By Ben Forrest | February 25, 2016 Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 2 seconds.
Cirro has about a dozen essential functions, from field gear tracking to maintenance activity scheduling, all merged into a single app that runs on a smart phone, tablet or computer. AirSuite Photo
Michael Kleywegt spent 15 years as a helicopter pilot before stepping down to focus on Cirro, a software solution designed for mobile devices that he created to automate the compliance process of flight planning, flight following and managing.
That was enough time to see there could be a better way. He saw employers wade through the work of complying with government and private audits, much of it paper-based and time-consuming.
“With time comes costs,” said Kleywegt, 36, who is also a computer programmer, and founder and CEO of the AirSuite Inc. software company in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Kleywegt’s work on Cirro was an attempt to develop solutions to the problems he faced as a pilot and heard about from colleagues in the industry.
Working on the project in his spare time, he spent five years developing applications to monitor an aircraft’s weight and balance, automate flight following and track certificates, winning rave reviews from auditors.
When he finished, Cirro had about a dozen essential functions, from field gear tracking to maintenance activity scheduling, all merged into a single app that runs on a smart phone, tablet or computer.
“It’s all been kind of heavily bent on what I saw as needs, because everybody wants something that can work straight out of their pocket and at the same time just be very quick and easy to use,” said Kleywegt.
Michael Kleywegt developed Cirro to find solutions for some of the problems he faced as a helicopter pilot and heard about from colleagues in the industry. AirSuite Photo
“I kind of brought a whole bunch of fragmented solutions … and I consolidated it all into one program that’s ideal for auditing and reporting or for any type of oversight that could walk in through your door.”
AirSuite publicly launched Cirro at the Helicopter Association of Canada (HAC) Convention in Vancouver, B.C. last November, an experience Kleywegt said was overwhelming.
“The amount of response and interest that we had at our booth was just outstanding,” he said. “Just a lineup of people, and just talking non-stop all day for every single day that that conference was open, till my voice was sore.
“There (were) people coming by and they were so excited about it.”
These are also exciting times for Kleywegt, whose next steps include continuing Cirro’s rollout into the Canadian rotary-wing market.
“I have a few fixed-wing beta testers using the product as well,” he said. “We’ve made modifications to it to make sure that it’s also going to be usable from a fixed-wing operator’s perspective as well in Canada.
“From there we’re expanding the product and its usability into international markets like U.S. and New Zealand, Australia, Europe.”
Ultimately, Kleywegt said he thinks Cirro could be a game-changer for the industry.
“I think that there’s a huge need and want for a lot of aviation outfits to move away from the paper-based systems,” he said.
“A lot of the younger generation, everybody expects to have an app or something like that that works on your smartphone or some type of portable device.
“And this is one of these first great tools that’s available to pilots and aviation operators that you have available in your pocket … it’s certainly unique in and of itself.”
