14 CFR Part 5 · due 28 May 2027
A Safety Management System that asks you for what the rule asks for, and nothing else.
If you fly tours under § 91.147 or on demand under part 135, you have to develop and implement an SMS and submit a declaration of compliance to the FAA by 28 May 2027. This is software for doing that — built by somebody who writes the manuals, for operators with one helicopter as much as for operators with twenty.
Ready now? Subscribe online and we will call you within one business day to set up your account. Not sure yet? Call or write and we will walk you through a live system on a screen share.
What the rule actually asks for
Part 5 is four working subparts and a documentation requirement. It is not large. Most of the difficulty operators run into is not the rule — it is being sold either a bound manual that nobody will ever use, or an airline system with modules for departments you do not have.
Subpart B
Safety policy
A policy your accountable executive signs, the people who may accept risk named rather than implied, and an emergency response plan with numbers that have actually been dialled.
Subpart C
Safety risk management
Hazards identified from your own operation, assessed on a matrix, controlled, and accepted by whoever is allowed to accept that level — with the ones nobody may accept blocked rather than signed off.
Subpart D
Safety assurance
Monitoring what the controls are actually doing, auditing, corrective actions tracked to verification rather than to closure, and a confidential channel your people will use because it is confidential.
Subpart E
Safety promotion
Training records that show currency rather than attendance, and safety communications with receipts showing who read them.
Behind those, § 5.95 and § 5.97 require the documentation and the records that prove any of it happened. That is the part operators lose on, and it is the part software is genuinely better at than a binder: every entry in this system is dated, attributed and exportable, because the day you need it is the day an inspector asks.
A page that tells you whether you could sign today
The thing you actually have to hand the FAA is a declaration of compliance. So the system has a screen that walks the requirements one at a time against your own records and tells you, in plain language, which ones you have met and which you have not — each with the paragraph it comes from.
Not a percentage. Not a traffic light. A list of the specific things left to do, in the order worth doing them, with a link straight to the screen where each one gets done. When it is clear, you have an evidence pack to export and a declaration you can sign without wondering.
- Safety policy signed and on file
- Accountable executive designated
- A hazard log with assessed risks
- Corrective actions verified, not just closed
- Training current for everyone who needs it
- Someone here can order a reasonable-suspicion test
- Management has reviewed safety performance
- An illustration of the checks, not the whole list. Yours is built from your certificates and your authorizations.
§ 5.9(e)
If you are the only pilot, you owe less — and this is the only system that knows it
§ 5.9(e) does not scale part 5 down for a small operator. It disapplies 13 paragraphs outright where a single pilot is the sole individual performing all necessary functions in, or in direct support of, the safe operation of the aircraft. Among them: the safety reporting policy, the confidential employee reporting system, and safety communication throughout the organization. You cannot confide in yourself, and the rule does not pretend otherwise.
Every other product shows a one-helicopter tour operator the same dozen unmet requirements it shows a regional airline. Tick the single-pilot box here and the requirements § 5.9(e) sets aside are marked not required, with the citation printed beside each one so an inspector reading over your shoulder can see why. The features stay available if you want them. The system just stops asking you for things the rule does not.
Pricing
Per operator, not per seat — everyone in your organization gets a login, because deciding whether a mechanic is worth a seat is exactly the wrong thing to be weighing. Pay yearly or monthly; yearly is the better deal.
Single pilot
$599 / year
or $89 / month
One pilot, flying it all themselves.
You are the only person performing any function in, or in direct support of, the safe operation of the aircraft — no second pilot, no dispatcher, no one else loading, fuelling, releasing or maintaining it.
Subscribe yearly — $599Subscribe monthly — $89Add your SMS manual and emergency response plan, written for your operation, at checkout: $995 one time.
Operator
$1,299 / year
or $199 / month
Up to 5 aircraft and 20 people, any certificate.
Anyone besides the pilot performs a function in or in direct support of safe operation — a second pilot, a dispatcher, a loader, a fueller, a mechanic, or a chief pilot who releases the flight.
Subscribe yearly — $1,299Subscribe monthly — $199Add your SMS manual and emergency response plan, written for your operation, at checkout: $1,495 one time.
Fleet
Quoted
More than 5 aircraft or more than 20 people.
Priced to the size of the operation, with setup and data migration sized to match. Call or book a call for a quote.
Call 702.338.9393Book a call for a quote- Unlimited users, all roles
- Every subpart, not modules sold separately
- Declaration readiness and evidence export
- Training courses and currency tracking
- Confidential reporting, including a public link for your people
- Emergency response plan and document library
Pay by card or bank transfer through Stripe. We call you within one business day to set up your account, and if the tier you picked does not fit your operation we will put it right on that call. Subscriptions renew automatically and we remind you before a yearly renewal; cancel any time and it runs to the end of the period you paid for. Full refund if you ask within 14 days of a payment. Prefer an invoice? Call and we will send one.
Is a free SMS enough? Free and low-cost SMS software compared
Part 5 asks for four things — safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance and safety promotion — plus the documentation to show them. Free plans are a good way to try a product, but each one leaves part of that list out, and the paid plans that cover all of it cost several thousand dollars a year.
| Plan | Cost per year | What to know for Part 5 |
|---|---|---|
| PreflightSMS Free | $0 | 1 aircraft, 1 user. FRAT, hazard reporting and basic investigations; no SMS manual templates, no training, no Part 5 audit log. |
| SMS Pro Basic (free) | $0 | Up to 5 users and 20 reports a month; no auditing suite. |
| Part135SMS (1–3 aircraft) | $360 | SMS manual template with annual sign-up; a custom manual is $600–$1,200 extra. |
| SMS Pro Basic (paid, 1–10 people) | $1,200 + $1,500 setup | No auditing suite — that is in Professional. |
| PreflightSMS Starter (up to 5 aircraft) | $1,788 | No Part 5 audit log — that is in Professional. SMS manual is a template. |
| PreflightSMS Professional (up to 15 aircraft) | $4,188 | Adds the Part 5 audit log and analytics. SMS manual is a template. |
| SMS Pro Professional (1–10 people) | $4,800 + $1,500 setup | Adds the auditing suite. SMS manual is a template. |
| 145manuals SMS | $599 single pilot · $1,299 up to 5 aircraft | Every subpart, audits and management review included, unlimited users, no setup fee. SMS manual and emergency response plan written for your operation: $995 / $1,495 one time. |
Competitor prices and plan limits are as published on each vendor’s own pricing page on 19 October 2026, for a single-aircraft or small operator, and may have changed since — check their sites for current terms. Monthly prices are shown as twelve months. What we do not offer: flight following or a ForeFlight integration.
Your records are yours, including the day you stop paying us
If a subscription lapses, this system goes read-only. It does not lock you out. Every report, hazard, risk assessment, corrective action, training record and document stays readable, and every export still runs — including the full evidence pack, including for an operator who is leaving for a competitor. What stops is new entries, until the subscription is renewed.
That is written down here rather than buried in the terms because it is the question worth asking any vendor holding your § 5.97 records, and most of them answer it the other way. An operator who cannot produce their hazard log for an inspector because a bill went unpaid has been harmed in a way no amount of owed money justifies.
Read it in full in the terms of service.
Not sure what you owe? That is the call to make.
Twenty minutes on the phone will tell you whether you are a single-pilot operation under § 5.9(e), what your declaration will have to say, and whether this is the right tool for it. If it is not, we will say so.