Building Avia — an AI Copilot for Safer, Smarter GA Flights (Would love feedback!)

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radiumsodium

Filing Flight Plan
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Aug 12, 2025
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Ranz
I’m building Avia — a hands-free AI copilot that runs on a Jetson Orin Nano for reliable in-flight help. Think of it as a copilot, CFI, and flight buddy all in one.

Key features:

  • Voice control for weather, checklists, and navigation
  • Non-intrusive, no panel clutter
  • Offline fallback for critical features
  • Built for safety, tested in real cockpits
I put together a short demo (3 sample questions, not the full product) to gauge interest and get feedback.

- Would you use something like this?
- What would make it a must-have for you?

Early access planned for mid-September — testers welcome! I'll include the demo in the comments if anyone is interested.
 

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What exactly is the problem you are trying to fix? It sounds a bit like a distraction.
 
dcat127 said:
What exactly is the problem you are trying to fix? It sounds a bit like a distraction.
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It's supposed to be a flight assistant that helps you remember regulations (like which airport you can land into and what you need for it) and get the weather report and metar of different airports. it also helps out with manuevers (like if you want to do a spin, it takes you through the steps) and emergency situations if necessary. It's meant to act as a copilot, with voice activation and voice response, without cluttering the cockpit.
 
dcat127 said:
What exactly is the problem you are trying to fix? It sounds a bit like a distraction.
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Sorry I realized I actually did not answer the question at all. I've always found it hard to keep up to date with the new regulations and remember old, essential ones. I wanted to create a copilot that would always be able to answer my questions about FAA regulations, airspace, weather while flying, different emergency cases, and also manuevers that I sometimes need to brush up on. I was initially using it on the ground and asking it questions like "what speed do I enter a loop", "what's the bank angle for steep turns", etc... I figured it would be nice to have it as a copilot in the cockpit.
 
Out of curiosity, what speed does Avia say to enter a loop in say a 172?
 
If you don't know you need clearance into a bravo you shouldn't be flying.

I have a checklist when the fan quits. But before the checklist, I'm using a flow. This would be too clunky to do anything expeditiously. Get unclear taxiway instructions? Rather than simply say, "can I get progressive taxi I'm unfamiliar" you want me to tell ground, hang on my tablet is telling me something else.

Did you try and post this on reddit yesterday?
 
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radiumsodium said:
Sorry I realized I actually did not answer the question at all. I've always found it hard to keep up to date with the new regulations and remember old, essential ones. I wanted to create a copilot that would always be able to answer my questions about FAA regulations, airspace, weather while flying, different emergency cases, and also manuevers that I sometimes need to brush up on. I was initially using it on the ground and asking it questions like "what speed do I enter a loop", "what's the bank angle for steep turns", etc... I figured it would be nice to have it as a copilot in the cockpit.
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The amount of regs that actually change are extraordinarily small.
 
Nice warm welcome to the forum. :D

It may seem harsh, but it’s valid criticism. I do see potential here though it will be a difficult path.
 
Salty said:
Nice warm welcome to the forum. :D

It may seem harsh, but it’s valid criticism. I do see potential here though it will be a difficult path.
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I think the potential is less an in flight aid and more a preflight or teaching aid.

Also, might have problems with the name. Zero Avia is coming up with hydrogen electric aircraft powerplants.
 
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1. No. And I think if you offer a box to suggest what to do in a fire, you'll be invited to the widow's lawsuit. (Consider a warning sticker :P )

2. Get some text-to-speech and vice-versa. Get an interface for the jetson to dual GA plugs. Have it transcribe in real-time ALL radio chatter for me and show it on an ipad like screen. Have it recognize when i'm being talked to, and offer me some logical responses that it will then broadcast for me at the tap of a squircle button. I've thought about building something like this for the deaf pilot community, but haven't found the time or inclination.
 
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Any chance you can name it Jarvis?
 
It sounds like inaccurate responses could lead to either breaking the regs or getting into an accident. Because of that, it better be 100% accurate.
 
No and here's why. Far too many companies/organizations/individuals are slapping the "AI" on everything for purely marketing to the ignorant. Unless you understand the basics of probability, statistics, syntactic & semantic analysis of english statements (aka Natural Language Processing or NLP), and machine learning, all you're doing is creating an aviation version of Eliza or a souped-up checklist tool. Please do not toss out a somewhat automated checklist tool and claim it's AI-based.

However, if you'd like to enroll in my university intro to ai class, I'll be happy if it's your semester project.
 
Surprise no one thought of “big data” tool for flying.

Next we’ll see “super intelligence” flying tool.

