TechLog Pilot Guide
TechLog in 60 seconds
- Every A319, A320, A321, 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 is a real aircraft with its own history. What the pilot before you reported, you see. What you report, the next pilot sees.
- An aircraft is where it last landed. In Dispatch, you pick from the aircraft parked at your departure airport.
- No aircraft at your airport? Jumpseat to one nearby, or press Req OCC spare and Operations Control brings one to you.
- Check the colour before you fly. GO and DEFERRED fly. NO-GO doesn't.
- Something broke? Send
TECH+ what's wrong to AALOPS by ACARS, or write it in your PIREP comment. - Want extra hours and miles? Fly a ferry from the Ferry board, or a tail tagged NEEDS FLYING or NAV DB.
TechLog never touches your simulator. It doesn't set failures and doesn't write anything into your aircraft. It works the same for the Fenix, the FBW A32NX, the PMDG 737, the iFly 737 MAX and any other A320-family or 737 aircraft you fly.
On this page: What it is · Airbus & Boeing · The four colours · Your flight, step by step · Where the aircraft are · No aircraft here? OCC spare · Charters & Adventures · Ferry board · Needs flying · NAV DB due · Reporting a defect · Found from your flight data · What maintenance does · The tail pages · Questions · Checklist
What TechLog is
Real airlines keep a tech log in every aircraft: a book where crews write down what's wrong and engineers write down what they fixed. TechLog is ours, for every American A319, A320, A321, 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 (about 840 tails).
Think of each aircraft like a shared car: it is wherever the last driver parked it, and if the last driver noticed the left headlight is out, you should know before you drive off.
For every tail, TechLog keeps:
- The tech log: open defects, and what the MEL (Minimum Equipment List) lets us fly with.
- Where it is: the airport it last landed at.
- Its condition: engines, APU, tyres, brakes, cabin and fluids, worn by the flights we actually fly.
- Its maintenance: repairs, A- and C-checks, worn parts replaced.
Find it in the menu under TechLog, or at /techlog (the fleet board). The MEL is at /techlog/mel and the Ferry board at /techlog/ferry.
Airbus & Boeing: two fleets
TechLog keeps the Airbus A32x (A319, A320, A321) and the Boeing 737 (737-800 and 737 MAX 8) as two separate fleets.
- Fleet board tabs: All, A32x and 737. Each tail page shows its own type's drawing.
- Each type has its own MEL book: the A320 MEL, the 737-800 MEL (Boeing MMEL Rev 63a) and the 737 MAX 8 MEL (MMEL Rev 7). Switch between them at the top of the MEL page. A tail's items always come from its own type's book.
- Each fleet flies its own flights. Dispatch offers the aircraft of your flight's type parked at your departure. OCC spares and the Ferry board work per fleet too.
- A new fleet starts in test mode: TechLog records everything but doesn't stop anyone from flying. The TechLog mode card at the side of every TechLog page shows where each fleet stands.
The four colours
Every tail shows one of these, everywhere: the fleet board, its tail page and the Dispatch picker.
| Colour | What it means | Can you fly it? |
|---|---|---|
| GO | Nothing open. All good. | Yes |
| DEFERRED | Something is broken, but the MEL allows flying with it for a limited number of flights (shown as "18 of 20 cycles left"). Each item tells you what to do differently. | Yes, following the MEL notes |
| INSPECTION | Engineers are taking a quick look during the turn, for example after hot brakes. It clears on its own after 45 minutes at a hub, 60 at an outstation. | Yes |
| NO-GO | Grounded until maintenance is done. The tail page shows when they expect to finish. | No. Dispatch doesn't offer it. |
Your flight, step by step
Bid your flight the way you always do: schedules, PBS, Trip Builder, Monthly Assignments, charters.
Pick your aircraft. You see the tails parked at your departure, with their colour. All SimBrief planning goes through Dispatch.
If the tail carries items, read them and press "I have read the deferred items".
AALOPS sends you the tail's tech log with your release.
Fly as usual with Stratos and ACARS. Something wrong? Send TECH to AALOPS.
File your PIREP. The aircraft moves to your arrival airport straight away, together with you.
The release telex lists what the tail carries, for example:
A tail with nothing open shows TECH LOG NIL. Any time during the flight, send MEL to AALOPS to get the tail's current tech log back.
Where the aircraft are
Every aircraft is parked where its last flight landed. The fleet board shows it, for example "KDFW since 21 Oct", and each tail's History tab shows everywhere it has been.
