Vela

Guided by the Sail

Vela is the sail. In the ancient sky, it formed part of Argo Navis, the great ship of myth that carried its crew across uncharted seas by reading the stars and the wind. When the constellation was divided, the sail remained, a fixed point in the southern sky that navigators have steered by for centuries.

Free flight draws from the same instinct. The glider pilot reading a ridge line. The paramotor pilot timing a dawn window before the thermals build. The hang glider waiting for the moment the air begins to work. These are pilots who have learned to move with the atmosphere rather than against it, to feel what the air is doing and trust that understanding with their lives.

Vela Air takes its name from that tradition. Not the satellite and the radar, though we use both. The instinct underneath them. The careful reading of conditions. The decision is made before the aircraft leaves the ground.

The pilots who fly under sail, whether fabric stretched over a frame or a wing inflated on a hillside, have always known something that powered aviation is still learning: the sky rewards preparation and patience. It does not forgive assumptions.

We built Vela Air for those pilots, and for every aviator who understands that the best technology is the kind that helps you think more clearly before you fly.

Electronic Flight Bag

Vela Air is an Electronic Flight Bag built for VFR pilots flying in UK airspace. It covers flight planning, airspace awareness, NOTAMs, weather, and aircraft maintenance in one application, designed to work with or without an internet connection.

Flight planning that holds up in the field. Build a route, review the airspace it passes through, check for active NOTAMs, and carry the briefing with you offline. If conditions change, you can update the route in seconds.

Airspace that is always current. Airspace data is tied to the AIRAC cycle and updated every 28 days. The application flags when data is approaching its expiry, so you always know whether what you are looking at is current.

Aircraft maintenance, before you start the engine. The pre-flight status screen shows total airframe hours, per-service status, and whether the planned flight will push past a service threshold. Overdue items are shown clearly. Grounded aircraft cannot be started in the system until cleared.

Local-first by design. Charts, airspace, and flight plans are stored on your device. The application works in areas with no mobile coverage. Data that is stale is flagged as such, never silently used as if it were fresh.

Available on mobile and web. The mobile application is built for use when in the aircraft. The web application supports planning, fleet management, and maintenance oversight from any browser.

Vela Air is designed for flying clubs, private owners, and free-flight pilots who want a straightforward tool that provides accurate information and stays out of the way.

Credits

This website was built using resources generously made available by the open web community.

Design: The site layout and design are based on a template by HTML5 UP, released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Photography: Images are sourced from Unsplash, a platform offering freely usable, high-quality photography.