We all know the phrase by heart “Evionica Weight and Balance works offline”. Why offline mode is such a big deal for cargo airlines? What exactly does it mean to "work offline"? And what are the limitations and risks of offline operations?
Internet connectivity seems to be a big issue, especially for cargo airlines. They usually operate in remote regions while performing military missions and some on-demand cargo shipments. During many conversations with potential clients Africa, Greenland, and the Caribbean (among many others) were mentioned to be regions with either low bandwidth Internet connection or no Internet at all.
Cargo Operators rarely have a fixed network of destinations, so they do not have contracted Handling Agents responsible for the Weight and Balance process (i.e. Load Control) therefore it is supervised by either onboard Loadmaster or with the help of CLC (Centralized Load Control). What follows, they require either an independent solution for a loadmaster to calculate Loadsheet or a communication tool allowing them to stay in touch with the CLC agent.
Working both online and offline is possible thanks to PWA (Progressive Web App) and IndexedDB technologies enabling persistent storage of data on the user’s device (using the web browser’s built-in mechanisms).
When the operator logs in to Evionica Weight and Balance the data package containing all important parameters necessary to balance an aircraft (e.g., fleet’s configuration) is downloaded to the browser’s memory (a cache). These stored data are available even when the internet connection is lost.
The ONLINE indicator will turn to OFFLINE the second the internet connection is lost:
The data package is updated on a regular basis when the Internet connection is available, and it is not cleared when the browser is closed, meaning that once acquired it can be used for a very long time (assuming the fleet configuration/weights didn’t change) to perform loadsheet calculations offline.