Terms of service

Final – Preliminary Review — 23 April 2026 — pending counsel approval before app store submission

Agreement to these terms

By accessing the Vela website or using the Vela mobile application, you agree to be bound by these terms of service. If you do not agree, please do not use Vela.

Vela is operated by Iain Giffen (“Vela”, “we”, “us”, or “our”).

What Vela is

Vela is a lifestyle and readiness planning tool for people who work across time zones, primarily long-haul cabin crew. It uses published sleep science models and your schedule to generate readiness estimates and sleep timing suggestions.

All outputs — including readiness scores, fatigue estimates, and sleep timing suggestions — are informational estimates for personal planning purposes only. They are not medical assessments, diagnostic results, or safety determinations.

No medical advice

Vela does not provide medical, health, or clinical advice. Nothing in the app or on this website should be interpreted as a medical recommendation. If you have concerns about fatigue, sleep, or your health, consult a qualified healthcare professional.

No safety or operational guarantee

Vela is not a safety system. You remain solely responsible for your own fitness for duty. Readiness estimates do not replace your employer’s fitness-for-duty assessments, crew scheduling requirements, or applicable regulations.

Vela is not an approved Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) component under ICAO, FAA, EASA, or any national aviation authority. It is a personal lifestyle planning tool and must not be used as a substitute for any operator-approved FRMS.

Accuracy of estimates

Readiness scores and fatigue estimates are based on population-level sleep science models and the schedule information you enter. They reflect assumed patterns, not measured physiological data. Individual results may vary significantly. Estimates are not guarantees of actual readiness, alertness, or performance.

Your account

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access. We reserve the right to suspend accounts that violate these terms.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use Vela for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law.
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract source code from the app.
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of Vela or its servers.
• Use Vela in any context where its outputs could be treated as safety-critical or operationally authoritative.
• Misrepresent Vela’s capabilities to third parties, including employers or regulators.

Intellectual property

The Vela name, logo, app design, and all content we create are our property or licensed to us. Your schedule data and preferences that you enter remain yours. We do not claim ownership of the information you provide.

You grant us a limited licence to process your data solely to provide the service to you, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Third-party services

Vela uses third-party infrastructure (including Google Firebase) to operate the service. Those services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the practices of third-party services we use to operate Vela.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Vela and its creators shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss arising from your use of, or inability to use, the app or website — including any decisions made based on readiness estimates or planning suggestions provided by Vela.

Vela is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Changes to the service

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of Vela at any time. We will endeavour to give reasonable notice of material changes where practicable.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the date at the top of this page. Continued use of Vela after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms. For material changes, we will provide notice through the app or by email.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising under these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Delaware.

Contact

Questions about these terms can be directed via the support page.

Version 1.0 — 23 April 2026 — final preliminary review