Flight and duty time compliance that shows the rule and the arithmetic behind every duty day
Not one illegal duty day published, and every limit shown with the rule that sets it.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Flight and duty time compliance is proving that every pilot's flight duty period, flight time and rest fit 14 CFR Part 117, that every flight attendant's duty and rest fit 121.467, and, for an EU operator, that crews fit EASA ORO.FTL — in the plan and on the day. Flight and Duty Time Compliance is FTL compliance software that puts a ruler under every duty day and adds eight agents that check, recompute, forecast and propose a legal fix, for a crew planner to approve and sign.
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Flight and duty time compliance is not one number. Under Part 117 Table B a pilot's flight duty period runs from 9 to 14 hours depending on the acclimated report time and the number of segments; Table A caps flight time at 8 or 9 hours; Table C sets augmented limits by rest facility and crew size. Cumulative limits roll over 168 hours, 672 hours and 365 days, flight attendants need 10 hours of rest under 121.467 that may not be reduced, and an EU operator answers to EASA ORO.FTL with its own tables.
Part 117 compliance checks live in an optimizer's coded rules that a few specialists can read, so a planner sees a rule ID, not the paragraph or the arithmetic, and repairs by trial. A pairing scheduled minutes inside its limit breaks on a normal bad day, and every extension over 30 minutes is a report to the FAA within 10 days. A November roster can be legal on its own and still break 100 hours in 672 because of October's actual flying — and when an inspector asks for a month of duty periods, the arithmetic is rebuilt in spreadsheets.
Estimated split of a crew planning team's working hours for one bid period's legality work, by hand and with the solution.
Eight agents check, recompute and forecast every duty day and propose a legal fix; a crew planner approves and signs.
Corvane Airways' November pairings go to bids on Wednesday, October 21 at 12:00 CT. Overnight the agents checked 3,846 pairings and 17,666 crew lines. Here is Monday morning, screen by screen, in the working solution — a crew planner working with the agents, asking, deciding and signing.
Jordan's Today screen opens on three numbers: 3,841 of 3,846 November pairings legal, 18 fixes waiting for her, and 2 decisions in today's operation. Under them is the agents' overnight briefing, 02:10–02:24 CT: the FTL checker found 9 illegal pairings, the delay-risk forecaster found 32 more legal on paper but likely to break, and the roster checker has 7 crew findings waiting.
FTL checker: “The worst is D4417: five legs from a 05:45 report, 12:40 against an 11:30 limit, because November moved CV 1876 to 17:15.”
D4417 is a two-day ORD A321neo trip that operates 20 days in November. The ruler draws day 1 from the 05:45 report through five legs to the last block-in at 18:25 CT, with the 11:30 limit line falling at 17:15 — the minute CV 1876 pushes back — and the overrun hatched: over by 1:10. Beside it, flight time 8:25 of 9:00, flight attendant duty 12:55 of 14:00 and rest at CLE 11:25 against 10:00 are all legal.
On a bad day, from 90 days of real times: P80 13:02, P95 13:21.
Clicking 11:30 opens Part 117 Table B at the cell used: report time row 05:00–05:59, column 5 segments, 11.5 hours, with the text of 14 CFR 117.13 above it. The planner never has to trust a green tick or decode a rule ID; every limit points at a paragraph she can read.
“14 CFR 117.13 · the cell used: row 0500–0559, 5 segments = 11:30.”
The second checker recomputed the limit its own way — from the rule text and the schedule file, not the pairing record — and agrees to the minute. The fix planner tried four changes: A, split off the last leg, is legal at 10:35 against 12:00; B still breaks; C is a schedule change outside crew planning's hands; D is not allowed, because the A321neo has no crew rest facility. With fix A, the forecaster puts the day at P80 11:12 and P95 11:41 — about a 2% chance of needing an extension.
Fix planner: “A is legal and the cheapest; the FTL checker re-checked it.”
Jordan types: “What does fix A cost, and does anyone lose a line?” The fix planner answers with its sources: 3:05 of credit per crew pair a day, +$1,240 a day and $24,800 for November, estimated from the credit rules. No crew line loses value — D4417A goes into the bid as a new two-day trip and D4417 becomes a day trip home.
She approves fix A with reason A1 · Legal fix, lowest cost. The signature names her, her role and the time, and is bound to the record. Her waiting list drops from 18 to 17, and the check, the recompute, the fix, her question and her decision go onto the audit trail.
