sFTL 1.0 — flight time limitations and crew rest on Android

Flight decks are rarely all-iPhone. Until now, the flight time limitations tool of sQRH stopped at the crew members who carry an Apple device. sFTL is that same tool on Android, built screen for screen from the sQRH FTL module — and it talks to it.

sFTL opens on the answer: the maximum flight duty period under EASA ORO.FTL as a clock time, the latest on-blocks time, with the planned margin on a simple green, amber and red scale. Below it, every option gets its own clock time — commander extension, split duty, commander discretion — and while you are on duty a Time left line counts down. Acclimatised and unknown states (Tables 5 and 6), augmented crews of 3 or 4 pilots with in-flight rest, cabin crew, delayed reporting, minimum rest and WOCL encroachment are all covered.

Sectors are entered the way you read them on a roster: airport codes with search, OUT and IN times on a numeric keypad, local times worked out from a built-in airport database, and duties crossing midnight dated automatically. A clock-time timeline puts the sectors, the crew rest window, the WOCL and the limits on one ruler.

For augmented crews, sFTL runs the crew rest rotation: arm the cruise for the planned start, follow who is resting and when the next rotation is, and get alerts before and at the end of each rest period — with an ongoing lock-screen notification that keeps counting even with the app closed. Stopping takes a deliberate hold, so the alerts are never cancelled by accident.

And with Nearby Share, one tap sends the whole duty — sectors, crew and crew rest — to crew members nearby running sFTL on Android or sQRH on iPhone and iPad, over Bluetooth, with no pairing and no network. The receiver sees a summary and confirms.

sFTL works fully offline and collects no data. As always, it is an aid, not an authority: your operator’s approved FTL scheme and the regulations govern.

Full details on the sFTL app page. sFTL is in testing and coming to Google Play.