- "Regular flight" means any normal American flight: the schedules, PBS, LiveSchedules, Trip Builder, Monthly Assignments.
- Charters and adventures are different: they use a separate group of aircraft. See Charters & Adventures.
- The aircraft moves when you file your PIREP. You don't have to wait for a Hub Manager to accept it. If the PIREP is later rejected, the aircraft goes back to the departure airport, just like you do.
- An aircraft that is flying right now can't be picked by anyone else.
No aircraft at your airport? OCC spare
Sometimes no American aircraft of your flight's type is parked where you are. Dispatch tells you, and gives you two choices:
Choice 1: Jumpseat
Dispatch lists the nearest airports that have aircraft, for example "KCLT (3 tails, 0 nm) · KRDU (2 tails, 130 nm)". Jumpseat there and pick a flight from it. Jumpseating with us is instant.
Choice 2: Req OCC spare
Press 🛠 Req OCC spare. Operations Control (OCC) finds the nearest spare aircraft and positions it at your departure airport, just for you and just for this flight.
- The spare shows up in Dispatch straight away. Plan and fly as usual.
- It's yours only: other pilots can't take it.
- Fly it within 12 hours, or OCC releases it again.
- OCC always keeps a few spares back for charters, so on a very busy day the answer can be "no spare available". Then jumpseat (Choice 1).
Your release telex shows the spare:
Charters & Adventures
Some aircraft belong to a separate group just for charters and adventures. They're tagged CHARTERS & ADVENTURES on the fleet board.
- Charters are the CharterOPS flights (flight numbers 8000 to 8999). Adventures are the SkyAdventures tours.
- Charters and adventures get these aircraft from anywhere: no location rule.
- Regular flights never get them, unless OCC gives you one as a spare.
Training aircraft: one A320, one 737-800 and one 737 MAX 8, tagged TRAINING, are kept for the Training Academy check-rides, San Diego to Phoenix: AAL626 in the A320, AAL625 in the 737-800 or the MAX, whichever your course is for. Only the check-ride flies them, always the same tail per type, and it's back in San Diego for the next cadet as soon as the PIREP is filed.
Ferry board: extra hours and miles
Aircraft sometimes need to be somewhere else. The Ferry board (/techlog/ferry) lists those trips. Fly one and you help the airline, and you get paid for it:
Why aircraft need ferrying
| On the board | What's going on |
|---|---|
| Stranded | Stuck at an airport where we don't fly it from. |
| Rebalancing | Too many aircraft in one place, not enough in another. Planned once a day. |
| To / back from its C-check | The big check is done in Tulsa (KTUL) or Pittsburgh (KPIT). |
| Needs flying | Sitting unflown at a quiet airport. |
| Pool repositioning | A charter aircraft moving to where charters start. |
| Delivery | A brand-new aircraft from the factory: Airbus (Hamburg, Mobile, Toulouse) or Boeing (Seattle). |
| To / back from the paint shop | An occasional repaint. |
How to fly one
- Open the Ferry board. The ferries nearest to you are listed first.
- Press Claim. Not at the departure? Use the Jumpseat link next to it first.
- The ferry goes into your bids with the aircraft already fixed. Plan it in Dispatch and fly it like any flight. No passengers or cargo.
- File your PIREP. The bonus is set when you file and paid when the PIREP is accepted.
- One ferry at a time.
- Fly it within 12 hours of claiming, or it goes back on the board. Changed your mind? Press Release.
- A long trip may be split into legs with a fuel stop. Each leg is its own ferry, and the next leg appears on the board once the one before is accepted.
Needs flying: +500 AAdvantage miles
Some tails sit unflown because their livery isn't the popular one. A tail with no flight for 14 days is tagged NEEDS FLYING +500 MI.
- The first pilot to fly it gets +500 AAdvantage miles when the PIREP is accepted. Then its 14-day clock starts again.
- Manual PIREPs don't earn it (as with all AAdvantage miles).
- On the fleet board, use Needs flying only to see them all.
NAV DB due: +250 AAdvantage miles
The flight computer (FMS) holds a navigation database: airports, waypoints, airways, SIDs, STARs and approaches. It's updated every 28 days, on the new AIRAC cycle (13 a year). A ground engineer loads it at the gate in a few minutes. The aircraft is never grounded for it.
Most aircraft get the new cycle on time. A few run late, like in a real airline, and show NAV DB 2610 +250 MI (the cycle they're still on).
A late aircraft is DEFERRED, never NO-GO. You can pick it in Dispatch as usual.