“Signed electronically as Jordan Reyes, Crew Planner · the signature is bound to this record.”
The Pairings screen is the crew legality check for the whole bid period — what the agents found and the fix for each: D2208's flight time 13:55 against 13:00 with three pilots on the 777-300ER, F7714's flight attendant rest at BOS 9:35 against 10:00 under 121.467, E0231 at Corvane Europe 12:25 against 12:00 under ORO.FTL.205(b), and at-risk pairings like D4473 with a 63% chance of needing an extension. Filters cut by status, rule and base; at-risk fixes can be approved in bulk with one reason.
Capt. Ray Medina, a JFK 777-300ER captain, reaches 103:20 flight hours in the 672 hours ending Thu 12 Nov, against 100:00. The window starts with his flown GRU–JFK on Fri 16 Oct, held 30 minutes over, then the October roster and his November bid line. The roster checker proposes giving D2216 on 10–12 Nov to reserve Capt. Ines Duarte, which brings him to 83:45.
The roster checker never swaps a trip; it proposes, and a planner approves or returns it with a reason.
A ground stop for New York arrivals held CV 2052 BOS–JFK 1:25, so D2051 is projected at 13:05 against 12:30. Extending 0:35 would need Capt. Tom Halvorsen's agreement and an FAA report within 10 days. The operations monitor recommends short-call reserve pilots R-JFK-14, Capt. Harold Quinn and FO Mia Santos, for the last leg, CV 2071 JFK–PIT; the original crew ends at 10:40 of 13:00. Megan assigns the reserve.
The operations monitor never extends a duty period: the captain agrees and the scheduling manager records it.
Saturday's D2033 ran 0:48 past its 12:00 limit after CV 2033 MSP–BOS diverted to BUF with BOS below minimums in fog. The operations monitor drafted report R-2026-031 under 14 CFR 117.19(b)(4) from the out-off-on-in times and Capt. Lena Forsberg's agreement in the crew app: the extension came after takeoff and the cause was weather, so the rule asks only for the report. It is due Tue 27 Oct; Rebecca signs and submits.
“The compliance manager signs; the agents never submit.”
The same bid period, seen by five of the people who answer for it — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Eight agents check, recompute and forecast every duty day and propose a legal fix; a crew planner approves and signs.
Keeps the rule library as readable, versioned text from its source — the CFR, EASA, the pilot agreement and company rules — checks it against eCFR and EASA text every night, and drafts changes with an impact preview.
Computes every limit for every duty period — flight duty period, flight time, rest and consecutive nights — under Part 117, 121.467 and ORO.FTL, and explains each breach with the table cell and the arithmetic.
Recomputes every limit independently, from the rule text and the schedule file rather than the pairing record, and compares its answer with the FTL checker's.
Checks every crew line against the rolling cumulative limits — 168 hours, 672 hours, 365 days, 30 hours free in 168, 24 hours in 7 days for flight attendants and EASA's 7, 14 and 28 days — stitching flown time from crew tracking to the planned line.
Replays 90 days of out-off-on-in times for each flight to estimate each pairing's duty on a bad day (P80 and P95) and its chance of needing an extension.
Tries legal changes — split a leg, add a pilot, re-time a report, swap a pairing — discards the ones that still break and says why, costs the rest from the credit rules and sends its choice to the FTL checker to re-check.
On the day of operation, watches delays, projects each duty period to its end, proposes a reserve before an extension, records 117.19 extensions with the captain's (PIC) concurrence and drafts the 10-day FAA report.
Builds evidence packs for inspectors and auditors: every duty period with its arithmetic, sources and decisions, with each line re-verified by a checker.
Approves fixes; the director signs the bid package. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Every screen carries a conversation with the agent that owns it. Answers cite the rule or record they came from, and some act — but a person still decides.
What does fix A cost, and does anyone lose a line?
Fix A adds 3:05 of credit per crew pair a day: +$1,240 a day, $24,800 for November (estimated from the credit rules). No crew line loses value — D4417A goes into the bid as a new two-day trip and D4417 becomes a day trip home.
Why not option B?
B leaves D4417 sitting 5:35 at ORD and still ending at 18:25: 12:40 against 12:00 for three segments. Fewer legs raise the limit, but the day is just as long.
Is anyone over a cumulative limit?
