Resyrv keeps. Flights that are already returned keep their readings and their charges. These belong to the reservation, not to the recorder. When you connect again, Resyrv gets the history from the recorder again. When you disconnect AirSync, Resyrv also tells AirSync to stop the pushes.

ADS-B return checks without a recorder

While an aircraft that broadcasts ADS-B is dispatched, Resyrv monitors it on the public feed. You do not install anything. Resyrv samples the position every minute and a half. It finds when the aircraft stays at one of your fields for a few minutes after a flight.

If nobody checks in the aircraft in fifteen minutes after that, Resyrv sends a reminder to the pilot. Thirty minutes later, staff get a Landed, not checked in alert. You set the two waits under Organization Settings, Dispatch, Return alerts. Set a wait to zero to turn off that stage. The Live Flights board shows the same status in real time: In flight, Landed and not checked in, Landed away, or Signal lost.

Return alerts settings: due back soon 15 minutes before, overdue 30 minutes after, pilot nudge 15 minutes after landing and staff alert 45 minutes after landing, with the note that recipients and channels are set per event in Notifications
Return alerts under Dispatch. The ADS-B feed controls the bottom two waits.

At return, Resyrv does one sanity check. The feed sees only time in the air. A Hobbs meter runs from engine start to shutdown. Thus the Hobbs change is always more than the airborne time. If it is less, the return still posts, and Resyrv opens a meter exception with the two numbers. This is the same as for a recorder mismatch.

Resyrv does not count a touch and go as a landing. A landing counts only after several minutes on the ground, and a new takeoff cancels it.

Resyrv tracks each aircraft by default. To turn it off for one aircraft, go to the aircraft, Time tracking, Track position with ADS-B. If the feed cannot find an aircraft by tail number, enter its Mode S code in the same box. An aircraft with a recorder uses the recorder check and not this check.

Problems with a recorder connection

  • Resyrv rejects the key - use the group API key from the Airbly group settings. An Administrator must generate it. If a key worked and then stopped, usually somebody generated a new key in Airbly. Paste the new key.
  • An aircraft never matches - the tail number on the recorder is not the same as the tail number in Resyrv. Set the aircraft with the picker. Do not rename the aircraft on either side.
  • Flights still show No reservation after you link the aircraft - when you link, Resyrv matches the stored flights again, but only against dispatched reservations. A flight on a reservation that nobody dispatched has nothing to match.
  • Nothing arrived - look at the last sync time on the card and push Sync now. If the webhook URL is not in the Airbly group settings, only the hourly pull gets data. Thus a flight can be up to one hour old.
  • AirSync says that your tail number does not report to Resyrv - first turn on Resyrv for the aircraft in AirSync. The tail number must also be the same in the two places.
  • AirSync says that the aircraft is already connected to a different organization - an AirSync account belongs to one Resyrv organization. Disconnect it in that organization, or ask support which organization has it.
  • Tach In is empty on an AirSync aircraft - this is normal. AirSync does not measure tach, so the pilot enters it.

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