The aircraft
What an airplane actually needs tracked.
Hobbs and tach time, airworthiness directives, inspection cycles and component times — each on its own clock, calendar or hours.
The parts
Every part, and the paper that proves it.
A part is only airworthy if you can show where it came from. AeroTrax keeps the 8130-3, the approval basis and the trace back to the source on the part record itself — next to the hours, the cycles and the life limit. When someone asks you to prove it, the answer is a tap rather than an afternoon in a filing cabinet.
Fuel pump · P/N 1B24-1
S/N 4471C · 612.4 TSN
- FAA Form 8130-3 PMA · released 03/2024 on file
- AD 2023-11-04 (recurring) every 500 hrs · 412.0 hrs since 88.0 hrs left
- Overhaul 1,000 hr manufacturer TBO 387.6 hrs left
- Installed N412WB · accessory case · 03/14/2024 18 months
- Warranty 24 months from installation expired
Sample data · part hours derived from aircraft time at installation
Approval tags on file
The FAA Form 8130-3, EASA Form 1 or Certificate of Conformity attached to the part record itself, photographed or imported — so the paperwork travels with the part instead of living in a shoebox.
Approval basis
OEM, PMA, TSO article, approved under an STC, owner-produced, or standard AN/MS/NAS hardware. Recorded as a field of its own, because it is the difference between a part you may install and one you may not.
Source traceability
The chain back to the production approval holder, vendor by vendor. The record a pre-purchase inspection asks for first, and the one that keeps a suspected unapproved part out of your airplane.
Part numbers that change
Supersession tracked, so a revised dash number links back to the part it replaces. Alternates and interchangeables, lot and batch numbers for parts that carry no serial, and an ATA chapter on everything.
Life limits kept separate from TBO
A life limit is a discard. A TBO is a manufacturer’s recommendation. An inspection interval is neither. All three are modeled separately rather than flattened into one due date that hides which is which.
Hours, cycles and calendar
Time since new, overhaul, repair and inspection, plus cycles for the parts that count landings rather than hours — each running against the clock it actually accrues on, Hobbs or tach or air time.
Derived, not typed twice
A part’s time is computed from the aircraft time recorded at installation, so it stays correct on its own. Nothing to keep in step by hand, and nothing to drift the first time an entry is missed.
Directives that follow the part
Many airworthiness directives are issued against a part number, not an airframe. Linking them to the part means a recurring AD cannot go quiet when a component moves to another aircraft.
Condition and shelf life
New, overhauled, repaired, serviceable, as-removed or scrap — with cure dates and expiry for hoses, seals, tires, batteries and oxygen. A part can be new in the box and still not airworthy.
The records 14 CFR 91.417 says must stay with the aircraft — total time in service, the current status of life-limited parts, time since overhaul, inspection status and AD status — come out of AeroTrax as one report. It is also the first thing a buyer’s mechanic asks for.
Also on every part record
Keep reading
The fuel
The largest number you spend, logged like it matters.
Uplift, density and the whole invoice — burn, economy and what a stop actually cost, for pistons and turbines alike.
The pilot
Your logbook lives here too.
PIC, night, instrument, cross-country and landings, with currency and a flight review date calculated rather than remembered.