7 roster findings wait. Capt. Ray Medina reaches 103:20 flight hours in 672 by Thu 12 Nov — October flying already on his roster pushes him over.
Why not just extend?
Extending D2051 would take it 0:35 past 12:30. Over 30 minutes it can happen only once before rest, needs Capt. Tom Halvorsen's agreement, and must be reported to the FAA within 10 days. Reserve pilots are free at JFK, so no extension is needed.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The thresholds and approvals every duty day is checked against are settings the administrator owns. Ask what a change would do first — the agents preview its impact on 90 days of real block times and change nothing.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Planning buffer | 30 minutes to spare | Any number of minutes; a legal pairing with less is flagged as thin · at 20, 27 pairings are flagged instead of 32 |
| Delay risk | Flag above a 25% chance of an extension | Any percentage · at 35%, 21 pairings are flagged instead of 32 |
| Bad day | 80th percentile of real block times | Any percentile used for “likely to break” |
| History | 90 days of out-off-on-in times | Days the forecaster replays |
| Roster warning | 95% of a cumulative limit | Any share of a rolling limit |
| Bulk approval | At-risk fixes only | On · Off — illegal ones are signed one by one |
| Rule change | Two signatures | Compliance manager and director |
| Agents act without a person | Never | Fixed — agents propose, people decide |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (14 CFR Part 117, Tables A, B and C, 117.19, 117.23, 117.25; 14 CFR 121.467, Amdt. 121-386, Federal Register, October 12, 2022 — 67,264 flight attendants at 31 certificate holders, $67.5 million a year; EU 965/2012 Annex III ORO.FTL). Corvane Airways, Corvane Europe, and the people, pairings and flights named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Flight and duty time compliance is proving that every pilot's flight duty period, flight time and rest fit 14 CFR Part 117, that every flight attendant's duty and rest fit 121.467, and, for an EU operator, that crews fit EASA ORO.FTL — in the plan and on the day. Flight and Duty Time Compliance is FTL compliance software that puts a ruler under every duty day and adds eight agents that check, recompute, forecast and propose a legal fix, for a crew planner to approve and sign.
For an unaugmented crew, Table B picks the row by the report time in the time zone the crew is acclimated to and the column by the number of segments. A 05:45 report with five segments gives 11:30; the duty runs from report to the last block-in. The FTL checker works as a flight duty period calculator for every duty day: it shows that cell and the arithmetic, and the second checker recomputes it.
Under 117.19 an extension over 30 minutes is reported to the FAA within 10 days, before or after takeoff. When an extension before takeoff had a cause in the carrier's control, the corrective action must be in place within 30 days. Every extension also needs the pilot in command's concurrence. The operations monitor drafts the report from out-off-on-in times and the captain's concurrence recorded in the crew app; the compliance manager signs and submits.
Yes. Flight attendant pairings and lines are checked against 121.467 — 14 hours of duty and 10 hours of rest that may not be reduced, among its other limits. In the demo, F7714's rest at BOS is found at 9:35 against 10:00, with a fix that moves day 2.
Yes. Each crew group is mapped to its rule set, so EU-certificated crew are checked against the EASA flight time limitations (FTL) in ORO.FTL, with their own tables and rolling limits of 7, 14 and 28 days. Every finding shows its regime, such as E0231 at 12:25 against 12:00 under ORO.FTL.205(b).
Yes. The roster checker stitches actual flown time from crew tracking to the planned line and rolls every window — 60 duty hours in 168, 190 in 672, 100 flight hours in 672, 1,000 in 365 days and the rest requirements — and proposes a legal swap when one breaks.
Yes. The agents propose and never change a published line, mark a breach legal, extend a duty period or submit a report. Planners approve, edit or reject each fix with a reason code and e-signature, the director signs the bid publish, and the compliance manager signs rule changes and FAA reports.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your rule sets, pilot agreement, planning standard and a past bid period — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. First-time setup back-tests it on a past bid period; in the demo, on July, it matched all 12 illegal pairings the old method found and found 3 more.
Every broken pairing re-crewed legally before it costs a flight, crew told in 20 minutes.
1-min demoFatigue Risk Management SystemEvery fatigue report tied to its roster and the science the same day, fixed by the board.
1-min demoCrew Pairing OptimizationEvery trip legal and cited, at the cost and crew quality of life you chose.
1-min demoWe'll run Flight and Duty Time Compliance on one of your own past bid periods and its flown times.