During a Cannes airshow I was presenting our aviation software in a booth right next to a booth dedicated to the aerodrome Saint Hubert with its visionary commandant, mr. Franck Dubarry. It was here that mr. Dubarry expressed his interest in finding good software for use in his tower to register all the flight movements and invoice the landing costs, parking, fuel etc. to the visiting pilots or companies and aeroclubs based on his field.
We searched around and found some software, but eventually decided to build the software from scratch with the aerodrome Saint Hubert as pilot customer.
Aerodrome Saint Hubert – EBSH
The Belgian aerodrome Saint Hubert (EBSH) is situated in the South-Eastern part of Belgium and consists of 2 x 2 parallel grass runways. The Belgian National Glider center is also located on this field. There is a hotel/restaurant right on the airport, where you can literally park your aircraft in front of the hotel doors.
Location of aerodrome Saint Hubert in the South-Eastern corner of Belgium.
After some time developing our software, last month (November 2013) the aerodrome started to use our AeroPlus Tower Software in a network configuration to register all the flights movements, landings, takeoffs, circuit training and other related activities.
AFIS officer working with our sofware in the tower
The software is available in French as well, which is the language spoken in this part of Belgium. Next to the registration of flight movements, AeroPlus Tower can invoice the flights and generate all the needed reports on flight movements, noise produced, etc.
Computer screen where flight movements are recorded
Automated invoicing
The invoicing of landings, fuel and parking can be done on the spot or later on. When the pilot wants to pay the landing fees in the tower, the AFIS offices can easily generate the invoice. If the pilot is a regular visitor or member of an aeroclub or customer based on your airfield, you can opt to send them the invoice later on, e.g. once per month. The flights and other related costs are then automatically accumulated into one invoice. A link to the French accounting system Ciel! is embedded in the system and links to other accounting systems are easily incorporated.
Software not dependent on Internet connection
There were most of our other aviation software is developed for tablets or offered as web-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, thus depending on an internet connection to be able to use it, the tower software we initially developed for Saint Hubert is based on a client-server model. The software can run on a single PC or Mac in the tower of can be installed on a server and run as a client-server solution with several airport or FBO employees working in the system at the same time, each within their own role.
Belgian aviation officials approve our software
Lately the software in use was tested and approved for official use by the Belgian authorities and can be used to produce all the required documentation and reports.
I am glad the AFIS officers at this aerodrome are happy with the software we developed for them and hope many other aerodromes, aiports and FBO’s will be as happy with it in the forthcoming future.
