Before you sign with any vendor, run these six tests.

A scripted demo shows the happy path. Your week of trips shows the edge cases you actually fly.

• Send a real week of trips in advance and ask to see them quoted, scheduled and released.
• Ask them to swap a tail mid-trip and watch what re-checks: crew, maintenance, weight and balance, the quote.
• Put an owner flight and a positioning leg in the same trip, and check that the rule and tax treatment change per leg.
• Have your scheduler, not just the buyer, drive part of the demo.

Every product claims duty and release. Ask it to prove the rule, on the screen, with your numbers.

Rules to test:135.267135.63(c)135.77

• Duty and rest: ask for the published validation scenarios, then run a late arrival that pushes into the next duty period.
• Load manifest: build one for a multiengine leg and check it carries passengers, weights and center of gravity before takeoff.
• Release: who authorizes, who accepts, and what blocks it? A person should release. The software should only flag and block.
• Stale data: disconnect a feed or age an import. A value the system can't verify should show red, not green.

Your POI or PMI will ask for records by person, tail and date. Expect each answer in under a minute.

• "Show me this pilot's flight and duty time for last quarter."
• "Which version of the rule applied on the day of this flight?"
• "Show me every deferral on this tail this year, with who signed it."
• "Show me your last SMS management review and what came out of it."
• "Can I see the records without you logging in for me?"

A module that only works with the vendor's other product locks you in twice.

• Can each module run on its own, alongside the tools you already use?
• Are integrations with your current tracker, accounting and flight planning listed, and monitored?
• Is any feature you saw in the demo actually a separate add-on?

The subscription is the smallest line. Add-ons, onboarding and re-keying are where the money goes.

• Subscription per module, plus every add-on: SSO, read-and-sign, ERP alerting, consultant seats, apps.
• Per-report, per-FRAT or per-user fees.
• Onboarding, data build and integration fees, in writing.
• Contract length, renewal increases and the cost of leaving early.
• Staff hours spent typing the same data into two or three systems.

Your records are your certificate's history. You should never need the vendor's permission to take them.

• Can you export everything yourself, any time, as CSV, JSON or PDF?
• Does the export include per-aircraft records, documents and audit trails?
• Is there a fee to export, or a notice period?
• What does the contract guarantee if the vendor stops operating: a full export, escrow, or nothing?