Onboarding Walkthrough

A step-by-step guide through the 5-by-5 setup wizard for new groups and solo accounts.

Overview

When you create a new group or solo account, 5-by-5 walks you through a multi-step setup wizard. The steps vary slightly depending on whether you’re setting up a Club account (with multiple members) or a Solo account (single pilot), but the core flow is the same.

If you’re joining an existing group, you’ll only complete the member-specific steps (profile, pilot currency) — the group and aircraft are already configured by your group owner.

Step 1: Account Type

Choose how you’ll use 5-by-5:

• Group / Club — you share the airplane with one or more other pilots
• Solo — you are the sole owner and pilot

This selection determines which features are available and how certain screens are labelled throughout the app. You can always start Solo and migrate to a Club plan later if your situation changes.

Step 2: Group or Account Name

• Group / Club accounts — enter your flying club or partnership name as it will appear to all members (e.g., “Rainier Flyers LLC”)
• Solo accounts — enter your account name, typically your own name or the name of your ownership entity

This name appears in the app header and on the web dashboard.

Step 3: Aircraft Info

• Tail number — your aircraft’s registration (e.g., N236RB). Always enter with the leading “N” for US aircraft.
• Year, make, model — selected from dropdown menus. The make and model are used to automatically find applicable Airworthiness Directives (ADs).
• Engine make and model — also used for engine-specific AD lookups
• Home airport — enter the ICAO identifier (e.g., KRNT) and 5-by-5 looks up the airport name and automatically sets your timezone
• Category/Class — e.g., ASEL, AMEL. Used for pilot currency tracking.
• Gear type — Nosewheel or Tailwheel. Tailwheel aircraft require full-stop landings for day passenger-carrying currency.
• Cruise speed — used to estimate flight times in the booking and flight log screens

Step 4: Billing & Preferences (Club plans only)

These settings control how 5-by-5 calculates estimated monthly costs for each member. All can be adjusted later in Settings.

• Hourly Rate — the per-hour rate your group charges for flying time, calculated from tach time
• Rate Type — Wet (fuel included in the hourly rate) or Dry (fuel billed separately)
• Monthly Fixed Cost per Member — a fixed amount billed to each member every month for shared expenses such as hangar rent, insurance, annual reserve, and engine reserve. This is in addition to their hourly charges.
• Max Booking Length — the maximum number of consecutive days a member can book the airplane in a single reservation. Owners and Admins can override this limit when needed — they’ll see a prompt confirming the exception. Regular members who attempt to exceed the limit will see a message directing them to contact the group owner to arrange the booking.

Step 5: Your Profile

• Your name — how you’ll appear to other group members
• Phone number — for quick contact from the Members screen
• Emergency contact — name, phone number, and relationship. This is visible to other group members in case of emergency.

Communications preferences:

• Product tips & updates — periodic emails about new features and getting the most out of 5-by-5. On by default.
• Promotions & partner offers — occasional emails about deals or partner offers we think you’d find genuinely valuable. We don’t sell your data. Off by default.

Step 6: Pilot Currency

Enter your certificate and currency information so 5-by-5 can track your flying status.

Certificates & Ratings:

• Certificate type: Private Pilot, Commercial, ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI
• Ratings: Single-Engine Sea (SES), Multi-Engine, Instrument

Key dates:

• Medical certificate expiration — 5-by-5 tracks this and warns you as it approaches
• Flight Review (BFR) date — your most recent flight review; currency expires 24 calendar months after this date
• Last IPC date (paid plans) — your most recent Instrument Proficiency Check, used to reset instrument currency

Recent flight activity — enter recent landings and instrument approaches to establish a baseline for your currency calculations. After this point, flights you log in 5-by-5 will keep your currency up to date automatically.

Step 7: Starting Tach Time (paid plans)

This is one of the most important setup steps on paid plans. 5-by-5 maintains an unbroken record of engine tach time across all flights — no gaps, no overlaps. Every flight builds on this starting point.

• Starting tach reading — the tach reading as of a specific date (e.g., 1247.5). This should be the current reading on the aircraft tach at the time you start using 5-by-5.
• As of date — the date this reading was taken

Once set, 5-by-5 uses this as the foundation. When you log flights going forward, each tach-out pre-fills from the previous flight’s tach-in. If you insert a flight between existing flights, 5-by-5 will ask whether you want to shift earlier flights back or later flights forward to maintain continuity — no manual recalculation needed.

On the free tier, the starting tach is stored as a reference point but continuity is not actively managed — you’ll enter tach-in and tach-out manually on each flight.

Step 8: Aircraft Photo

Upload a photo of your airplane to use as the default image at the top of the home screen for all members. Each member can set their own personal aircraft photo later in Settings, but this is the shared group default.

Step 9: Confirmation

Review your entries and tap Create Group (or Create Account for Solo) to finish setup. You’ll land on your home dashboard and be ready to start flying.