The BetterPlane Story
I'm Jason – airplane geek, private pilot, EAA lifetime member, and wrench turner since age 9. I'm also a Texas Aggie who switched careers from bolts to bytes. After getting my start on a machine learning team in a financial company's innovation lab, then building software in a nimble data startup, I decided to merge my passions (aviation and software) to build BetterPlane.
My love for aviation? That started with my grandfather Ralph Hall. His lifelong obsession with aircraft (and anything with a motor) sparked something in me that never faded. At age 9, I was already helping him restore a 1950 Dodge Phillips 66 aviation fuel truck. From hanging on his every word about flying to inheriting his meticulous approach to maintenance and restoration, he showed me that aviation isn't just about flying. It's about the details, the care, and the stories behind every aircraft.
But that same year, aviation taught me its hardest lesson. My dad was killed in a helicopter crash. A maintenance item got missed. At nine, I didn't fully understand what that meant. It wasn't until I became a pilot and aircraft owner that the weight of it hit me. That's what drives everything I build.
Once I had a software career under my belt (and I'd squirreled away enough for a down payment on bad decisions), I followed in my grandfather's footsteps and dove into aircraft ownership with a 1955 Piper Tri-Pacer. What started as a few IA-supervised fixes quickly snowballed into a partial restoration. The experience taught me some valuable (and expensive) lessons:
- Reality Check #1: That "partially restored" beauty in the hangar? Let's just say vintage aircraft have more layers than a wedding cake. Take your time and dig deeper.
- Reality Check #2: Get an independent pre-purchase inspection. Because "runs great, needs nothing" usually means "runs occasionally, needs everything."
While finishing up the firewall forward restoration on the Tri-Pacer, I spent as much time wrestling with paperwork and logbooks as I did with wrenches.
In an age where your phone can order tacos from a drone, why are GA aircraft owners still managing their aircraft like it's 1955?
But it wasn't just the frustration. Tracking what had been done, what was due, making sure nothing got missed. And that word, missed, kept taking me back to the same place.
That's when I built BetterPlane. Not just because paper logbooks are a pain to manage, but because your aircraft's maintenance history is too important to leave to a filing cabinet and a good memory.
With a unique blend of skills, I'm likely the only wrench-turner you'll meet who also holds a machine learning patent and has a published entomological research paper.
