AeroCopilotHelp Center

Quick Start: 10 Minutes to Your First Briefing

Step-by-step walkthrough from account creation to a server-rendered, FAA-defensible pre-flight briefing PDF in about 10 minutes.

Quick Start: 10 Minutes to Your First Briefing

This walkthrough takes you from a brand-new account to a downloadable pre-flight briefing PDF. Plan on 10 minutes total: 2 minutes for sign-up, 2 for onboarding, 1 for aircraft, and 5 for the briefing itself.

Before you begin

Have these handy:

  • An email address (or Google / Apple sign-in)
  • Your medical class and dates (First, Second, Third, BasicMed, or DriverLicense for Sport Pilot)
  • Your home airport ICAO/FAA identifier (e.g. KJFK, KSMO)
  • Your aircraft registration if you have one (optional)

Step 1 — Create your account (2 min)

  1. Go to the sign-up page.
  2. Choose your auth method — the configured providers are shown.
  3. Accept the terms checkbox if displayed.
  4. Confirm your email if email/password is used.

Detail: see Creating Your Account.

Step 2 — Complete onboarding (2 min)

After your first sign-in, the wizard at /onboarding runs automatically. The page header reads "Welcome to AeroCopilot — Let's set up your profile in under 2 minutes."

Steps you will see (some are conditional on your pilot type):

#StepNotes
1Pilot Type11 options including Student, Certificated, CFI, Helicopter, HEMS, Part 107, Powered-Lift / eVTOL, Glider, Balloon, Gyroplane, Flight School Admin
2CertificatesYour held ratings
3MedicalClass + dates (BasicMed requires exam date and course date per 14 CFR 61.23)
4Home AirportICAO/FAA identifier
5Helicopter ProfileOnly if pilot type is Helicopter or HEMS — rotor type, NVG capability, HOGE ceiling
6eVTOL ProfileOnly if pilot type is Powered-Lift / eVTOL — manufacturer, battery kWh, MCS connector
7GoalWhat you want to accomplish
8Your PlanRecommended tier based on your answers

You are routed to /dashboard when the wizard saves onboardingCompleted = true.

Step 3 — Add your aircraft (1 min)

  1. Navigate to /aircraft.
  2. Click New to open /aircraft/new.
  3. Enter the registration, type, and any equipment data the form requests.

Aircraft profile drives performance computation — including helicopter HOGE/HIGE margin and eVTOL energy budget — so this step matters more than it looks.

Step 4 — Generate your briefing (5 min)

  1. Go to /briefing (or /flight-plans/new if you want a full nav-log first).
  2. Enter departure, destination, and ETD.
  3. The platform runs 16 weather and airport tools in parallel: METAR, TAF, NOTAMs, SIGMETs, TFRs, PIREPs, Winds Aloft, G-AIRMETs, Runway Analysis, NWS Alerts, plus FAA NAS Status for live ground-stop / ground-delay data.
  4. Review the unified Ops Authority Panel — a single CLEARED / HOLD / NO-GO verdict combining the 91.103 checklist, compliance, airworthiness, FRAT, and Risk Window.
  5. If a Risk-Window modal appears, choose one of four acknowledgments: Delay, Special VFR (91.157), IFR file, or Acknowledge VFR with mitigations. The decision is server-stamped with a Zulu timestamp.
  6. Click Download PDF to generate the server-rendered PDF with your BR-XXXXXXXXXXXX Briefing-ID and SHA-256 hash on every page.

Detail: see Generating Your First Pre-Flight Briefing.

What you have now

  • A pilot profile with FAA-defensible compliance tracking
  • An aircraft on file driving aircraft-aware performance
  • A server-rendered briefing PDF with embedded FAA charts and a defensible evidence chain