Check your route, SIDs, STARs and approaches against current charts. On the OFP page, press ✓ I have verified the procedures.
Your AALOPS release says it too: NAV DB 2610 OUT OF DATE … MX LOADS 2611 ON ARR.
Maintenance loads the new cycle when you arrive, and you get +250 AAdvantage miles when the PIREP is accepted.
- Nobody flies it? Maintenance catches up by itself after 7 to 10 days.
- On the fleet board, use NAV DB due only to see the late aircraft. The NAV DB due tile also shows the current cycle.
- Each tail page shows its cycle at the top (for example NAV DB 2611), and the History tab shows when it was loaded.
- Manual PIREPs and ferries don't earn these miles (a ferry has its own reward). Charters & Adventures aircraft get the update, but no bonus.
Reporting a defect
Something failed and stayed failed? Report it with your flight, in one of two ways.
1. ACARS (best): send TECH to AALOPS
Start with TECH, then what's wrong. You get WRITE-UP RECORDED back.
2. Your Stratos PIREP comment
Write it the way you would in a real tech log: "APU inop", "Pack 1 failure", "Seat 14C tray table broken". A comment only counts when it says something is wrong (fault, inop, failed, leak, broken, U/S, won't start, overheat…). A normal remark such as "used the APU at the gate" isn't a write-up.
- Airbus: use the ECAM wording when you have it:
HYD Y RSVR LO LVL,ELEC GEN 1 FAULT,AIR PACK 1 FAULT. - Boeing 737: name the light or the system:
PACK TRIP OFF,BLEED TRIP OFF,GEN OFF BUS,YAW DAMPER. - Say which one:
PACK 1,GEN 2,ADR 3,ENG 1 BLEED,L PACK. - One defect per message or comment.
- Forgot? Ask staff. They can add the write-up for you.
What happens next: maintenance control matches your words to the right MEL item. If the MEL allows it, the item is DEFERRED and the aircraft keeps flying. If not, it's NO-GO until fixed. If the same item is already open, your report is added to it. Something that matches no MEL item is still logged, as a Reported fault. A write-up can run over several lines (copy the ECAM as it is): it becomes one entry. Two unrelated defects: send two write-ups.
Hot brakes aren't a defect: the aircraft gets a quick INSPECTION and stays flyable. On the FBW A32NX, TechLog also reads the brake temperatures after landing (300 °C or more raises that inspection by itself).
Found from your flight data
Some things TechLog finds by itself, from your flight. Each one means an inspection, so the tail is NO-GO until engineers have checked it:
| Finding | When | Grounded for (hub / outstation) |
|---|---|---|
| Firm landing | 360 fpm or more, or 1.4 g: not grounded, but 3 % off the main tyres (1.5 % nose). A hard landing takes 25 %, a severe one 80 % | None |
| Hard landing | 500 fpm or more, or 1.6 g (the hardest bounce counts) | 2 h / 6 h |
| Severe hard landing | 900 fpm or more, or 2.0 g | 12 h / 36 h (structural) |
| Landing gear damage | 2.6 g or more: tyres burst, gear damaged | 48 h / 120 h (gear repair, new tyres) |
| Tyre speed rating exceeded | Touchdown ground speed above 195 kt (the main tyres' 225 mph rating, A32x and 737) | 3 h / 8 h (all four main tyres replaced) |
| Possible tail strike | Pitch at touchdown of 11.7° or more (A319, A320), 9.7° (A321), 9.2° (737-800, 737 MAX 8) | 2 h / 6 h |
| Overweight landing | Landing above the aircraft's maximum landing weight | 2 h / 6 h |
| Overspeed | 10 kt over VMO, or 8 kt over for more than 10 s (Mach: 0.02, or 0.015 for 10 s). A few knots over for a moment is only kept in the readings | 2 h / 6 h |
| Flap/slat overspeed (Fenix) | Over the aircraft's own VFE with slats or flaps out, on the same scale | 2 h / 6 h |
| Landing gear overspeed (Fenix) | Over VLE with the gear down, on the same scale | 2 h / 6 h |
| Slats or flaps locked (Fenix) | The wing tip brakes engaged (SLATS/FLAPS LOCKED), read straight from the aircraft: no write-up needed | 3 h / 8 h (flight controls repair) |
| Engine limits (Fenix) | Oil above 155 °C for a minute, oil pressure under 20 psi (N2 above 50 %) for 10 s, vibration above 4 for 10 s | 2 h / 6 h (engine inspection) |
| Cabin overpressure (Fenix) | Differential pressure above 9 psi for 5 s | 12 h / 36 h (structural) |
A hard landing also wears the tyres and brakes faster. Your PIREP review is separate: TechLog only looks after the aircraft.
