When Chris VanHorne bought his own small plane with seven other pilots, he wished there were some system that automatically compiled the flight logs.

There is now.

VanHorne set up a company to make one.

An engineer by training, VanHorne teamed up with developer Peter Osif to form Argyle Shore, P.E.I.-based Airbly, which has created hardware and software that can be installed in private aircraft to automatically produce the flight log.

The company, which has four installations, eases the burden on owners of private aircraft, who often have to write out these logs by hand. If they’re lost or destroyed, the plane’s value can plunge.

Presenting at the recent Atlantic Venture Forum in Halifax, VanHorne explained that preparing flight logs by hand are a hassle for aircraft owners, but aircraft lose their value drastically if the owner can’t produce a detailed history of flights and maintenance.

“An aircraft’s value is very tightly linked to the history of the plane,” said VanHorne. “But 90 per cent of plane owners still write their logs on paper . . . to get aircraft owners out of the stone age, we have created a block box for small aircraft.”

Airbly’s product is the Canairy Cockpit Monitor, a small piece of hardware that is installed on top of an aircraft's instrument panel. The device monitors the aircraft's position, usage and cabin environment and regularly sends the data over a cloud-based relay to Airbly’s data centre.

The company’s software then automatically generates flight logs. It also tracks the aircraft’s maintenance and alerts the owners when something falls outside a normal range.

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The business model is similar to a cell phone plan — the customer pays for the hardware then pays a regular bill for the tracking. VanHorne said the initial market is flight schools — an $8-million market.

These schools often have a fleet of five or more airplanes and Airbly can spare them the bother of doing flight logs and make sure they have a regular rotation of planes in maintenance.

In an interview, he said the Canairy monitor simplifies things for groups of people who join together to own a plane, such as VanHorne himself and his friends. The costs each person pays depend on the amount of use, and Airbly sorts out each person’s usage.

Airbly, which recently went through the Propel ICT Launch accelerator,  now has two installations in the U.S. and two in Canada, and the company is now manufacturing its first 100 units.

VanHorne will present the product this summer at the AirVenture air show in Wisconsin, which bills itself as “the world’s greatest aviation celebration.”

VanHorne said the company plans to market the Canairy to other segments of the aviation market, such as the sight-seeing and plane-for-hire markets, and is also interested in products in other industries.

It is thinking about developing fast and affordable in-flight internet for small planes. And the team is interested in products for the drone and marine markets.

Airbly is now working on raising $220,000 to $250,000 in investment, which it hopes will cover the costs of hiring sales and development support.