WingWrangler vs
Spreadsheets
A spreadsheet costs nothing to open. The admin time around it, the double-bookings and the month-end rebuild are the bill. This page lists the failures we replace, and shows the two assumptions behind the time estimate.
You run a flying club or flight school out of Google Sheets, Excel, a whiteboard, or a combination of them, and it worked right up until it didn't. This page is for the point where double-bookings, month-end invoicing, and "which 172 is due for a 100-hour?" start costing real hours. If you're already on dedicated software, the switching guide is the better read.
Double-bookings
"Someone books N738GG at 10am. Someone else books N738GG at 10am. Both show up."
A booking on a tail or instructor already committed in that window is refused, and the check runs again inside the write. Two people do not both hold the same tail.
Stale data
"Is the oil 6 qts or 8 qts? When was the last 100-hour? Who knows? The spreadsheet is three days old."
One record per aircraft for hours, status and squawks. The person on the ramp updates the same row the office reads.
Lost squawks
"Pilot reports a mag drop. It's written on a sticky note. Sticky note falls behind the desk."
Squawks are logged against the aircraft, maintenance staff are notified, and a grounding squawk takes the tail off the dispatch board.
Billing chaos
"End of month arrives. You have 47 flights to invoice. Manually. From 3 different spreadsheets."
Flight charges are created from the booking and close against actual Hobbs and Tach when the logbook entry is approved. Card and ACH payments run through Stripe.
No accountability
"Who changed the schedule? Who approved the checkout? Who signed off the discrepancy?"
Sign-offs are attributed: endorsements, stage checks and work orders record who filed them and when, and permission changes write an audit row.
Mobile nightmare
"Standing on the ramp with an iPad, trying to zoom into a Google Sheet with cold fingers."
Runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install and no per-seat client. The schedule board falls back to a grid below the desktop breakpoint; the rest of the mobile experience is still being built out.
Answers live in your head
"'Which 172 is due for a 100-hour?' means cross-checking three tabs and the maintenance binder."
Ask Wingman. The copilot calls tools against your schedule and maintenance and can book a flight, log a flight, or report a squawk by chat.
Comms scattered everywhere
"Schedule changes go out by group text, the squawk's on a sticky note, the lesson plan's in email."
Owned in-app chat. DMs and channels sit beside the schedule, squawks and work orders, with no per-seat chat vendor.
Built for one rulebook
"Your sheet assumes FAA. Operate under EASA, TCCA, or CASA and every formula is quietly wrong."
The org records the regulator you pick at signup, one of ten authorities (FAA, TCCA, AFAC, EASA, UK CAA, CASA, DGCA, CAAC, JCAB, CAAS). Rule surfaces read that field instead of assuming FAA. We do not claim every rule is jurisdiction-specific yet.
Our estimate, not a measurement. Each pair compares one status board against cross-checking browser tabs, and one booking against a phone call and a paper diary. The ranges are our judgment of typical club workflows, so treat them as a starting point and replace them with your own.
Worked example with both inputs above in the open. Change the hours or the rate and the number changes with them. The Club figure is $25 per aircraft from our published pricing, times five. The pricing page has a live estimator for your fleet and student count.
They quote on request. Our pricing is published.
They publish $10/aircraft. We publish $25. The honest comparison.
No live product left to compare. Six months free when you switch.
Free, until you count the hours and the mistakes.
Or skip ahead: see plan pricing and the live estimator, or explore the live demo.
Graduate from spreadsheets
Start free on one aircraft. Import your members and aircraft. See the difference in your first week.