It was three decades ago when the spark that would become Tdata, Inc., was had.
“Thirty years ago, I was flying to a local airport for maintenance. I was chatting with the director of maintenance (DOM) and he showed me his regulatory library. At the time, it was on microfiche. He said, ‘I wish someone else would get into this business. There is only one company and they have high prices.’ I had experience with microfiche and aviation, so I started Tdata with $500. Tdata quickly turned into a thriving software company,” recounts Jim Thomas, president and CEO of Tdata, Inc.
Today, Tdata has grown to offer many software solutions for the aviation industry, and a year ago, released its latest piece of software – the IA7 Advanced Airworthiness System – a web-based version of the company’s regulatory libraries.
“Tdata had been producing regulatory libraries on compact disc (CD) for many years; our customers wanted a web version. It took seven years to develop. I wanted to build the perfect airworthiness product,” explains Thomas. “There is one, complete and user-friendly version. IA7 is available for a single user or multi-user environment and allows the administrator to set up sub-users with either admin or basic user privileges. It has always been our goal to create products that are easy to use. IA7 is a perfect representation of that goal. It is designed to be scalable so that it can be used by a single IA or a large corporation with many locations.”
The key features of the IA7 Advanced Airworthiness System are:
- An organized and easy to use interface. You only need to know the model number to start an AD search and you don’t have to know who the current TC holder is. “For example, The Cessna 172 is now the Textron 172 but it is known by its ‘popular’ name, Cessna. We incorporated ‘popular naming’ and also allow the user to change that information to whatever they like,” says Thomas.
- Complete documentation: Users can upload documents or photos to an individual AD or the entire aircraft record. Logbook pages or before and after photos are a common use for this feature, says Thomas.
- FAA Forms are filled out on screen, directly into the forms in PDF format. Busy shops may produce thousands of forms over the years – and the IA7 keeps all of those saved forms in their original versions. The forms are easily filtered by form type, date range, or even by the user who created the form.
- Saved aircraft files produce a pop-up window when they are opened. The pop-up window displays any new ADs since the file was last reviewed. Users can also print this information in a report.
- IA7 includes a compliance editor to record compliance methods, dates and times of compliance, next due information, and certificate information for sign-off.
The IA7 also includes multiple report formats, with more on the way; an equipment list and equipment list reports, which helps a user keep track of serial numbers, part numbers, component times, and more; and all documents are searchable by key word(s) in less than a second with it’s full text search feature, adds Thomas.
And Thomas says that new features are added to the IA7 regularly. “We are releasing new features every couple of weeks. We welcome user feedback to accommodate the needs of our subscribers,” he notes.
To pick up and start using the IA7 is simple, with only a slight learning curve to the software.
“Short learning curve, easy access using popular browsers, compliance record-keeping, FAA forms – all stored on our cloud servers. Users can login from anywhere with an internet connection: Mac or PC. Anyone familiar with AD research and compliance will intuitively know how to use IA7. If a user needs help, they can call us and speak to a staff IA or simply send us an email. We are based in the U.S. and are very responsive,” Thomas elaborates.
All that is required to run the IA7 is a Mac or PC up to 10 years old and an internet connection. IA7 administrators can set up sub-user accounts and privileges, as well as the preferred date/time format for the system.
“If a customer has reliable internet, the obvious choice is IA7. Technical issues are rare and there is no software to install. Files and forms are kept safe in the cloud and available from anywhere on any PC, Mac, or large screen tablet with an internet connection,” Thomas adds.
