Celebrating 40 Years with AC-U-KWIK

The Steve Miller Band was getting airplay across the nation with “Abracadabra.” There was a war raging in the Falkland Islands between Great Britain and Argentina. You may have just seen E.T. - the Extra Terrestrial at your neighborhood multiplex. And if you were a manager or owner of an FBO in April of 1982 you most likely received a questionnaire from a small upstart publication in Omaha, Nebraska, called AC-U-KWIK.

At the time, it was AC-U-KWIK’s vision to publish information from these FBOs into a small “pocket” publication that could be used in the cockpit … and in the flight planning stage. Pilots of business aircraft could finally base their flight planning and itinerary on the key details provided in the handy little book that showcased all of the services that awaited them at airports and FBOs across the country.

The FBOs were given the opportunity to make their businesses stand out by highlighting their services in enhanced listings that showed advantages over the “competition across the field.” For the first several years the questionnaires were relatively simple: phone, frequency, fuel types available, fuel brand, fuel cards accepted, location on the field, maintenance, and crew car.

COMPREHENSIVE SUITE

Forty years later and AC-U-KWIK has more than 200 fields that cover every detail about your FBO and airport. That one small book has now expanded to three book editions jam-packed with global airport and FBO information. But that’s just part of the equation. AC-U-KWIK is now a full suite of products that includes the ever-expanding ACUKWIK.com website and companion IOS and Android app. On top of that, we now provide a free IOS ebook app designed specifically for the iPad as an extra option for pilots.

Beyond that, AC-U-KWIK has become the backbone of the business aviation community as we now license our data to more than 70 companies in the industry to power a myriad of platforms. Even if you don’t know you are using AC-U-KWIK, if you’re involved with business aviation flight operations, more than likely, you are a dedicated user.

So as we celebrate 40 years, we are grateful for the opportunity to sustain that original 1982 vision for AC-U-KWIK and continue to build as a must-have resource. We certainly want to thank the pilots, schedulers, dispatchers, airport managers, FBOs, handlers, charter operators, line maintenance, flight operations and anyone in the community that either contributed to or has been loyal customer to ACUKWIK for the feedback, support and dedication. AC-U-KWIK is here for the aviation community and we look forward serving the community with expanded tools and technology over the coming years.

With that future promise in mind, we would like to take this opportunity to make note of the work we’ve been doing over the past 18 months and how that benefits the community:

See More Details on Custom Trip Sheets

APP/ WEBSITE INTEGRATION: In 2021, AC-U-KWIK took a bold step and opened up the IOS/Android app to match our website with access to North American data through a single account. If you are a registered user, feel free to download the app through the Google Play Store or the Apple App store and enjoy the convenience of the mobile app. There is no charge for this access and only registration is required. Additionally, we’ve also tied the ACUKWIK.com Pro Subscription offering access to global airport data to the full access to the AC-U-KWIK app. If you’ve been a subscriber to either the app or website, you now can now access AC-U-KWIK in either format.

AC-U-KWIK FBO DIAGRAMS: One of the most popular features of AC-U-KWIK is the custom FBO Locator Diagrams that show a simple runway view of top FBOs and their location on the field. In 2021, we re-designed our website airport pages to bring those diagrams up the page for easy access.

WEATHER PAGE: During the same redesign, we built out a full navigation menu and a new dedicated weather page. In March, we added weather radar to the page with a whole slew of layer options and both past and future mapping of weather patterns related to the respective airport.

CUSTOM TRIP SHEETS: For Premium website subscribers, we’ve added a new feature that allows users to utilize a dialogue box to select the key information and services for a specific airport to download a PDF that can be shared with your flight operations crew or saved on any device for future reference. Additionally, this Trip Sheet is saved on your My Page under the documents tab. View more details.

MY PAGE: Speaking of “My Page,” did you know that you have a page on the AC-U-KWIK website that tracks your saved airports and any comments you’ve made on FBOs? If you are a Registered, PRO or PREMIUM subscriber, check out the page using the link in the upper right corner always present. And remember, to save airports simply hit the star next to any airport.

Thank you again for making 40 years possible and we look forward to supporting the community in the coming years as we continue to expand and evolve our full range of products.