It’s all oxymoronic.
 
radiumsodium said:
It's supposed to be a flight assistant that helps you remember regulations (like which airport you can land into and what you need for it) and get the weather report and metar of different airports. it also helps out with manuevers (like if you want to do a spin, it takes you through the steps) and emergency situations if necessary. It's meant to act as a copilot, with voice activation and voice response, without cluttering the cockpit.
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I really can't think of anything I need less than this.

That being said. I think the value in AI (and I can't tell you how misleading that term is) is in taking things we routinely do in planning and in the cockpit using tools we already use, like FF or our FMS, and making those tools more accurate and predictive. Actual direct interaction with an "AI" system isn't what I think I need in an already busy cockpit.

An example in an emergency - Your engine fails, you have a glide ring up in FF and there's an airport within its reach. A predictive system would understand you had an engine failure and automatically give you the correct wind corrected heading to that airport. Sure, most of us have a "nearest" button on the FMS or it's pretty easy to look at your iPad and see the airport and head that way but reducing the number of steps based on data analysis could be a neat efficiency gain.

It's also perilous as well because we really don't want to take the grey matter ADM out of the equation and rely only on a data driven decision as we all know how simulations work without all the data.
 
This would be also a great idea for NOTAMS as those do change frequently and are buried deep. Excellent use case for weather gathering. Kind of like having a dispatcher flying along with you.

Incorporating the nearest hotel and restaurant info down the road would be amazing as would FBO and fuel pricing.
 
MountainDude said:
It sounds like inaccurate responses could lead to either breaking the regs or getting into an accident. Because of that, it better be 100% accurate.
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How is that possible? AI = inaccurate
 
If you can make it look like this:

Airplane-Movie-Autopilot.jpg

you might have something.
 
How big of a database is going to be on this thing so that it will be able to access everything when not connected to the internet? The regs, no big deal. But, you've got every TCDS/POH for every airplane that's out there if you want to know the airspeed of an Unladen Swallow.

The weather, that's cool, that can just be grabbed from ADS-B...oh wait, Garmin is going to tell you to go **** yourself. So, weather is out for a lot of airplanes out there. Unless you can get Garmin to break their agreement with Foreflight that they won't provide ADS-B information to anyone but Foreflight, then hats off to ya. It would be kind of cool to say "Hey Avia, what's the weather at XXX" and have it pop up. I say this as a single pilot IFR no autopilot guy, but if there's a Garmin in the panel, good luck.

Then of course, liability if it spits out bad info.
 
Dave Theisen said:
I thought this thread was going to be about sneakers.

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Shop all Avia athletic, running, workout, cross training, & walking shoes for women & men, & discover our comfort, work & safety footwear with patented arch support & slip resistant technology.
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Yeah, it looks like a five minute Google search was a bit too much effort. Bet the finished product is indicative of this. (Unless it's just a scam to lure investors.)
 
Current college-age students are prone to believe that there must be an app to solve everything. It is probably the most popular business idea for entrepreneurial students. (One of our graduates wound up on Shark Tank with a pitch for an app that would help travelers find food at major airports. As one might have expected, it is not a problem that needed urgent solving. It did not go well.)

While there are many useful apps (like my Android EFB for pre-flight planning and in-flight tracking and IFR ops) not every flying task requires an app. My custom pre-flight checklist is a laminated card, for example. It does not require batteries, and since I wrote it, I know exactly why each item is important. While AI is good at a great many things in ways that are as mysterious as they are effective, it is not a substitute for learning and understanding.
 
I find it interesting that many here salivate over vtol and electric aircraft which have failed to materialize after decades of attempts, but this, which actually is a fast growing technology is scoffed at.

As I said, I think it’s difficult, but there is lots of room for amazing things in this space in the near future.
 
Salty said:
I find it interesting that many here salivate over vtol and electric aircraft which have failed to materialize after decades of attempts, but this, which actually is a fast growing technology is scoffed at.

As I said, I think it’s difficult, but there is lots of room for amazing things in this space in the near future.
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I think the EFB softwares are going to roll out amazing flavors of OP's enhancement now that they're likely to be connected to the intertubes via Starlink. It'd be pretty easy to send course, speed, location to the AmIAboutToEffUp model which can return an assortment of regulations currently and imminently about to be busted and ETA to that bust. Then it might suggest the nearest ramp check to report to. After that, perhaps it can suggest corrective action. :P
 
schmookeeg said:
I think the EFB softwares are going to roll out amazing flavors of OP's enhancement now that they're likely to be connected to the intertubes via Starlink. It'd be pretty easy to send course, speed, location to the AmIAboutToEffUp model which can return an assortment of regulations currently and imminently about to be busted and ETA to that bust. Then it might suggest the nearest ramp check to report to. After that, perhaps it can suggest corrective action. :P
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is :P :rolleyes: (sarcasm)?

Edit: from another post I see that it is. :biggrin:
 
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