What maintenance does
You don't have to do anything here. It's just good to know what's going on:
- NO-GO items are repaired on their own. Faster at a hub, slower at an outstation, where people and parts have to come in.
- Deferred items count down in flights (cycles): category B 6, C 20, D 240; category A as the item says. If an item runs out before it's fixed, the tail becomes NO-GO.
- A-check every 750 flight hours or 750 cycles; C-check every 7,500 hours or 5,000 cycles (whichever comes first). The aircraft is in the hangar: A-check 8 h at a hub, 24 h elsewhere; C-check 72 h / 120 h. C-checks are done in Tulsa or Pittsburgh, so those aircraft show up on the Ferry board.
- At every turn: worn tyres and brakes are replaced, engines are washed when they run hot, and fluids are topped up.
- Cabin wear: small cabin items (a reading light, a tray table, an IFE screen) come and go, like on any real aircraft. They never ground the aircraft.
Fuel factor: older aircraft burn a bit more
Worn engines and an airframe getting close to its C-check burn slightly more fuel than a new one, up to about 3 %. Dispatch puts the right SimBrief fuel factor on your plan for you, for example P01 (1 % more). You don't have to set anything. A fresh C-check or an engine wash brings it back down.
The tail pages
Click any registration on the fleet board. Each tail has six tabs:
| Tab | What you find there |
|---|---|
| Tech log | What's open now, the MEL notes, and how many flights each item has left. |
| Status | Engines (wear, EGT margin), APU (hours and starts), fuel factor and fuel at the last shutdown, wheels and brakes, and every system. |
| Cabin | Every seat, the galleys, lavatories and cabin systems. Seats wear only on flights they were occupied (on the Fenix, from the real seat map). |
| Service | Fluids, tyre pressures, engine wash, and the tail's weights (empty weight, MZFW, MTOW, MLW): set your SimBrief airframe to these. |
| Checks | How far the tail is from its next A- and C-check. |
| History | Recent flights, the tech log history, everywhere it has been, and the maintenance done. |
Values tagged MEASURED come straight from the aircraft, after a Fenix flight (and some from the FBW A32NX). The 737s have no measured values yet. Everything else is worked out from the flights.
Questions
Does TechLog change anything in my simulator?
No. Nothing is written into your aircraft, and TechLog doesn't set failures in your sim.
I fly the FBW A32NX, not the Fenix. Does this apply to me?
Yes. The tech log belongs to the aircraft, not to your sim. Only some measured values need the Fenix or the FBW; everything else works for everyone.
I fly the PMDG 737 or the iFly 737 MAX. Does this apply to me?
Yes. It works the same as on the Airbus: where the aircraft are, Dispatch, the release telex, TECH write-ups, OCC spares and the Ferry board. Your items come from the 737 MEL. Only the measured values aren't there yet.
Dispatch shows no aircraft for my flight. What now?
None is parked at your departure. Jumpseat to one of the nearby airports Dispatch lists, or press Req OCC spare. See OCC spare.
Why isn't the tail I like in the list?
It's parked somewhere else, it's NO-GO, it's flying right now, or it belongs to Charters & Adventures or the training aircraft. Its tail page tells you which.
Can I change aircraft in Stratos?
No. You fly the aircraft you picked in Dispatch.
My PIREP hasn't been accepted yet. Is the aircraft stuck?
No. It moved to your arrival airport the moment you filed. You can fly your next leg with it straight away.
I reported something by mistake.
Tell staff. They can void the entry; it stays in the history as voided.
Can a write-up get me in trouble?
No. Reporting defects is exactly what the tech log is for. Your PIREP review is separate.
Checklist
- Bid your flight as usual.
- In Dispatch, pick a tail parked at your departure. Check its colour: GO, DEFERRED or INSPECTION fly.
- No tail there? Jumpseat nearby, or Req OCC spare.
- Deferred items? Read them on the OFP page and press "I have read the deferred items". NAV DB out of date? Verify your procedures against current charts and confirm it there too.
- Read the tech log on your release telex.
- Something failed?
TECH+ the fault to AALOPS. - File your PIREP. The aircraft is now at your arrival, ready for your next leg.
- Want more? Fly a ferry from the Ferry board, a NEEDS FLYING tail, or a NAV DB tail.