Flying without a Flight Officer

Your flight log now keeps itself.

TowerZERO automatically records takeoffs, landings and circuits at uncontrolled airfields - around the clock, without ground staff, in compliance with NfL 2024-1-3106.

Request a demo How it works

The starting point

No more flight officer - the duty to document remains.

Since NfL 2024-1-3106, club boards at uncontrolled airfields may no longer employ flight officers. But all flight movements still have to be documented, and landing fees still have to be billed correctly.

Staff gone, duty remains

The supervising person is gone, but the legal recording obligation under Section 70 LuftVG stays fully in place.

Manual work costs time

Logging by spreadsheet or on paper takes 30 to 60 minutes a day and is error-prone - missed movements, wrong registrations, missing fees.

Volunteers in a grey area

Members acting as volunteer supervisors are legally exposed and personally liable. A technical solution takes that pressure away.

How it works

Several receiving sources, one reliable flight log.

TowerZERO is a small box at the airfield that listens to several sources in parallel and merges the results into verified flight log entries. Whatever one source misses, another one catches.

1090 MHz

ADS-B

Position and identification of aircraft with a transponder.

868 MHz

OGN / FLARM

Gliders, ULs and sport aircraft with a collision warning device.

Airfield frequency

Radio

AI speech recognition on the airfield frequency picks up callsigns and movement reports.

Mesh network

MLAT

Triangulated positions for aircraft without their own position broadcast.

Receive

Three receivers and two antennas at the tower or clubhouse listen to the airspace around the airfield.

Merge

The fusion engine combines the signals, cross-checks them against the home fleet, and detects takeoff, landing and circuits.

Deliver

Entries land in the dashboard - confirmable by the board, exportable as the official flight log.

What the box delivers

Everything in one place - from live traffic to a finished flight log.

Accessible via a web dashboard, secured with Tailscale, optionally as a live widget on your club website.

TowerZERO dashboard with daily statistics, source overview and flight log table at Bonn-Hangelar airfield — Live dashboard at Bonn-Hangelar airfield (EDKB)

Live dashboard Current traffic, aircraft list and daily statistics at a glance.
Flight log table Chronological, filtered by date, exportable as CSV or PDF.
Live map All aircraft in range, optionally with an airspace overlay.
Home fleet management Club aircraft are recognised by registration instead of an anonymous code.
Tow detection Tow plane and glider are marked as a single operation.
Confirmation workflow The board corrects or confirms entries with one click.
Automatic billing run Landing fees grouped by owner, touch-and-goes count automatically, club aircraft can be exempted. New: a daily statement by email or CSV.
Embed widget Current traffic as a mini map for the club website.
Vereinsflieger interface Optionally connected directly to Vereinsflieger via API - movements flow automatically into your existing club management system.

Where we train

Training in real operation - not just in the lab.

EDKB

Bonn-Hangelar

Reference installation with powered flight, gliding and helicopters. Running since project start.

in training

EDMOENCH

Mönchsheide

Box in the tower, full multi-source operation with its own home fleet.

in training

EDDK

4 km before threshold 24

Here we train our system in the Cologne/Bonn CTR, open 24 hours a day.

in training

Positioning

Focused on what it's about: movement detection.

Other solutions can do a lot - and are often broader than necessary, or make themselves felt commercially even when there isn't much going on at the airfield. TowerZERO does one thing fully automatically.

Solution	Focus	Difference to TowerZERO
aerops	Complete suite with PPR and fuel billing	We're focused on automatic detection - the billing output is a side effect, not a dedicated module like at aerops.
Jetvision	Hardware-centric with proprietary receivers	We use standard receivers, the stack is fully software-defined.
Vereinsflieger	Broad club administration, FLARM-based	We specialise purely in movement detection - with radio and ADS-B added. Optionally connected directly to Vereinsflieger via our own interface.
DIY builds	Private hobby solutions	A commercial product with support, updates and maintenance.
TowerZERO	Automatic movement detection from multiple sources	Radio speech recognition, local, NfL-compliant, no vendor lock-in.
We have great respect for all the solutions listed here - each one does a lot of things well. But not every one fits every airfield, and that's exactly the gap TowerZERO was built for.

Why you can trust us

Solidly built, transparent, on site.

Your data stays with you. The code stays accessible. The product is built for the regulation.

Data stays at the airfield

GDPR-compliant, no cloud requirement, no data transfer to the US.

NfL 2024-1-3106-compliant

Built directly for the regulatory requirement, with an exportable official flight log.

Open source as a safety net

If the maker disappears, the code automatically goes public after 90 days. No vendor lock-in.

Made in Germany

Developed and maintained by Westküste UG in Rösrath, NRW.

Proven in real operation

Our sites have been running stably around the clock since project start.

Rooted in the community

Coordinated with the IG Fliegen ohne Flugleiter and its 120+ airfields.

Honestly

What the box can't do.

Trust comes from clarity. That's why we also say where the limits are.

Aircraft with neither a transponder nor FLARM stay invisible - but you know yourself how rare that is.
Gliders with FLARM privacy mode enabled transmit anonymised and can't be identified by name.
Nobody can guarantee a 100 percent detection rate - typical values are 85 to 95 percent, depending on location and environmental conditions.
No substitute for a controller at controlled airfields.
No traffic information over the radio - the NfL explicitly prohibits that.

The research and development work behind TowerZERO is officially certified by the Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage (BSFZ).

Request a demo

See TowerZERO at your airfield.

Send us a quick note about which airfield and what kinds of traffic - we'll get back to you with a time and a quote.

Or: book a slot directly

No form. Just pick a time.

Frequently asked questions

Good to know.

What does the club need to set up itself?

The box is delivered pre-configured and installed on site. You need power, an internet connection and a spot for the antenna at the tower or clubhouse. We take care of the rest.

Does it work without a permanent internet connection?

Detection keeps running locally. The internet is used for the public dashboard, the online sync of glider data, and remote maintenance.

What happens to the data?

All data stays on the box at the airfield. There's no cloud requirement and no transfer to the US. Registrations are deleted or anonymised after two years at the latest, as required by law.

What does TowerZERO cost?

TowerZERO is a product you buy - hardware as a one-off cost, maintenance and updates available as an optional (and recommended) annual subscription. Prices are currently on request. The first ten airfields get the preferential price promised at AERO. Get in touch via the form.

What if Westküste UG disappears?

After 90 days without maintainer activity, the code automatically falls under a free licence and becomes public. You're not dependent on a single vendor.

Will it work at my airfield?

TowerZERO is built for uncontrolled airfields under 5.7 tonnes - powered flight, gliding, ULs, helicopters, motor gliders. Request a demo and we'll check your specific location.