Technician and crew at the station

01Before the walkaround

You do the walkaround on arrival, before departure or before flight, as your company's rules say. It goes sector by sector for the aircraft type.

A task from Groundbook starts what is to be done. Operations sets the aircraft, the kind of walkaround, the time and the place, and you tap the nearest task. Without a task, the app offers a regular walkaround of an aircraft it knows.

A handler records as a member of the operator's organisation, or in their own organisation. The aircraft's operator sees the record too.

1. Sign in to the Walk-⁠Check app with the account your organisation's manager invited you to in Groundbook. If you created the account yourself in the app, verify your e-⁠mail first; until you do, a walkaround will not start.
2. On Home, tap the nearest task from Groundbook: it starts exactly that walkaround. Without a task, tap the main button: “Start the preflight check” for an operator, “Start walkaround” for a club.
3. On the “Before the walkaround” screen, check the aircraft. You pick another one with “Change”.
4. Confirm the site. The app suggests an airfield or a site the organisation has already used. You can decline location access and type the site yourself.
5. Check readiness: camera, location and free space on the phone. When all is well, the app says “Camera, location and storage are ready”. A walkaround works without a signal too.
6. Tap “Start with” and the aircraft registration.

02The walkaround step by step

During the walkaround you see only the camera, the time and the “Done” button. You tick nothing off.

A walkaround lasts at most 30 minutes. Five minutes before the end the app shows a band, and at 30 minutes it stops recording by itself.

1. Start at the nose of the aircraft and walk around the whole aircraft. Keep the camera on the aircraft the whole time.
2. Take your time. What is in the video is what the record shows.
3. When you finish, tap “Done”.
4. The app shows “Walkaround saved”: the record uploads and seals itself, even if the signal comes later.
5. If the 30-⁠minute limit ends the walkaround, the app asks once on “Walkaround done”: “Confirm and upload” or “Discard the record”.

03Voice-⁠guided technical check

A guided check is a walkaround that follows your organisation's checklist point by point. The app offers it to an operator for the aircraft it is set up for. It follows your organisation's checklist, and until the organisation has one, the aircraft's check points.

It is filmed by the phone in your hand or by a GoPro camera on your head, which leaves both hands free. If the camera does not work, do the check with the phone in your hand.

The wording of the checklist stays in your organisation. A third party does not get it in the report.

A task from Groundbook can assign you a guided check. You then start it with one tap and set nothing up.

1. If the guided check is in a task, tap the task. Otherwise, on the “Before the walkaround” screen, choose “Technical check”.
2. Tap the start button that carries the aircraft's registration. The voice reads the first item.
3. When you have gone through it, tap “Confirm”.
4. An item you will come back to is put aside with “Skip”.
5. “List of points” shows the areas of the aircraft and what is still left in them.
6. At the end, tap “Finish the check”. The record uploads and seals on its own, and carries the confirmed points and, by name, the skipped ones.

04Reporting a problem with one tap

When you see something, report it straight away, before the aircraft moves.

“Report” appears in the app when your organisation uses Groundbook. The report goes to your operation's report centre, where a person takes it over and resolves it.

1. Tap “Report”.
2. Write briefly what you saw.
3. Add a photo if you have one. The photo is optional.
4. At “Does it block departure?” choose yes or no.
5. Send the report.

05Handing over and returning an aircraft

When someone else takes an aircraft for a while, the record at handover and the record at return form a pair. After damage, nobody has to rely on memory: the two sealed records are compared.

Walk-⁠Check switches the pair on for the whole organisation. Then the “Before the walkaround” screen gets the action “Hand over to lessee”.

From the pair, operations can send an insurer or a lessor one link: the claim package.

1. At handover, tap “Hand over to lessee”. To whom is optional. If you chose it by mistake, go back with “Regular walkaround”.
2. Do the walkaround as always and tap “Done”. The app says “Handover saved”.
3. At return you choose nothing. The app finds the open handover on its own and says during the walkaround that the return closes this pair.
4. Do the walkaround as always and tap “Done”. The app says “Return saved”.

06Without a signal

A walkaround works without a signal. The record waits in the phone and uploads by itself when you open the app with a signal.

Home then shows “Waiting to upload”. If the upload failed, the card “Upload now” appears.

07In the dark

For a walkaround in the dark, use the phone light. A chip above the picture turns it on or off with a tap.

When a shiny surface reflects into the camera, turn the light off. With a GoPro on your head, the phone light is not used.

08What happens after you send it

The server processes the video and seals the record. While it does, the app shows “Processing”. Then it changes to “Sealed · verified”.

In the copy shown outside the organisation, people in the footage are blurred.

The record becomes part of the aircraft's history. You see it in the app and operations sees it in Groundbook.

A qualified person on the owner's side decides on the record, and for an aircraft that is the operator's. The decision is recorded with who made it.

09What not to do

Do not tap “Done” before you have walked around the whole aircraft.

Do not sign out while a record is waiting to upload. Signing out wipes any work in progress from the phone.

Do not ask for a record to be deleted to make a finding disappear. A deletion request is recorded with who asked for it and when.

Do not send a link to a record to anyone it does not belong to. A link can be passed on.

Do not expect a verdict on airworthiness from the app. A qualified person decides, not the app.