The Hybrid Cockpit

There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. But for Jean-Cedric Jollant, it’s more accurate to say frustration was the mother of his newest invention.

He recently introduced GA Kneeboard, a platform that allows recreational pilots to bridge the gap between digital efficiency using the iPad and the analog reliability of paper on a kneeboard.

Jollant recalls that as a student pilot he kept getting the traffic patterns mixed up at the two Seattle-area airports he regularly flew out of. That confusion led to frustration.

“I was really bothered because I thought this type of essential information should be in front of you,” he says. “So I wanted to create something that made the traffic pattern entry really obvious to me.”

Like most pilots, he flew with an iPad, but found it cumbersome to use.

“The iPad is packed with information that is hiding behind sub-menus,” he said. “It felt stupid to me that I had to click five different places just to get a radio frequency.”

That led him to create GA Kneeboard, which allows pilots to generate custom, high-density data sheets tailored to their specific aircraft and mission, providing “at-a-glance” information.

iPad vs Paper

Jollant emphasizes that it’s not about “taking sides” in an iPad vs paper fight.

Instead, his theory is that recreational pilots can use both to make flying easier and, ultimately, safer in what he calls the hybrid cockpit.

“iPads are fantastic. Paper is fantastic — and paper never fails,” he says, noting that it seems that every time he would fly with just his iPad it would overheat or shut down.

GA Kneeboard, he claims, is “about striking the balance between the convenience of the digital world with the reliability of the paper world. And I don’t think they’re conflicting. I have very different information on both. I never take notes on the iPad because I think it’s very clunky, while writing on my knee is natural.”

The bottom line, he says, is for pilots to find what works best for them.

How It Works

To use GA Kneeboard, a pilot simply needs to go to Kneeboard.ga. There you’ll find a variety of templates, which you can customize to your specific aircraft, flights, and missions.

There are templates for VFR flight, IFR flight, Checklist, Navlog, and Charts.

“It’s tile-based,” he says. “You choose what you think is relevant for you. Typically you’re going to have departure airport, arrival airport, frequencies, and maybe a little section for notes.”

There is an option to print on both sides of the paper, so if you flip the paper over you can have information on your alternate airport, he says.

Rather not customize? The site also offers ready-to-print sheets, such as a Reference Card, Acronyms, IFR Training, and more.

“It’s not about forcing you to do things a certain way, but helping you find the sweet spot that works for you,” he says. “Everybody’s different. What’s best for me may be completely different from what’s best for you.”

The target market for GA Kneeboard are recreational and student pilots, people like Jollant who don’t aspire to be professional pilots.

“I don’t want to be an ATP,” he says. “I just want to be safe for me and my family.”

While he’s wanted to be a pilot since he was a kid, that didn’t work out, so Jollant became a software engineer instead. He got back into flight training seriously in 2021 and has since earned his private pilot certificate and instrument and float ratings.

While all of his training so far has been in Cessna 172s, he’s working on his high performance endorsement now so he can rent 182s so he can fly more of his family.

It was his job as a software engineer at Amazon that gave him his initial test group for GA Kneeboard.

Among the company’s Slack channels is one for pilots, so Jollant posted there about GA Kneeboard and asked his flying colleagues to “give it a shot and give me some feedback.”

About 150 GA pilots eventually tested the product before he released it to the public in January 2026. He says that today, there’s more than 200 pilots using GA Kneeboard.

Pricing

You can try it for free. In fact, the basic plan is free, which allows you to print four times a month. He chose that, figuring most recreational pilots fly once a week.

This plan doesn’t limit any of the features on the site. You can still customize for each flight.

“Most people are really happy with that,” he says.

Find you want more than four prints a month? There is an option to subscribe for $2.99 a month, which gives you eight prints a month. Fly even more? There’s a plan for $4.99 a month that gives you 24 prints. He also offers a lifetime deal of $69, which gives you 16 prints a month.

“There’s no subscription, you pay once and that’s it. It’s turned out to be very popular,” he says.

What’s Next

Jollant is working on two other products for GA pilots. The first is a checklist that works on an iPhone or Android phone.

“The idea is that when you walk around the aircraft, you don’t necessarily want to walk with your iPad in your hand because it’s very clunky,” he says. “You just tap things on the phone and it’s good for the pre-flight.”

He’s still testing it. He says that once he decides it’s something he would use, then he will release it.

His other product in development is a Go/No-Go app.

“It’s an app that asks you all the hard questions to ensure everything is meeting your minimums,” he says.

Until those are ready for release, he continues developing GA Kneeboard. The latest addition is NOTAMs with more on the way, he says.

For more information: Kneeboard.ga