How it works
The life of one maintenance event.
Eight chapters. One chain from squawk to signed record. This is how the work actually moves through a Dash Aero shop — capture, finding, authorization, work, inspection, records, delivery — honest where it regresses, locked where it signs.
Built inside a working aircraft maintenance operation — every chapter below is the chain the floor runs, not a flowchart drawn on a whiteboard.
01 squawk · 02 intake · 03 finding · 04 authorization · 05 work · 06 inspection · 07 records · 08 delivery
Chapter 01
The squawk
A pilot files it in seconds. It never vanishes.
An intermittent CAS message lands with the flight context and the photo the pilot attached. The shop sees it in intake within seconds — no phone tree, no sticky note, no paraphrased rewrite on a paper tag.
The original wording stays bound to the record. The same words the pilot typed reach the finding, the estimate, and the signed entry. Nothing gets cleaned up into a tidier version of the truth.
- The squawk acknowledges on arrival — the pilot knows it landed, the shop knows it waits.
- Flight context, photo, and the pilot’s name travel with the squawk, never stripped off.
- The original report is preserved verbatim through to the finding and the record.
Chapter 02
Intake to scope
Triage, scheduling, and one traceable chain of lineage.
Triage assigns the event. Scheduling slots the aircraft against real capacity. The maintenance event opens with traceable lineage from the operator’s request to every work item that follows.
Request, squawk, appointment, event, work items — one chain, no orphan tickets. A comeback starts with the complete original context, not a blank new event that has forgotten the last visit.
- The event opens with the request, squawk, and aircraft history already linked.
- Scope splits into work items, each with its own state, owner, and audit stamp.
- Lineage runs request -> event -> work -> record, in either direction, at any time.
Chapter 03
The finding
Observation, cause, and proposed action stay distinct. Three findings split three ways.
The mechanic writes what they observed, the suspected cause, and the proposed action — kept as separate fields, never collapsed into one free-text blob. Evidence, measurements, and authorship bind to each finding.
An inspection produces three findings. The customer approves one, defers one, declines one. Each keeps its own state, its own disposition, and its own life in the scope history. The delivery package identifies all three.
- Observation, cause, and proposed action are distinct fields — not one narrative.
- Approved, deferred, and declined findings each carry their own state forward.
- Deferred and declined items remain visible in scope history after the event closes.
Three findings leave the approver and keep living separately: one stamps Approved, one folds to Deferred, one greys to Declined. The data model refuses to merge them.
Chapter 04
The authorization
Technical and financial authority, separate and named. A cost change supersedes the old approval visibly.
Every performed item carries its authorization basis — which approvers, which scope, which version let the work happen. Technical authority and financial authority are distinct; both are required before corrective work proceeds.
A parts evaluation changes the scope and the cost. The prior approval is marked Superseded, not edited in place. The work stays blocked until the new approval lands. The old approval cannot be silently applied to materially changed work.
- Technical approval and financial approval are separate roles, both required.
- A scope or cost change supersedes the prior approval — visibly, with a version stamp.
- Work stays blocked until the new authorization lands. Silence is never approval.
A mockup of one authorization line for finding 01 at four thousand eight hundred thirty dollars. Technical approval from the DOM and financial approval from the owner are shown as two distinct signature chips. A supersession block shows the prior version one approval at four thousand three hundred ten dollars, marked Superseded after a parts-evaluation scope change, with a note that work stayed blocked until the new approval landed.
Chapter 05
The work
Captured at the aircraft. Offline in the hangar, nothing lost.
The mechanic captures at the point of work — notes, photos, measurements, performed steps, signed times — bound to the correct aircraft and work item. Capture is the source, not a reconstruction at the end of the shift.
The Mechanic Workbench works offline in the hangar. When connectivity returns, the data syncs and any conflict surfaces to be resolved by a lead rather than overwriting someone’s entry. No evidence gets lost between the ramp and the desk.
- Performed steps, photos, and measurements capture against the right work item.
- Offline capture syncs when the hangar reconnects; conflicts surface, never silently overwrite.
- Hold points block until the required evidence lands — then the next step unlocks.
Chapter 06
The inspection
Independent. A rejection reopens work honestly. A failed test strips readiness in real time.
Inspection is independent — a separate role, a separate decision, recorded in the same record. A rejection creates a rework task; both the original work and the rejection stay in history, unmodified.
A functional test fails. The work-item state strips back in real time. The affected readiness dimensions regress. A material update fires to the customer. Progress that regresses is shown regressing — never frozen at the high-water mark.
- Inspection runs as a separate role; rejection creates rework, not an overwrite.
- A failed test regresses the work-item state and the readiness dimensions immediately.
- A material update fires to the customer the moment readiness regresses.
A functional test fails. The work-item state visibly strips back to Open, the readiness cell flips green to blocked, and a customer-update chip fires. The regression is surfaced, not hidden.
Chapter 07
The records
Built during the work, not reconstructed after. Signed and locked.
The Aircraft Service Record builds during the work, not after. The completeness matrix fills as evidence lands; the packet compiles from the same source facts the shop already captured — no parallel truth for records.
The authorized signer signs. The packet locks. Corrections amend — they never overwrite the signed original. Both versions stay available, and the customer always receives the package that matches what actually happened.
- The records packet compiles from source facts already captured — no re-entry.
- A signature locks the packet; corrections amend, the signed original is preserved.
- The completeness matrix fills cell by cell as each piece of evidence lands.
Chapter 08
The delivery
Eleven readiness dimensions, each earned separately. Green means everything, or it doesn’t say green.
Eleven independent readiness dimensions — technical, quality, records, inspection, test, parts, custody, briefing, acceptance, financial, and sign-off. Each earns green on its own. Financial can clear while technical is still blocked.
The aircraft does not deliver until every dimension is green. Briefing, acceptance, and custody transfer close the event. The customer leaves with the same facts the shop used — understood, not just attached.
- Each of the eleven dimensions clears independently — no single writable status flag.
- Financial can be green while technical is still blocked; delivery waits.
- Briefing, acceptance, and custody transfer close the event against the same source facts.
Eleven readiness dimensions fill independently. Financial clears green first; technical stays blocked; then all clear. Each dimension is earned on its own.
The plan
Three steps to see it on your work
One shop at a time, configured against one real maintenance event.
- 01
Bring us your messiest recent job
The one with the squawk that came in late, the scope that moved twice, and the records that got rebuilt on a Friday. That job is the test.
- 02
We configure Dash Aero for how your shop runs
Event profiles, terminology, finding and approval routing, capture forms — set against the way your floor actually works, not a generic template.
- 03
You watch one maintenance event travel the chain
From the squawk to the signed record, the same eight chapters on this page — honest where it regresses, locked where it signs, delivered when every dimension is green.